Okinawa

Finally, the weekend I had been waiting for. I put in a request for time off 2 months ago, and booked my trip to Okinawa soon after and I was looking forward to the trip ever since. This week is a “no lesson week” so I was able to get 2 extra days off pretty easily. Okinawa was always near the top of my list of places to visit while in Japan. I figured I would be craving the beach sometime in the fall once the weather started to cool off. I was right. I couldn’t have waited another week. I really needed a vacation.

Okinawa is like Japan’s Hawaii. It is an island far from the main land, with a culture of it’s own. Much like Hawaii, Okinawa was it’s own country for some time. The people look different, the language is a bit different, the food is quite different as well. Okinawa is also home to a major US military base, much like Hawaii. Even though I knew this before, I was surprised at the amount of western/American influence. I saw people everywhere who were obviously not Japanese. A lot of them seemed to be living there, not just tourists. Just about everyone knew a bit of English too, and they were not too shy to use it. Almost every place I went, people would say “hello” and “thank you” at the very least. Around where I live in Nara I only get that treatment from my good friends at Starbucks, everyone else speaks to me in Japanese.

Koichi acted as my partner in crime for this trip as well. I told him a few months ago that I was planning to go, and he said he wanted to go to, so we teamed up to plan the trip. By “team up” I mean I looked for flights for a few hours before Koichi told me about a package deal that included a flight, hotel, and rental car. That package deal was through a Japanese website, so Koichi ended up doing everything. So I guess in short, my booking experience was quite painless and stress free… Koichi seemed to have some trouble though…

We booked a flight to leave at 9am on Sunday the 2nd so we would get there around noon and have the rest of that day to go to the beach or surf. The next two days we would surf some more and chill out. It was a great plan…

Friday night was Halloween, and I had to work Saturday so I didn’t get to enjoy the festivities. Saturday night there were still some other parties going on so I persuaded Koichi to go out for a beer and see what was going on. We were just going to go out for a little then come back home so we could wake up around 7am and catch our flight…. Again, it was a great plan…

Unfortunately, the plan didn’t work out exactly as it should have. We met some friends, and ended up staying out wayyyy to late. I remember setting my alarm around 6am and telling Koichi that we had to be up in an hour…. the next thing I remember is hearing Koichi’s roommate Akira coming into the living room and frantically asking why we were still sleeping and that it was 10am. I just laid there on the couch groaning at him to shut up, along with a few other expletives. I told him to stop bothering us, and that we had to be up at 7 so we only had a bit to sleep. I distinctly remember saying “He’s lying Koichi, I set an alarm.” and continued to beg Akira to shut up and let us sleep. Eventually I rolled over to tell him to go away and I saw that the clock said 10am. I think Koichi saw it at the same time because I heard him start to flip out behind me. He stood up yelling at me like we were going to run to the airport right then and make it in time to catch the plane that -by that time- had left an hour ago. I don’t remember my exact reaction, but I remember feeling partially happy that I could go back to sleep, partially pissed off that we missed our flight, and laughing a little at Koichi’s panic attack.

Within a few minutes we had another flight booked. We would now be leaving at 3pm. At that point I couldn’t have cared less about the extra money for the second set of tickets. With the problem solved, I went back to sleep, but made sure to set several alarms to wake me up. Apparently one was not enough to wake me up and get me moving the first time so I wanted to be safe this time.

We didn’t have any trouble making the second flight. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and then the flight was actually delayed a few minutes as well.  We arrived to Okinawa airport around 5pm and went to find our rental car.

We had to find the representative for our rental company and check in before taking the bus to the lot with the cars. The lady had a bit of trouble finding our name. We explained that we were scheduled to arrive earlier in the morning but due to certain unforeseeable events we were unable to stick to our original itinerary. She sorted everything out a few minutes later and we made our way to the lot and got our car.

So in the end we made it to our car and were on our way to our hotel about 6 hours later than we originally planned, not bad….

We got to the hotel after about a 45 minute ride. We got our things situated, charged our phones and showered. We were pretty beat by this time, but we went out for some food. We walked about 15 minutes to this restaurant I saw on Trip Advisor. It was a 24 hour diner type place. They had a lot of western options and not a lot of Japanese food on the menu. I must have been feeling extra patriotic at that point because I ordered the Cheeseburger and french fries almost instinctually. Koichi got a variety plate with ribs, and some fried things. He made fun of me for my stereotypical American meal, but I don’t think his choice was that far off from mine.

