Okinawa - Culture Explosion and Fun

I'm going to start out by saying that I had high hopes going into this trip, and after having went, I realize that I was underestimating exactly how amazing it would be. If I had to choose one physical location in the entire world to live, I think I'd choose Okinawa.

Basically, picture Hawaii, then picture a not-as-crowded as Tokyo part of Japan, then mix them together, throw in a unique stlye of island music and symbols like the Guardian Dog Lions known as Shisa, and now you have Okinawa.

The trip started with a bus ride to the airport (I wasn't going to take the trains with some luggage, as small as it may have been, it was pretty close to rush hour), then a 2 hour plane ride to Okinawa. For those of you who aren't in the know, Okinawa became part of Japan in 1972 after the United States turned it back over to Japan, as it was recently caught up in war beforehand. United States Citizens aren't always exactly the most welcome, also because there are still a lot of military bases in Okinawa, but through peace treaties it's manageable, but there are still problems. Anyway, the point of bringing this us was to say that Okinawa is a fairly recent addition to the established country of Japan. Because Okinawa is a chain of islands, the language has evolved differently than mainland Japanese, so some Tokyo residents even have troubles sometime. Obviously, to people like me who don't understand mush, it's fine, haha.

Anyway, when we got there we saw how beautiful it was, and immediately everyone wanted to go swimming at the beach. However, and this is the only bad thing about the trip in my opinion, the hotel that we stayed at closed their beach swimming at 6:00 PM, and we didn't have any freetime at the hotel before that time on any given day, so we didn't get to swim at the beach right outside our hotel. One of the stops we made (and I'll go into this later) had a beach, and some people swam there, but there was so much other stuff to do there that I didn't deem worth it. And I swam in the beach with a few other people the first night at the hotel until we got kicked out, so I got to anyway.

So to start things back a little, we arrived at the airport. From there we took a bus to a place called 琉球の館 （Ryukyu no Yakata, Ryukyu is the name of Okinawa, as in Ryukyuans are the people that live in Okinawa, and are not considered the same as Japanese people in every sense of the word). Here we were shown the history of Okinawan cloth making and we had the chance to dye a design with paint and they're going to touch it up and mail it back to us.

After that we took the bus to 首里城 （Shuri Castle) and walked around the old castle ruins and saw some intersting historical things. The whole experience was really neat.

Dinner at the hotel as well as arriving at the hotel for the first time was next. You can see in the pictures, but pretty much the view from the hotel room was fantastic if there ever was a fantastic view. It is now my DSi's background as well. It is a shame that we couldn't swim there without getting in trouble because of the time frame, but we were allowed to be on the beach and walk in the water until 10:00 PM, so I really have no huge complaints. Dinner consisted of an all you can eat Japanese assortment of food, it was okay, but nothing great. We did have a performance though, and that was interesting enough.

Free time ensued, that for me that night included swimming in ocean because someone decided to jump in. I didn't know it at the time, but he just planned on jumping in and getting out, but me following him in made him decide to stay out there with me, haha. Later 2 other peopl joined me, but it ended in the IES staff making us get out. There was no penalty, although the director did get a call from the hotel management, oops. No regrets though, it was fun. Everyone else got drunk. Like every other night we were there.

Our room was interesting, we had one room and a bathroom with no beds. We slept on tatami mats with a matress, and it was actually incredibly comfortable. I slept very well.

There was an お風呂 there, public bath, and it was like the size of a swimming pool. That was awesome and a bunch of us went there every night. Being naked in Japan with other males in a bath is actually much easier than you'd think it would be =P

The next day we had a continental breakfast with eggs and bacon among other things. We left the hotel at 9:00 every morning, always by the same bus, so it became part of schedule. The first destination on Day 2 was a glass blowing workshop place. We actually each got to make a cup! It was really neat. Well, most of it was them holding the things and basically just us spinning the rod and everything, but nonetheless we saw it all being done in front of us. That was really fun.

We then left there and arrived at Ocean Expo Park, a giant place with Japan's largest Aquarium including a 3 story tank containing some Whale Sharks. The Aquarium was really fascinating, but there were some other things there that were even cooler. Ask anyone but myself, Emily (also has never drank alcohol, so not everyone drinks I guess), and a few others and they'll say that coolest place there was the beach, and while I would have loved to go swimming, what I did was so much better. I went to this place called the Tropical Dream Center, which was basically this Tropical Flower and Fruit Garden, with ruins and amazing scenery. It was the most interesting place I think I may have been to ever, the dedication by the gardeners is amazing. Don't worry, there are pictures, of everything, when I get around to uploading them. Maybe when this is read I'll have them up, but ~1,200 photos isn't exactly the thing that goes up in an hour, ya know? Regardless, Emily (the person I was with) and I both thoroughly enjoyed the Tropical Dream Center and would fully recommend it to anyone who is in Okinawa.

