hi every one. we got back from Okinawa and it was greeat.
Okinawa is the main island, part of a chain of hundreds of islands off the southernmost tip of japan. We left early on the 15th and got back late on the 18th.
the morning started out a bit stressed and rushed, but by the time we got to our gate and were waiting to board the plane, all our osaka stress melted there at gate 22.
We had sweet seats on the plane, they put us up in business class because the plane was CROWDED with tons of junior high kids going to okinawa for school trips. I kid you not, the plane was ahuge heffer jet, and atleast 200 kids were on the plane. thank goodness for the semi sound barrier in business class.
Japan airlines is nice though,much better than crap air canada. I was a bit chapped though, because we just got a beverage to drink for the 1 hour and 20 minute flight. Atleast on air canada they give you those bad tasting sesame crispy sticks.
shiv fel asleep listing to traditional "Anka" music (Japanese folk music) and fell asleep to a norah jones dicography. good flight down.
When we got to okinawa, the magic started as soon as we got to our gate, the glass corridors that lead you to the airport from the airplane was lines with rows of orchids and hibiscus flowers. They gave the place a tropical smell and a dreamy island look.
At the airport we got some bento boxes for the 2hr shuttle bus ride to the resort.
The ride to the resort was fantastic. I was so suprised to see how much the island looked just like the carribean. Most of the aritecture is done with concrete blocks so the whole island looks like kingston JA. the place was so lush and green, so much greenery ,vines and flowers of all colors.
It was such a nice suprise to see people dressed in "okinawa shirts" much like hawaiian shirts, and looking so chocolatey. we ate and couldnt stop staring out the window, the place looked like a post card. green-blue water, the buildings, every thing was awesome. Our bus was pretty empty, except for me, shiv and another man traveler, but the tour hostess continued to give all of us an indepth presentation of what we were witnessing on our bus ride (in the sexiest japanese voice ever!... it was a tad uncomfortable)
We got to the resort, man, it was fantasic. We checked in, got all our travel informationa and bus scedules for our sightseeing and then went to our room. Our room was quite nice and tropically decorated. We then took a walk around the resort and along the beach and guess what we found... An army base.
At the end of our beach was an resort area for army people and their families to use. Okinawa is full of army bases, and i swear, army bases occupy the nicest land in okinawa. We guessed that once G.I's are on leave they can spend some time at that air base resort, we even saw a woman on the base-beach drinking hawaiian punch.DANG! its pretty neat that many stores in okinawa carry import US goods like Betty crocker, corm meal,A&W drive in's to cater to the military,navy and airforces.
The next day we got up early and set out to catch the local bus to manzano (a steep rocky cliff face, that drops off into a coral reef area) and Nakaguskus Castle ruins. The bus ride to get to manza area was really nice, it was great to see the island and all the little towns along the way. Manzano was nice, its a huge flat grasy clif that drops off into the ocean. we took some pics there, and at the sea side below the cliffs. Next we got another bus and headed to Cadena city where we met "papa-san".
Papa -san, was this super nice cab driver(age 76) that offered to drive us to the castle for a better price than the bus, wich he did!
he gave us a nice comentary on the area, as well as beeped at a girl about 40 yrs his senior who he said used to be his "girlfriend" great guy. It was a great interest for both of us to know more about the GI housing areas. Japan is crowded, and houses are usually wedged right up against another.
On the GI bases family houses is super american town house style with huge yards back and front as well as private park/play areas for kids. The whole place was green with grass (some thing you hardly NEVER see any where in japan). On the army bases there was an imax theatre, Macaroni grill restaurant, Pizza hut, mall etc.. it was nuts. And the school buses around the area were full of kids (spanish, black white, mexican asian military kids) being shuttlled from base school to base home. nutso.
The castle was very neat, it is the best preserved evidence of the ryuku kingdom. Okinawa was not a part of japan till the 1970s, and the people of okinawa consider them selfs a distict culture separate(but part of )japan. a very interesting history indeed. That night shiv got some awesome photos of the beach at night and me looking like a lost sea widow. i think my new favorite set of photos thus far!
The next day we rented bikes and biked to heji water fall, about a km or so away from our resort. It was very nice and full of creepy crawlies, lizards and mosquitos. After the waterfall we biked to the hetona fish market and headed north along the coast. We saw lots of people sporadically spread out in the waters. Old and young women in regular clothes, almost waist deep looking for clams in the ocean. It was great, we stopped there for a while to watch the women at work. It was great to see such a traditional speed of work, in a natural setting.
After the clam diggers we rode back down the coast to our hotel and took some jan and shiv time to enjoy the beach.
That night we ate like royalty at the hotel. It was really neat to know that okinawan cuisine has a sweet bread exactly like "festival", a sweet bread popular in the carribean. we tried every thing on the buffet table, and both agreed that we hate goya. a really bitter veggies that is super popular in okinawa cuisine. At the tourist shops in okinawa they sell all types of goya.
still not good...
The next day we went to Naha, a great city, we took the monorail to koisumi street and shopped away. we played out favorite game "oh whats this?"-- it consists of pretending like your going to buy a peice of food, but first you sample it like you are interested in buying it. Then you eat all the food samples, dont buy any thing, and then repeat at every other store.
we never get sick of that game!
on the way back to osaka, the purfume duty free lady gave us a deal we couldn't resist, so i got new escada perfumes, and shiv got a puma man cologne. it really felt like a vacation, and we vowed to take out laid back isalnd out look back to osaka. great vacation, shiv even got his forehead chocolate coated alittle due to the okinawa sun.
