When: September 16-18, 2007
Where: OKINAWA
Who: Me, my manager, Shinobu and Miyuki
Info: September is typhoon season in Okinawa so tour/packages are cheaper. Shinobu and I decided to take a chance. We were actually threatened by a typhoon the entire time we were there and it down poured one night but other than that the weather was hot. Perfect for swimming in light blue water and snorkeling!
SHURI-JO - This is the reconstructed Ryukyu imperial residence. It's a World Heritage Site and a castle that I'd like to live in. With a view of the ocean and surrounding area, it felt tropical and relaxed. You could really see the Chinese influence in the architecture and colours.
(Miyuki, Manager and Shinobu)
We splurged on tea and Okinawan sweets in a new wing of the castle. Yummy.
After the castle we headed to Kokusai-dori, the main shopping/restaurant street. All of the shops were selling these lion/dragon roof guardians called
shiisa. One always has its mouth open and the other one closed. They are supposed to scare off evil demons. If you know me well, you can pick out the two that I bought...
We drove (or rather Manager drove...really fast...) to our hotel, which was located along the coast, about an hour north of Naha. When we got there it was dark but we could hear the ocean. When we woke up the next morning, this is what we saw from our balcony.....
It was GORGEOUS!! The water was so blue...I decided to take some video but while doing a panorama shot a man stepped out onto the next balcony....completely naked....yeah...awkward...I quickly deleted that video.
I think I took about a hundred photos of the water that morning...
Our hotel was pretty nice but really, it was all about the location. It was called Miyuki Beach Hotel and it was located right on, surprise, Miyuki Beach... Miyuki enjoyed that.
That morning we woke up early and made reservations to go snorkeling. Unfortunately, we couldn't go to the blue cave because of the typhoon threat but I wasn't that disappointed. I was in awe of the views....
OK, I'll admit, I was a bit terrified to go snorkeling. I get kind of claustrophobic in small spaces and the thought of wearing a small mask and depending on a small tube to breathe, made me nervous.
After struggling into a probably too-small wetsuit, we got instructions on how to breathe, etc. and then we hopped down over the ledge and into the water. Strangely, now that we were ready, I wasn't nervous at all. It was so exciting!
Our guide helped us swim out, away from the shore. Even though we didn't go that far out (the typhoon's fault) we could see coral and lots of colourful fish! The best part was when our guide gave us some fish sausage and the little fish came up and pecked at it.
There I am feeding the fish! (the other guide came with us to take photos for the shop's website) Below - the four of us holding onto the rafty-thing.
We headed back to the hotel to shower and change. I decided to check out the hotel's private beach first. It was empty except for 2 guests so Manager and I decided to go for a swim. The water was amazing and I instantly fell in love with Okinawa. Seriously, teaching English here wouldn't have been so bad...
Tacos for a late lunch! Check out those homemade taco shells. The restaurant was called Mexico. It sold tacos and only tacos. 4 tacos for 500yen. Real salsa. So yummy.
That night was the highlight of my trip. We made it through the torrential rain to a small restaurant/club to hear the Nenes, a quite famous Okinawan singing group. They've been around for a while, occasionally changing members. They were fantastic. Okinawan music is wonderfully different, ranging from fast and upbeat to slow and haunting. They used traditional instruments and their outfits were beautiful.
goya chanpuru - Okinawan dish of tofu, egg and goya (a VERY bitter strange looking cucumber vegetable). Surprisingly awesome.
On our last morning we drove all the way north to Nago to visit the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. And of course I made us pose for a picture!
The centerpiece of this aquarium is the Kuroshio Sea Main Tank. It is HUGE and was insanely crowded. Every time a whale shark (there were three in the tank) swam by the largest window, about a hundred cameras took a picture.
We headed back down towards Naha and the airport but made a few stops on the way. One was to a grocery store so that my travel buddies could pick up some spam. That's right...spam...barf.
Our other stop was to a fabric store. Miyuki's husband is Okinawan and she wanted to make yukata from traditional fabric. The two of us explored upstairs in the store and got to see the fabric display room.
The patterns were beautiful, colourful and VERY expensive. The patterns and colours were all hand applied.
After making some speedy purchases we quickly dropped off the rental car and got a ride to the airport. Of course, we had to pick up some omiyage and then before we knew it, we were flying back to Nagoya. What a trip! I felt like we'd been to an different country!
I LOVELOVELOVE Okinawa!
Here are a few things that I love about you and why I'll be forever grateful that we were put in the same training group.
