Time: 14.03.2015-05.04.2015
Okinawa: sun, leisure, USA
Because why not to go to Okinawa while you are already in Japan? We had to decide between 5 days on Okinawa or just a weekend in Seoul, but because in Seoul we would have ended up spending more money, we decided in favor of the sunny beaches.
Okinawa: sun, leisure, USA
Because why not to go to Okinawa while you are already in Japan? We had to decide between 5 days on Okinawa or just a weekend in Seoul, but because in Seoul we would have ended up spending more money, we decided in favor of the sunny beaches.
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| Okinawan lion |
27.03.2015 So after few hours of flying we arrived to Okinawa and instead of sunny weather, we were greeted by rain. We took taxi and went to our hostel. In Naha the taxi was not so expensive and we wanted to arrive there fast. We took hostel in Naha, because the day later we had Couchsurfing place in another city. The hostel was a cool place that was kept by local friends community. They were all really nice and it felt like a great place to stay even for a longer period of time. My bed was similar to sleeping in a closet, but it was super awesome. It made me feel like I was a small child again who makes castles out of pillows. But because we were starving already, we went to find something to eat with the rain, because our stomachs were making horrible sounds already. Sadly, this hunger made us make bad choices and we ended up in an overpriced local cuisine restaurant, where we just got a small taste of food into our mouths but not into stomach. In addition, we were completely ignored by the service, had to wait for a long time and overall this was one dinner we did not enjoy at all. We just went to Lawson after leaving the place and bought something that actually filled our stomachs. After this we just wanted to sleep.
I should say a few things about Okinawa. Okinawa prefecture is situated between Japan and Taiwan and it consists of many smaller and bigger islands. While Okinawa is the name of the Prefecture, it is also the name of a large group of island and also the official name of the main island with the capitol city of Naha. Historically Okinawa had a different culture from Japan. There lived Ryukyuan people who had different language and traditions due to being influenced by not only Japan, but also China, Philippines and many other countries. I hardly managed to see anything that reminded me of Japan. Adding to the historical influences during WWII Okinawa became an important army base for US and even at the moment there are 14 US army bases on Okinawa that occupy around 18% of the island. In comparison, Japan has only 2 army bases on Okinawa. With high percent of Americans living there, you can do almost everything in English. Most of the American solders do not speak Japanese at all. There have been ongoing protests against US bases for all these 70 years and most of the men in forces also say that they would prefer to leave as it is not even their country. On the other hand, from political point of view for America Okinawa is situated much closer to China, North-Korea and Russia than the US mainland itself, now make your own conclusions about how eager they are to leave.
28.03.2015
After waking up we already had smiles on our faces because the sun was shining and it was the first day we could wear shorts and sleeveless shirts - bye-bye to the warm jackets. Of course we wanted to see many things inside Naha and we had to leave to the other city only in the evening. So we took up to go to sightseeing. We bought one day bus-ticket that looks like you are asked to play Scratch-off, because you have to scratch off the day you want to use it. Be sure not to make a mistake with it. Of course by the end of the day I managed to lose mine at one point and pretend I do not find my ticket in the bus - great Okinawans allowed me to ride without one. Unfortunately we had to carry our baggage with us for all of the day as we did not find any coin lockers the we had used all the time on the mainland.
We drove with a bus up to the "mountains" to go see the Shikinaen garden. The Shikinaen garden was made for the Ryukyu kings residence in 18th century. All garden was destroyed in the Battle of Okinawa, but later restored again. Not only the place has astonishing beauty, but it is also full of history about Ryukyu's kings. I think it was one of the most magical places.
After the garden we took bud for few more stops to go and see Shuri's castle. Shuri Castle is the palace of Ryukyu Kingdom. It was almost all destroyed in 1945, but rebuilt in 1992. The site played the most important role in Ryukyuan political and religious life. This is definitely one place to visit once you are on Okinawa.
When we finally decided to start moving to another city, we thought of hitch-hiking We had heard that it is really easy to hitchhike in Japan, because they do not know so well what it is and are ready to pick you up as they think you're in trouble. After trying for a few minutes on the closest road a guy came and told us to walk 200 meters so we would be on the main highway where it is much easier to get on a car. He was right. 2 minutes there and a car already stopped. It was an American marine who was living with his wife and child in the same city as to we were going. He was really nice and dropped us off in front of the apartment. Apparently the city is small enough to know your ways around there.
So there we were - looking to the ocean on our right and nice apartment on our left. I am going to change the names of the people again, so let's call our host "Andy". He was working as a pilot and he had a lot of interests. The house was big and the most comfortable place where we slept during our trip. Even though we were a bit exhausted we went out with him because the forces from the base were having a party. How many in Europe can say that they have partied with US forces? I know it sounds weird, but for me this sentence takes back to WW times were things like that happened. Of course everything was actually usual party with nothing so special, but I still like to think of it as a check in my to-do-list. There we also met two nice guys who were willing to show us around the island next day.
