Playing the Tourist
This has been a beautiful week in Okinawa. No rain and plenty of sunshine. John took Monday off to take me around and cruise some of the tourist spots. We first went and grabbed lunch at a fried rice place. I have never just had fried rice for a meal and it was amazing. It comes with a raw egg on top and a little bowl of onion soup. It’s very flavorful and actually kind of filling. Our first tourist stop was at Shurijo Castle. It is in Naha and has been around since the 1300s although it has been rebuilt since it was destroyed in World War II. It’s definitely the biggest of all the castles I’ve been to and also the only complete one with a museum inside to see what it was like to live there as the king or queen.
There is a big courtyard in front of the main palace that has rows of colored tiles where dignitaries sat on the stone based on their rank with a large pathway in the middle for the king and royal guests. It reminded me of the Jet Li movie Hero. Inside they had completely rebuilt the halls and rooms where it looked brand new. The ceilings were kind of low so there was a lot of crouching from me even though I'm not that tall. There was a peaceful little spot where you could sit on the outside pathway with your legs dangling and enjoy a little garden with a slight breeze. The one interesting thing was it was kind of dark in the throne rooms for both the queen and king. It seemed there were not windows and the walls and floors were all painted black or dark red. It’s always fun to imagine what it was like four or five hundred years ago in these buildings and how people actually lived and what their stories were. Especially since these are the types of buildings you see in video games.
We then drove to the city center to drive down the main street (Kokusai) which reminded me of the strip in Waikiki. Just a lot of shops and restaurants and tons of people. Very touristy. Very crowded. Way too much traffic. We had dinner was at one of the new malls on island. It’s a big AEON shopping mall that’s very open and I’m sure is great for events like shows or dances. The food court was on two floors and there were way too many options. We ended up doing this sliced roast beef on rice dish. It came with a dollop of horseradish yoghurt. It was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be.
Eunice took the day off on Wednesday and we had a very busy day. We went to one of the prettiest spots I’ve ever been to. Cape Maeda is surrounded by rocky cliffs with crystal clear water perfect for diving. There are beaches off in the distance and lots of green covering the rocks. Unfortunately, there isn’t a place to rent gear so we just walked around. I still can’t believe how hot and sweaty you get in just a couple of minutes here.
Ryukyu Mura was our next stop and it was very similar to the Polynesian Cultural Center and other similar places with a wide variety of ways to view traditional Okinawan life and even some opportunities to interact if you pay a little extra. You can see habu snakes, watch dances, build pottery, learn to play an instrument and feed fish. It might have been a little pricier than it needed to be at ¥1200. And it was extremely hot again so we tried to find shade as often as possible. This nice young lady was handing out towelettes dipped in ice which felt amazing. Then I had a shave ice which also was amazingly refreshing. I was confused how to purchase it at first and found out you pay into a vending machine type thing and then hand over a ticket to the people running the counter. Otherwise you’ll sit there for hours apparently.
We found a nice beach to go to. Zanpa beach was not too big but had a swimming area and wasn’t very crowded. We were going to rent beach chairs and an umbrella to escape the heat. But after we found out it was ¥3500 we decided to just lay on our towels and suffer under the sun. The water was a perfect temperature though and it was amazing just floating in the water. The sand was a little more rocky than I like, but don’t want to complain after the relief it provided. I decided to not put on sunscreen because we were only going to be out there for an hour. That was a mistake as my poor white skin definitely got cooked. We had a nice chat about life while we just relaxed in the ocean and then grabbed lunch at a Hawaiian style place.
Our final stop was at one more castle. Nakagusuku Castle is just some ruins with only the stone walls, open fields, and a prayer area left. It’s a large complex and it was nice walking bare foot through the grass. It was set up to be three squares in a row each as a different enclosure. The views of the surrounding countryside and ocean were quite spectacular. There was even a pretty red Buddhist temple off in the distance. Unfortunately the heat was really starting to get to us so we didn’t dawdle too long. We were sufficiently tired, hot, and definitely sunburned so we headed home. I didn’t realize how bad I was until I got home and saw I had turned completely red in the face.
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