Where to begin, where to begin?
I guess, it should be stated that I am back at work, in Hokkaido. Normally a statement that would bring about mixed feelings but this time it brings out depression.
Yesterday Christina and I got back from our trip to Okinawa. There are more than a million stories, but one word captivates the Okinawa adventure perfectly:
BEAUTY
I have never seen, nor experienced, such a beautiful place. Which would explain downloading my pictures and finding out that I took over 300 pictures. And after being bombarded by beauty for 9 days, the dead grass and dirty snow of Hokkaido seems BLAH. I know soon that this northern island will once again come alive, grass will appear, trees will grow leaves. But the transition period is just yucky. In comparison of course.
Okay so I am still trying to digest all the events, so bare with me, I have a few tales to tell.
1) the flight over. Leaving early in the morning, and packing all night the night before, I was EXHAUSTED. But somehow we managed to get to our gate, and into the plane. So check, first step complete. Not knowing at all how long the flight was (I have no idea why none of our information had arrival times), we settled in for an long ride. And it turned out to be 3 hours long, and there was no food served, which was sad news for our starving bellies. But the highlight of the plane ride was when the flight attendants started handing out BINGO CARDS!!! And the whole plane played a game of bingo!!!! It was crazy, and tons of fun. Of course no one won, they stopped calling numbers after 25 or so. It is some flight promotion where ONLY the flights going to Okinawa get to play. Strange, but I had no complaints. Ingenious who ever thought of group games for the flight people. I can just imagine how much fun it would be to have more plane group games. Ahh yes, the wheels are turning.
2) We land. First thing I notice, besides the hot sticky air, the airport is FILLED with orchids. They are everywhere. Extremely beautiful.
Moving right along.
3) Naha, where we landed is Okinawa's biggest city. Okinawa is the biggest of the southern islands. It has the most army bases and there was definitely a certain American feel to most things. You couldn't help but see military things if you traveled out of the city. A base here, a military supply store there. But besides that, everything was a deep lush green. There is no train system in Okinawa and in fact Naha is the only city to have a monorail. Lucky for us, the monorail was extremely accommodating. We hopped on, enjoyed the view for 9 minutes, and hopped off at our stop. The youth hostel was only a 5 minute walk from 2 of the stations. Not only that the hostel was close to the main street, and right next to the cities park, river, and ocean. It was great. My running shoes were exchanged for my birkenstocks after we checked into our room, and we went out to explore. It felt like I was in Florida again, and the city seemed so alive in the relaxed, flowing, hot sort of way.
4) First full day there, April 6th, we catch the monorail to the bus station, and take a bus to gyokusendo, a huge Okinawan cultural theme park and home to one of the largest stalagmite caves in the world. The cave itself was 5km long and the stalagmites were AMAZING. You step into the cave entrance, down the long stairway, and into an extremely humid, dripping cave. It was unreal. Truly breath taking. I took a lot of pictures. After the cave, we walked into a fruit orchard, and I tried goya juice, a famous Okinawa cucumber, sadly it tasted awful. A bit like a big glass of wheat grass, but with an extremely bitter after taste. YUCK. But I tried it. Christina had to finish it for me. I also chomped on a bit of sugar cane, that was good. Good koala moment. From there, we were led into gift shops, a beer making factory, a brown sugar factory, and a traditional dance show. I volunteered Christina to go up and learn how to play a wooden hand instrument in front of the crowd. She was totally a good sport and went up there and showed those people how it was done. Good stuff. After the theme park, it was back to Naha.
5) April 7th, we flew to Ishigaki in the morning. An Easter basket surprise, ahhh Easter. I love Easter. Once again to the airport, baggage check, get on, fly, get off, baggage claim. The airport was the size of the airport in High Level. Slightly bigger. But not by much. For those of you who have never flown into the High Level airport, it is small. After talking to the information people I managed to find out there was a bus that would take us to the Ishigaki port where we had to catch a ferry to Iriomote.
http://www.wonder-okinawa.jp/006/english/point/index.html
Has information about the area and some pictures.