I should say a few things about Okinawa. Okinawa prefecture is situated between Japan and Taiwan and it consists of many smaller and bigger islands. While Okinawa is the name of the Prefecture, it is also the name of a large group of island and also the official name of the main island with the capitol city of Naha. Historically Okinawa had a different culture from Japan. There lived Ryukyuan people who had different language and traditions due to being influenced by not only Japan, but also China, Philippines and many other countries. I hardly managed to see anything that reminded me of Japan. Adding to the historical influences during WWII Okinawa became an important army base for US and even at the moment there are 14 US army bases on Okinawa that occupy around 18% of the island. In comparison, Japan has only 2 army bases on Okinawa. With high percent of Americans living there, you can do almost everything in English. Most of the American solders do not speak Japanese at all. There have been ongoing protests against US bases for all these 70 years and most of the men in forces also say that they would prefer to leave as it is not even their country. On the other hand, from political point of view for America Okinawa is situated much closer to China, North-Korea and Russia than the US mainland itself, now make your own conclusions about how eager they are to leave.
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| Bus tickets |
After waking up we already had smiles on our faces because the sun was shining and it was the first day we could wear shorts and sleeveless shirts - bye-bye to the warm jackets. Of course we wanted to see many things inside Naha and we had to leave to the other city only in the evening. So we took up to go to sightseeing. We bought one day bus-ticket that looks like you are asked to play Scratch-off, because you have to scratch off the day you want to use it. Be sure not to make a mistake with it. Of course by the end of the day I managed to lose mine at one point and pretend I do not find my ticket in the bus - great Okinawans allowed me to ride without one. Unfortunately we had to carry our baggage with us for all of the day as we did not find any coin lockers the we had used all the time on the mainland.
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| Shikinaen garden |
After the garden we took bud for few more stops to go and see Shuri's castle. Shuri Castle is the palace of Ryukyu Kingdom. It was almost all destroyed in 1945, but rebuilt in 1992. The site played the most important role in Ryukyuan political and religious life. This is definitely one place to visit once you are on Okinawa.
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| Shuri Castle |
So there we were - looking to the ocean on our right and nice apartment on our left. I am going to change the names of the people again, so let's call our host "Andy". He was working as a pilot and he had a lot of interests. The house was big and the most comfortable place where we slept during our trip. Even though we were a bit exhausted we went out with him because the forces from the base were having a party. How many in Europe can say that they have partied with US forces? I know it sounds weird, but for me this sentence takes back to WW times were things like that happened. Of course everything was actually usual party with nothing so special, but I still like to think of it as a check in my to-do-list. There we also met two nice guys who were willing to show us around the island next day.
29.03.2015
So the morning came and we got ready to go to discover the beauty of the island. We managed to meet up with the guys who just happened to have sport scars. Let's call them Nate, Brad and Greg. As the sun was burning us, we decided to first take some fresh-made ice-creams that melted before being eaten. Well, you know that Japan has a lot of different tastes for ice-creams so the choice was difficult.
We headed to the North of Okinawa where guys promised to show us beautiful nature. The first stop was waterfall hidden in the forest. Finding it turned out more difficult than we expected. Fortunately, not impossible. Most of the Okinawa's forest is similar to rain forest and for a Nordic person as I am, it was astonishing to see it all. To reach the waterfall we actually had to climb down the slope from a narrow road where passing people was rather impossible. Of course the view next to the waterfall was incredible, especially the fact that you could also swim there. We met there a lot more guys from the forces, but unfortunately we did not exchange names or contacts. We just found out that US soldiers really really love Taylor Swift... though it should have not been a surprise to me, the reality of how much they like her still shocked me. Back to Okinawa now - Guys as they are started to show off with their skills and braveness by jumping down into the waterfall. Even with army medics in the crew, if anyone would have jumped a bit wrong, there would have nothing left to do. Basically in this waterfall there is just one exact place where to jump and the waterfall itself is few meters high with rocky bottom. If you ask if any of us jumped, then the answer is that we allowed guys to make all the jumps. None of us four wanted to finish our trip there, especially because I doubt that our insurance would have covered it.
Next on we headed to Cape Hedo aka "Suicide cliffs". The nickname of the cliffs comes from WWII as the last clashes of Battle of Okinawa took place there. Many Japanese soldiers and Okinawan civilians committed suicide there by jumping off the cliffs. Landscape that now gives you beautiful view is actually driven by blood and sadness of the past. But to cheer you up again then Cape Hedo has some big weird looking bird-fish - Kariyushi - that is a monument for celebrating friendship between two places. In this area you can actually find more big weird monuments.
