Walk around the city of Naha in Okinawa cont. - Kokusai Street and Makishi Public Market 🐸

When I'm abroad I avoid buying cliché souvenirs, actually the best souvenirs are photos or things that I will find myself, for example a leaf that has fallen from a tree. There were many ginkgo trees in Japan. I collected a few fan-shaped leaves and now they serve me, among others as bookmarks ;)

On Kokusai Street we passed an interesting restaurant, in front of which was a replica of the "local banjo" covered with snake skin. It is a local, traditional sanshin instrument that consists of only three strings. For the inhabitants of Okinawa, Sanskin is the equivalent of our guitar or a popular ukulele in Hawaii. Some give it poetic meaning and call this instrument the soul of Okinawan folk music. People of all ages play it - both small children and old people. On various occasions - i.e. birthdays, weddings, festivals, family gatherings. The islanders even see him as "a vehicle, an instrument that carries the Voice of Deities and is considered the Deity itself."

Here you can hear how it sounds ♬♪♫

Kokusai Street and Makishi Public Market in Naha, Okinawa are places full of souvenirs. Some of them are unusual. Anyway, see for yourself what you can get there.
Frog bags are the first to go. I hope these frogs are artificial, but they look very realistic.

Tincture with a snake inside. The local venomous Habu snake. Big one cost 50,000 yen.

There was also a stand where we could read your future from the fingerprints of our hands.

And a container with divination to draw. In Japan, such attractions can be found even at airports.

Unusual mannequins caught my eye - slim Kim Jong Un and a pink skeleton.

Or mannequins - dogs. With their backs to the customers, thanks to which the t-shirts worn on them are more visible.

For a change, a great shop in a travel style. A shop decorated with fragments of animal skeletons, fragments of diver's equipment (from olden times). You can see that someone has worked hard to design the visual layer of the store. You could find great shell necklaces there. I like souvenir shops like this the most.

This store also made a great impression on me - with exotic Hawaiian flowers shirts. It offered great quality shirts and was wonderfully decorated with ethnic elements.

There were also a lot of shops with laid-back-shirts. With funny pictures and inscriptions.

We also passed a fun store with a symbol depicting a local delicacy - a bitter melon combined with a bear, so- called Bitter Bear.

In Japan, you have to leave shoes before entering the fitting room. Anyway, not only there. The habit of taking off your shoes is right at the entrance in many restaurants and hostels.

Do you have any childhood memories related to souvenirs or interesting stories on this topic from adult life? :)

Original content by @katiefreespirit