After dinner we went to walk around and find a beach so we could at least see how warm the water was. The best thing we found were rocky jetties and a marina where we walked down the boat ramp. It was dark out, but in the lights from the parking lot and marina you could tell the water was really blue, and we could see to the bottom up until about 5 feet deep. The water was really warm, but it was really windy and we could see the white line waves crashing on the reef a few hundred yards off the beach, so we were worried about surfing the next day. We were happy to be there though.

The next morning we woke up around 9. The wind was still blowing really hard, but we decided to see what we could do about surfing. In the little town we were staying in, there wasn’t much available for rentals. There wasn’t much of a break out off the beach there either. I checked some popular breaks around the island and we headed to one that was relatively close. We still couldn’t find any surf shops or places to rent a board.

We went to a place to get some food (a pizza buffet- again quite American). We asked the people there where we could find a place to rent a board, and they gave us a quick “no” which made us feel a bit unwelcome. We began to think it might be more difficult to find a board than we originally assumed. We kept searching though.

Eventually we got a lead on a place a bit further south. After driving around a bit we found it. We parked and I couldn’t help but run n ahead of Koichi. In my limited Japanese I asked if they had rental boards available and we got another quick “No”. The lady did point us in the direction of another surf shop around the corner though. Again, we excitedly rushed to find the next surf shop. Unfortunately it was closed. Apparently they were only open from 5pm-8pm, so there was no way we would be able to rent from them before dark. We were pretty disappointed. We headed to sit on the sea wall and watch all the surfers enjoy themselves in the water as we doubtfully searched for more options on our phones. We found nothing.

We decided we would head to the main city to check out some other things, but first we took another drive around the block to see if there were any other surf shops. We drove past one place that said something about surfing on the sign. We made a quick U-Turn and ran in to see what was available. Unfortunately, this place was just a wetsuit shop, and they had no boards. The lady working there recommended we head to her “sister shop” which had boards for rent. She said she was not sure if they were open today though. We didn’t get our hopes up this time.

Thankfully though, this place was open, and they did have boards for rent. The guy gave us a weird look when we asked for rentals. He told us that since there was a storm coming and it was so windy the surf was very rough and he didn’t want to rent to us. We convinced him that we knew what we were doing and he agreed to rent to us albeit reluctantly at first. He asked me what size board I wanted and went back to get one. I was expecting a cheap plastic board, but he appeared with a decent fiberglass board. I was so surprised. He asked me if it was alright and I said yes. It was a bit thinner than my board a home but I was just happy to have a legitimate surfboard in my hand.

We headed out to the water as fast as we could. Just getting into the water was a new experience for me. There was no beach so we had to walk down these steps from the top of the sea wall and jump out in between the waves. I have never surfed anywhere other than sandy beaches so this was all an exciting new experience. This was my first time ever surfing a reef so I was pretty nervous about getting tossed by a wave and breaking my neck. The line up was pretty crowded too so I was very passive and cautious not to offend anyone. I am always nervous surfing in different places when I don’t know anyone, and the thought of the reef underneath me didn’t exactly make me feel more relaxed.

Eventually I went for a wave though. It was a nice big one, came right to me. Set up to be one of the bigger waves I have ever ridden. I caught it, but when I went to pop up my hand slipped off the side and I got tossed over the falls. I was waiting to feel the bottom, but it never came. I came up so happy to not be hurt. After getting caught inside on another big set and being punished again, I lost my fear of the reef. It was high tide, so I guessed I was safe for the time being.

I stayed pretty passive with the waves I went for and let the locals have their fun first. I did catch a couple though. Not really anything special. I kept trying to get another one and get a solid ride, but the sun was going down and I didn’t want to have to coordinate a landing on those steps in the dark so I headed in reluctantly.

Koichi had headed in well before me. He had drifted down the beach and decided to get out for a minute and maybe walk back up, but he had trouble landing on the steps and jacked up his finger and dinged his board as well. So he was waiting for me when I got in. We headed back to the shop and changed. Koichi had to pay a little extra for the damage he did to the board. Overall I was very happy to have gotten back in the ocean again. It is always relaxing just to get out and paddle around even when the waves are not so good. I was so happy to be in the water my lack of waves hardly mattered.