Let me also add that Okinawa is famous for it's Guardian Dog-Lion statues called Shisa (siisaa in Okinawan), and I happen to love the hell out of them, so I bought a lot of them as souvenirs, and I hope that the readers of this like them as well because if you're family there is a good chance that's what you'll get as a souvenir =P They are the statues that are accredited for keeping away evil, always found in pairs, always one has an open mouth and the other closed. Some modern days ones are made with humorous expressions, but they're all signs of good luck and protection, so their underlying meaning is amazing as well. They're also the coolest looking things ever, so yeah.

At the end of the Ocean Expo Park, we left back for the hotel by bus. On the bus we either looked out the windows or a lot of us who had Nintendo DS (the handheld Nintendo System) played some Multiplayer Tetris. It was the game of the trip, haha.

At the hotel was another 食べ放題 (tabehoudai, all you can eat), and similar food. Again, it was alright, nothing that excellent, but good. At night instead of getting director Shin-san in trouble, I decided to walk the beach and walk in a little and let the waves hit my legs. This was fun, it's been years and years since I've last been to a beach and I want to go to another before the summer ends to actually get a chance to swim. I've even started to forgive the sand for it's existence realizing that it's not the sand's fault that it gets everywhere. (Even though our room managed to gather sand despite our seemingly cautious actions to prevent just that).

The next morning was a breakfast similar to the last, but delicious. We then left for a place called Monzamo Cliff, which turned out to be an absolutely breathtaking view of some of the cliffs of Okinawa. Since Okinawa is an island, pretty much everything is beautiful, but here especially. After this we went to Okinawa World, a place with a lot of things Okinawan all in one place. The first thing we went through was a Cave, it was pretty neat but a little morbid because it was where some people hid during times of war, but if you don't think about that it's fine. =P

Also there we had a tradional Eisa dance / performance with drummers and sanshin players and a couple people in a Shisa costume. It was very good. The music of Okinawa is amazing and I recommend it to anyone wanting mellow or island sounding music. There are also a few mainstream J-Pop / J-Rock groups such as Orange Range that have emerged from Okinawa, but they don't always sound Okinawan.

Lunch there was interesting, we had some noodles in a soup broth which was okay, but the real treat (with heavy sarcasm) was the tempura Goya. Goya is famous to Okinawa (and India apparently), but it is now my absolute least favorite food. It translates to mean Bitter Melon and it is said that it is "widely grown for edible fruit, which is among the most bitter of all vegetables" It is really quite gross, haha. A few people didn't mind it, to those people I give my respect. I, along with many others, couldn't take more than a bite.

After this place we went to the most depressing part of the whole trip, an Okinawan Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum. Okinawa is on alright terms with the USA now, but they used to battle, and there was a long history of that here, and I just didn't like it that much. It was only an hour or so though, and the grounds that it was located on were exceedingly beautiful, so that was good.

After that we had the opportunity to play the sanshin, that is the 3 stringed guitarish instrument famous in Okinawa. It's like a shamisen. It was fascinating and fun.

Dinner at the hotel that night was good. We were given a tray of raw meat, veggies, soup, and a hotplate burner. We cooked our own food and it was a lot of fun and very delicious.

After dinner I went out to the beach to stand in the water and Emily joined me and we just walked onto the sand to let the waves hit us. We were in high tide so a couple waves actually made it past our waists, haha, and those were the fun ones. It was a nice contrast to what others were doing, that is, getting ridiculously drunk. Whatever, what we did was fun and the other people didn't bother me. I'm okay with people who drink if they're okay with people who don't.

The next morning was a repeat of the last breakfasts, just with bacon instead of ham like the day before. The bacon here is like American Ham though, in case you were wondering. As in, not crunchy.

We then left for a place called Kokusai Street, a busy shopping street that has hundreds of store. Probably, haha. There were neat stores, and had I not bought a lot of souvenirs for both other people and myself I probably would have bought stuff here, but since I had I didn't. There were interesting places though, so it was fun.

The last event we had before flying back was lunch at Sam's Sailor Inn, which is a hibachi place. That is, they make food in front of you. It was neat, and although a bit strange that the waitress people were dressed in sailor outfits and tied on a bib (which was really strange, haha), it was a great time. Our chef actually dropped one of the seasoning shakers while flourishing them and it knocked down a thing of liquid, which I managed to catch on tape, haha. But he was still pretty impressive, but nowhere near what I've seen online. A great experience though.

The flight back was good, minus the extreme headache I had developed rapidly and withough warning, but someone gave me some advil and that was fantastic in a short time. A bus ride back (no way to trains at 5:30 PM in Tokyo >_<) was all that was left.

So overall, it was a great trip and I want to live in Okinawa, haha. Given the situation I very probably will not, but I'd love to visit again. I'd also be curious to visit Hawaii as it's closer and reminds me of Okinawa and I'd like to see how much it actually is. I expect a lot less Japanese but it still seems like a fastinating place to go.

I'll start posting links to my photos after they're up, so hold on tight. I also have some short videos, so I'll post them as well.

Ja mata!