MCCS offers service members, families sweet, salty experience

Lance Cpl. Robert C. Frenke
OKINAWA MARINE STAFF

Marine Corps Community Services Tours Plus gave service members and their families a chance to tickle their palates Dec. 15, while learning a little more about Okinawa’s agriculture during MCCS’s Sweet and Salty Tour — a tour of a sugar cane refinery and a salt factory.

During the tour, the group of 20 people saw just what it takes to get sugar and salt ready to ship to homes around the world.

In 1623, Shinjo Gima, a local farmer, introduced sugar refining to Okinawa, according to Chris Majewski, a tour guide with MCCS Tours Plus.

The first stop on the tour took the group to the Okinawa Kokuto Company, a sugar factory in the village of Yomitan.

Once the tour reached the refinery, Natsuki Hayes, a sales woman with Okinawa Kokuto Co, gave them a guided tour of the process of refining sugar cane into brown sugar from start to finish.

This is a busy time of year for sugar refiners, because sugar cane harvesting season lasts from January through March.

The cane is cut by hand, bundled and picked up each morning, Majewski said. It must be processed within 24 hours of being cut so it does not dry out.

Once the cane reaches the factory, it is put through a massive crusher two times to squeeze out all the juices from the cane. The remains of the cane are used as fuel for the fire that boils the juice into a thick, syrupy liquid. When crystals begin to grow, the liquid is taken off the fire and allowed to cool.

The factory then packages the brown sugar as well as makes baked goods, which are sold at the gift shop.

The next stop on the tour brought the service members and their families to Gala Aoiumi, a commercial area in Yomitan where sea salt is processed.

While there, the group saw how the Okinawans make salt. They also had the opportunity to see some of the rigors people went through to make salt in the past, while touring the Salt Museum in Gala Aoiumi.

Majewski and Heather Alan, the creator of the tour, showed how sea water is filtered through giant nets to collect the salt. They then showed the group how the salt is boiled down for five days, packaged and sent to homes all over the world.

Anyone interested in taking the Sweet and Salty Tour, or other tours, may call MCCS Tours Plus’ main office on Camp Foster at 646-3502.