Anyway, when we got to the port, the water was an amazing light blue, crystal like, but rich. It was magnificent. The ferry place was easy to find, and we got a later one which ended up giving us some time to walk around. And we did walk around, funny enough, we found an A & W. They are only in Okinawa (in Japan of course), and so I enjoyed a root beer, and an ice cream, and pushed the ice cream with my straw into my cup and had a root beer float. AHHHH soooooo good. After the small fast food excursion, we found Ishigaki market and bought a bunch of bananas and oranges to eat in Iriomote, because the guide I had read prior said that you should bring your own food. With that sentence lingering in my head I wanted to hoard hoard hoard. But Christina told me to relax, that we would find food, and so I didn't stuff my bag full or anything. We walked back to the port and jumped aboard the small ferry that would take us to our jungle destination. The island Iriomote is described as the Japan version of the Galapagos islands, and that sums it up to a tee. It is gorgeous. Lucky for us, the hostel we made reservations at, said that they would pick us up at the port and bring us to the hostel. But when we got off the boat, there was no one. There were locals there picking up boxes of groceries from the main land, and my mind at that time, was thinking, DAMN. We really should have brought more food. But the owner of the hostel, this sparkling grey haired woman full of life, came swerving around the corner in a van and swooped us up and off we went. On the roads of Iriomote, there are no signs, the locals here don't need them. The population, just over 1000. For most people, that is the size of the high school they attended. For us, it was the island. Through the windy roads, with jungle surrounding us, and a spectacular ocean view behind, beside, and sometimes in front of us, we got to the hostel. The hostel itself is a big house, on an immaculate lawn, the only real and really nice green grass lawn I have seen in Japan. To one side pineapple fields, and just past the lawn, an amazing view of the ocean. You can imagine had this been a popular tourist spot, that a beach view like the one that had surrounded us would be worth millions. But for us, it was out little hide away, and a paradise found. We were show to our rooms, and then just left to do what we wanted. A few things, one the feeling surrounded the place was one you would experience on a lazy Sunday with tons of sunshine and a book in hand. The other, was WHAT NOW? I had noticed a sign on the door that said it was possible to rent bicycles, and so that is what we did. Only there for minutes and we were off on our 3 gear bikes with baskets into the jungle. We rode until the road ended, and then ventured on what looked like a deserted path into the jungle. The trees were amazing, the vegetation was lush, and the experience, legendary. There were vines hanging, trees that looked the same as army camouflaged. We walked until we reached a river, then I suggested to go back. Since it was only moments before dusk, and the hungry jungle animals (completely unknown to me), would probably be feeding soon. I didn't want to be dinner. As we were walking back, beside us, in the trees we heard purring. Now, had we not been in the middle of the jungle on an island famous for the Iriomote wild cat, I would have investigated further. After all, purring is a happy sound. As it was, I kept walking straight, making sure not to look behind me. A bit of a scare, but we made it out, and rode our bikes back down the road. We found the ONE restaurant for that town, and by town, I should mention it was more like random houses in the trees, and ate there. It wasn't till later that we had found the actual town. But that comes later. We ate our meal, and rode back home, and then went to sleep in our futons on the tatami mats. Oh, our room was a corner one, and so our view was spectacular, but sleep time now.
6) Ahhh first day in the jungle. Wake up, go downstairs for hostel breakfast. Japanese style and very delicious, a bit of fish, rice, plums, miso soup, side salads, all good things. After that, shower. The shower room, when you opened the window, looked out at the lawn, and on the lawn, there were DUCKS. Really cute ducks, waiting around till they too were fed breakfast. And so as we showered we got to stare out into the lush trees and the cute ducks quacking and waddling around. Oh, the downfall, we were experiencing torrential rains and strong winds. So after showering, we went back up to our room, and hung out for a bit before Christina got too anxious. I mean, after day after day of exploring and walking around till our feet could take no more, it is difficult when you are home bound. So we put on our rain jackets, pants and hiking boots and out we went. The rain had slowed down to a drizzle, but the winds were enough to sail the streets with. And speaking of streets, we went in the opposite way from where we biked, and found a gas station, and more than one building. More than one restaurant, and all things I never thought I would be scared about not seeing. Places that seem like such primitive marks of civilization. I definitely felt ridiculous after I realized my fear and what I had been thinking. And by the afternoon, it didn't matter how many restaurants or gas station this island had. This island had more magic than I have ever experienced.