To continue with the trip, then I must say that we just started to head back to our sleeping place as it started to get dark already. We finished our day-trip with nice dinner at American-looking diner.
In the end, we said good-bye to guys and went back to Andy's place where we had some beer and ice-cream sided with interesting talks.
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| The part of waterfall where you could actually swim.. the real fall was 10 meters away on left.. |
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| Cape Hedo |
To continue with the trip, then I must say that we just started to head back to our sleeping place as it started to get dark already. We finished our day-trip with nice dinner at American-looking diner.
In the end, we said good-bye to guys and went back to Andy's place where we had some beer and ice-cream sided with interesting talks.
New morning, new adventures. We had delicious breakfast at Andy's and after being patched with food we headed out to go to Aquarium. If you do not know, then Okinawa has a huge aquarium called Churaumi Aquarium. Once again we decided to try hitchhiking. Took us again only few minutes before we met a nice Taiwanese man who decided to give us a lift to Aquarium. In exchange we just had to take few photos with him. As he did not speak good English not Japanese, we did not find much out about him.
Before the real aquarium we decided to stop at the beautiful beaches of Ocean Expo Park (Churaumi Aquarium is a small part of it). The official swimming season actually should have started at 1st of April, so we were there just 2 days before the legal date. Do you already know what happened? We managed to swim in water for 5 minutes when we already saw people on the beach waving to us to come back to the shore as "it is not allowed to swim there yet". After few minutes acting that we do not see him, we decided to obey the rules and got out of the water as the waving got more and more reckless.
Finally we went to the Aquarium and it definitely was worth every cent and minute spent on it. I have been to few aquariums in other countries, but this was the most fascinating experiences that I have. If I had the opportunity I would definitely go back there.
As Andy's place was rather far from the Aquarium, we needed a plan to get back there. First thought was abus, but as soon as we heard about the ticket price, we let bus driver close the doors and continue its ride without us. Second try was to see taxis. Compared to Naha, these taxi drivers close to Aquarium where tourist-oriented and asked almost the same amount of money as the bus. So we were left with no other option than to hitchhike again.
It was the most difficult moment from our hitchhiking experience in Okinawa as there were no good places for cars to stop and most cars were already full. Not easy to hitchhike with 4 people. Even though, I say that it was most difficult, then actually it took us just around 10 minutes to get on a car. One couple picked us up. The guy was from Japan and woman was a small Thai woman. The situation got a bit awkward as Yanne did not mention that she speaks Japanese and the couple was talking some stuff between themselves in Japanese. Let's say that later we managed to laugh a lot about it as this Thai woman thought that while holding your thumb up next to the road, means that you want a man... Well no comments about that. But the couple was going to another city, so they just left us near Nago bus station where we still took bus (but much cheaper one) and went back home to eat pasta and cookies.
Before the real aquarium we decided to stop at the beautiful beaches of Ocean Expo Park (Churaumi Aquarium is a small part of it). The official swimming season actually should have started at 1st of April, so we were there just 2 days before the legal date. Do you already know what happened? We managed to swim in water for 5 minutes when we already saw people on the beach waving to us to come back to the shore as "it is not allowed to swim there yet". After few minutes acting that we do not see him, we decided to obey the rules and got out of the water as the waving got more and more reckless.
Finally we went to the Aquarium and it definitely was worth every cent and minute spent on it. I have been to few aquariums in other countries, but this was the most fascinating experiences that I have. If I had the opportunity I would definitely go back there.
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| Churaumi Aquarium |
It was the most difficult moment from our hitchhiking experience in Okinawa as there were no good places for cars to stop and most cars were already full. Not easy to hitchhike with 4 people. Even though, I say that it was most difficult, then actually it took us just around 10 minutes to get on a car. One couple picked us up. The guy was from Japan and woman was a small Thai woman. The situation got a bit awkward as Yanne did not mention that she speaks Japanese and the couple was talking some stuff between themselves in Japanese. Let's say that later we managed to laugh a lot about it as this Thai woman thought that while holding your thumb up next to the road, means that you want a man... Well no comments about that. But the couple was going to another city, so they just left us near Nago bus station where we still took bus (but much cheaper one) and went back home to eat pasta and cookies.
31.03.2015
On our last day on Okinawa we decided to just have a walk in the neighborhood. We ended up walking for a few hours. Also along the road on the shore there was an amazing project where primary school children could decorate the sideways of the road. Though again there you can see the influence of USA as many children have drawn some USA cartoons. Still it is really nice thing to see and kind of makes you happy. My favorite one was "Ki wo tsukete - Okaasan no kotoba boku no omamori" / "Be careful" Mom's words are my protection/ . Not sure what there is about these words, but it really goes deep into my heart.
We also found a lot of caves on the shore and me as totally frightened by darkness, had difficult time to go into or through them. Despite that I was satisfied with the amazing views.