We made our way back to our hotel after returning the boards. Again we showered and charged our phones before heading out to dinner. This time we went for Yakiniku. We started off walking -thinking the restaurant was pretty close. After walking for about 20 minutes we decided to google the place instead of just following the map. The map turned out to be a bit off. It made It seem like the place was about a quarter of the distance away that it actually was. We kept walking and eventually caught a taxi. We made it to the restaurant we wanted to go to, but it was closed…

We asked the taxi driver to take us to another yakiniku place. He took us to two more before we found one that was open and had an open table. We had a nice dinner, and walked home, happy that we didn’t have to hunt for any more places that may or may not be open.

The next morning we had scheduled a snorkeling trip. We had to be at the place at 940am to be ready to go out by 10am. We had a nice Japanese breakfast of fish, rice, miso soup and some pork at the hotel in the morning then drove to the place. We got there and got our wetsuits on and all of our gear situated then got in the van to head to our destination.

Normally the company takes people to a place called the “Blue Cave” by boat, but since it was still very windy we had to go to another place. I am sure the “Blue Cave” would have been awesome, but this was my first time ever swimming near a coral reef. There were so many fish and other creatures! It was so amazing. Definitely one of the coolest things I have ever done. In high school my friend had an awesome salt water fish tank that I could watch for hours. This was like that, but 100000 times better. There was coral, urchins, starfish, anemone, clown fish, angel fish, blow fish. All kinds of colorful fish swimming everywhere. The guides brought hot dogs and divided them up between our group. We crumbled them up into small pieces and the fish came swarming in. most were pretty small, but there were a few that came in that could have provided some nice fillets. I was really wishing I had my spear gun.

I was in heaven out there. We had to wear life jackets so unfortunately it was a bit tough to go very deep and stay down to explore but it was cool to just float over the shallow reef and see all the little creatures under me.

The tour brochure said it was supposed to be a 2 hour trip, but for some reason they were calling us to come in after only an hour. I could have swam around out there all day, so I was a bit disappointed to have to come in so soon. We took the van back tot he dive shop and got out of our wetsuits. The guides had underwater cameras they were taking pictures of us with and we paid for a CD with the pictures on it. I was not all that happy with their photo skills, but some of the pictures were pretty good. Their lack of photographing prowess really reinforced my desperate desire for a GoPro camera. I think that will be my next big purchase.

Anyway.. After snorkeling it was getting close to noon, so we started heading back down to Naha to explore the shopping arcade, and find some food. We got some Okinawan noodles and then some coffee. After eating we picked up a few souvenirs and headed to our last sightseeing destination, Manko Park. Manko Park is nothing more than a community park with tennis courts and some benches, but the name Manko is an extremely dirty word in Japanese so Koichi insisted on getting a picture of himself with the sign. Only after completing that last mission were we ready to head to the airport and make our way back home.

Again our plane was delayed by a few minutes, but it was no big deal. We landed around 8 and got back to central Osaka around 9. All the stores around my place close at 9 so we got some ramen before I headed home.

Today I woke up and finished unpacking before cleaning my apartment and doing a bunch of laundry. I decided to get out and walk around Nara park this afternoon. I was hoping to see some leaves starting to change colors. The Autumn leaves in Japan are a huge deal, much like the cherry blossoms in the spring. The leaves were colorful, but they still had about a week or two before they got to the peak season. It was nice to walk around the park though. I went by a few of the temples and just took it easy. Nara park is probably my favorite place I have been in Japan.

I have been to a bunch of other places, but the deer, and the temples make it an easy place to relax. Also it is a big park so it is not too crowded. The deer are in full rut mode right now so the bucks were fighting each other and chasing doe all over the place. They were all bugling to each other too. It was cool to see all of this up close. The white tail in my neighborhood in the US are much more secretive.

After the park I came back and made some dinner. Now I am writing this post, trying to finish up so I can go to bed. This week is still a week without lessons so it shouldn’t be too stressful. I just hope I can get everything done with the two days I took off. Saturday night there is a speech contest for the adult students and Elizabeth and I are expected to give a speech in Japanese, which I will try to record. Sunday I am going to a professional basketball game with one of my older students whose company gets free tickets for sponsoring the team. It should be a fun weekend, but I think I will be missing Okinawa for a while. It was an awesome place and I really want to go back.

Anyway, I hope everyone else had a nice weekend. Thanks again for reading, have a great week.