We had walked about a half an hour when the big rain came. We were DRENCHED by the time we got back. The rain coats had held out, but our non rain pants and hiking boots were soaked. Christina was walking in puddles in her boots, my boots were only wet at the top where my soaking socks were getting them wet from the inside out. Once back, we changed, hung our clothes up in our room, read for a bit, then crazily enough, we went back outside. By this time though, the rain was more like mist. And we walked back, in our running shoes, to the main street of town, and found the most amazing tempura at a little fish shop by the road. We got a whole bag full of fish tempura. The fish name, I still don't know, but it had white meat and it was delicious. We carried our treasure back to the hostel, and with the pineapple that we brought from Naha, we had supper. After the feast, and our newly cut up mouths (from the acid in the pineapple), we went to sleep.
7) April 9th, second full day in the jungle, the weather was cloudy, but looked promising. We had agreed the day before, that regardless of the weather we were going to go on the famous hike to the waterfalls and on the jungle river. And so, again, lucky for us, the hostel people already had a schedule for people who wanted to go on the hike. They would drive us to the starting point, and then pick us up at 1:40pm. Everyone staying at the hostel got dressed in what they thought would be appropriate jungle hike wear, and set off. So there we were 13 people, mostly foreigners, sitting in a 6 seater van, some on the seats, some on the floor. The back of the van could have fit two more sets of seats but they had long since been removed in exchange for a tarp on the floor. The seats on the tarp in the back, were titled, "special seats" by the hostel owner. No one seemed to mind. We all climbed in, and off we were, we drove through town for a while, and got to the entrance. We all hopped out, and went and paid the river boat company to take us to the start of the trail. And so we started our jungle trek. The boat ride was amazing, and I can imagine in blue sky weather that the view would be immaculate. As it was, I was taken back. There were mangroves, sea pineapples, and green green trees. Halfway through the boat ride, it started to rain. Once we got to land again, we followed the path to the first set of water falls. The path itself had a few, and the trees we found were amazing. Some had a base that looked like ribbon, smooth to the touch, hard to believe it was solid. The path was filled with orange rocks that had been smoothed down by rain fall and water, and now looked almost plastic, very odd, but very beautiful. The rain continued to pour and soon my head was dripping, as we trudged on. We found the water falls, walked on them, around them, Christina wanted to play. And so we abandon the group, and because we had wore our bathing suits underneath, she ditched her shoes, socks, and pants, and ventured on the rocks up the water fall. The rocks themselves had pot holes, strange pools and holes in the rocks, and with no real information, that is all I can really say of them. And as I watched Christina wander off in her raincoat, while the group went back onto the trail, I ditched the shoes too, and socks, rolled up my pants, and followed. We played in the water for a while, drinking, laughing, and then went back onto the regular path, got reunited with our footwear and hightailed it back to the start of the trail. Since we had no idea what time the boat came or where the group was, only that our ride back to the hostel was at 1:40pm, we were worried. But a boat came, and we got back in time to meet up with everyone before the van came. And when the van came we asked to be taken to the hoshizuna beach. The one place I was DYING to go to. Why? They said that the sand was shaped like little stars. Being a star lover like I am, that was the selling point. They had failed to say anything else about what we were going to find. But we went, a cloudy day for the beach, drenched in sweat, wet from rain, we went to the beach. She dropped us off, and Christina and I walked down this little path, and the first sight of the beach came into view.
Jaw dropped.
Eyes wide.
GORGEOUS!!!!