In addition, we managed to find one local family restaurant where people did not speak English. I guess it was the first and only time on Okinawa when Yanne had to speak Japanese. In addition, by the actions of the family I guess they did not have many foreigners eating at their place. This sweet family was really interested to get to know things about us, made us traditional Okinawan sweets in addition to the lunch we had there. It was the first time on Okinawa when we actually managed to eat real traditional Okinawan food. Sometimes small streets hide the biggest gems in them.
Before going back to the house, we went for one last swim in the ocean. The water was so warm, but for some reason most locals watched us as crazy people as the swimming season still had not started.
In reality, there was one bad thing that happened to me in the forest two days before. Somehow I had been bitten by some kind of spider or bug in the forest and my right leg started to get swollen. With each day more and more, so by this day my leg was already looking a bit nasty with increasing temperature close to the bitten place. These kind of situations it is best to keep calm and think. Not sure if it was the smartest thing to do, but we decided to wait until we finish the trip to go see the doctor, unless I will have huge fever or collapse before arriving to my home country. (Luckily the swollen reduced with one week without needing any kind of medical treatment)
This night there were also some Dutch guys staying at Andy's place. Unfortunately I could not remember their names, but I must say that one of them had really nice mustache and smooth talk. We decided to go out for drinks and we ended up drinking Habusake (aka habushu) that is traditional Okinawan Snake Wine. If you want to know, if it had a snake in it, then yes, it had a snake in it. It is made of habu snake that is related to rattlesnake and copperhead. For a venomous snake, it was really delicious drink (though I do not support killing any kinds of snakes for liqueur nor alcohol consumption) .
As we were feeling really great already from habushu we decided to turn the night into really long one, so we took some sleeping bags and went to the beach to watch the stars.
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| Local family restaurant |
In addition, we managed to find one local family restaurant where people did not speak English. I guess it was the first and only time on Okinawa when Yanne had to speak Japanese. In addition, by the actions of the family I guess they did not have many foreigners eating at their place. This sweet family was really interested to get to know things about us, made us traditional Okinawan sweets in addition to the lunch we had there. It was the first time on Okinawa when we actually managed to eat real traditional Okinawan food. Sometimes small streets hide the biggest gems in them.
Before going back to the house, we went for one last swim in the ocean. The water was so warm, but for some reason most locals watched us as crazy people as the swimming season still had not started.
In reality, there was one bad thing that happened to me in the forest two days before. Somehow I had been bitten by some kind of spider or bug in the forest and my right leg started to get swollen. With each day more and more, so by this day my leg was already looking a bit nasty with increasing temperature close to the bitten place. These kind of situations it is best to keep calm and think. Not sure if it was the smartest thing to do, but we decided to wait until we finish the trip to go see the doctor, unless I will have huge fever or collapse before arriving to my home country. (Luckily the swollen reduced with one week without needing any kind of medical treatment)
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| Habusake |
As we were feeling really great already from habushu we decided to turn the night into really long one, so we took some sleeping bags and went to the beach to watch the stars.
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| Other Okinawa island |
01.04.2015
As the night decided to pass by much faster than we thought, suddenly the clock was already 6 am and we had to get our stuff, go to the airport and leave Okinawa behind.
Of course we first had to get to the airport and once again we found hitchhiking the most suitable way as we calculated that we had enough time to still get on the plane (as Okinawa airport is really small). Fortunately again we were picked up really fast by one woman who actually had no idea what we were doing and just wanted to help out in case we need help. Okinawa was definitely the best place for hitchhike.
For next we just spent time in different airports and train-stations as we had to reach Sendai by the evening. I guess I do not have to mention that compared to Okinawa, we were back to colder and rainy place and as soon as we reached Yanne's dormitory we were so exhausted that we just fell asleep fast to have enough energy for the next day. But more about discovering Sendai in next and final post about this trip.
Remark: Yanne actaully went back to Okinawa few months later with her friends as she was staying in Japan until October 2015.
As the night decided to pass by much faster than we thought, suddenly the clock was already 6 am and we had to get our stuff, go to the airport and leave Okinawa behind.
Of course we first had to get to the airport and once again we found hitchhiking the most suitable way as we calculated that we had enough time to still get on the plane (as Okinawa airport is really small). Fortunately again we were picked up really fast by one woman who actually had no idea what we were doing and just wanted to help out in case we need help. Okinawa was definitely the best place for hitchhike.
For next we just spent time in different airports and train-stations as we had to reach Sendai by the evening. I guess I do not have to mention that compared to Okinawa, we were back to colder and rainy place and as soon as we reached Yanne's dormitory we were so exhausted that we just fell asleep fast to have enough energy for the next day. But more about discovering Sendai in next and final post about this trip.
Remark: Yanne actaully went back to Okinawa few months later with her friends as she was staying in Japan until October 2015.
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