Even with the grey skies and the clouds, I have never seen such a beautiful sight. Big coral rocks, and blue blue water. Spectacular really. Breath taking, all the used adjectives for an experience I will never be able to properly describe. It was amazing. Everywhere we walked to, each rock, each hidden beach, was amazing. And I, remembering the description, launched fist first into the sand, looking for the promised stars. And sure enough, when I examined the contents in my hand, there they were, little stars, everywhere. Or course, later we found stores and stores selling sand from there in little bottles. I am afraid that in a few years, the stars may be gone. But for then, they were there. And we managed to buy two little empty bottles, and filled them ourselves. A token really. We played and explored in our shoes and still wet with sweat, until 4pm, when we were picked up again to be taken back to the hostel. This was the last full day on the island, and it was a full one. When we got into the van exhausted I was sure I would go to sleep as soon as I reached my room. But the French women that were also in the van had been talking to the hostel owner when she offered to take us at 7:50pm to see FIREFLIES!!!! I was so excited, I couldn't sleep. I was exhausted, but I wouldn't miss it, couldn't miss it. Around 7pm, I felt the hostel stirring, and went downstairs to see what, if anything, was going on. Seems like the time had been changed and we were going right then and there to see the fireflies. I ran back up to get my bag and tell Christina, and within minutes we were all piled into the van and riding down the road. We drove for a while, seeing the ocean in the moonlight, cool wind through the windows. Exhausted. We stopped, and were given flashlights for the hike up the mountain. It wasn't that long before we saw the first one. A glimmering light flying around. And then a few steps up and the whole jungle was alive. Twinkling, dancing, beautiful. It was magical. One of the guys had one on his hands and it looked like a small flat fly, but it was lit up, black under the flash light. Magical in the moon light. Later I found out, the reason for the rush, is that fireflies only light up for 30 minutes after sun set, for communication purposes, mating really. And walking back to the van, fireflies in my eyes, a smile on my face, Christina noticed a laser beam in the sky. Green, bright. Another strange beacon for 30 minutes after sunset, to indicate latitude and longitude, but for reasons unknown. Times like those, I wish my Japanese was better. But we climbed back into the van and drove back, and then bed, oh sweet bed.
8) April 10th. Last day on the jungle island. Clear blue skies, sunshine. We ate our breakfast, and talked to the hostel people, they said that we could store our luggage at the hostel, they would drive us to the beach in an hour, and then pick us up at 2pm, and after that, drive us to the port to catch our ferry back. It was perfect. Truly kind on their part, considering we were no longer paying guests. We went back to the beach, and the places we walked before were covered in water, obviously this was high tide. But we found a place by the rocks to put our things, and set off exploring. My feet, burning, and being rubbed raw. Oh my tender feet, it was like a torture walking around, but it would have been more of a torture to have missed the things I saw when I did. Eventually I found a good spot to snorkel and found Christina, brought her to it, and it turned out to be a coral reef, right there. Less than 30 steps from the beach. So we snorkeled in our goggles, and there were tons of fish. Christina was in front of me and under her belly and feet were fish, in front of her fish, behind her fish. Blue fish, striped fish, yellow fish, rainbow fish, under that, a coral reef. Magical. You could not believe how amazing the cool water felt and the beauty before us. We swam until my lips were blue, and I went to the beach to warm and dry in the sun. Christina kept exploring, and soon it was 2pm, time for our ride back. My feet were hurting so bad I could barely walk, and later I found out that my shoulder, butt, and arms were badly sunburned, despite all the sunscreen I had put on that morning. So the ride on the ferry, with the bags, was painful. When we got to Ishigaki we discovered that right then, that very weekend they were having the world cup triathlon. Tons of people, from all walks of life, were there. Every language possible was being spoken in the streets, and Christina and I found a bench to eat our convenient store lunch and watch the passerbyers, which were mostly the athletes. Because of the heat and the pain of sunburn we caught a cab to the airport, over an hour early for our flight, but luckily enough there was lots of room on an earlier flight. And so we got seats, and went through security, only to find that that flight was boarding, RIGHT THEN! We jumped on the bus that took us to the plane, and within 10 minutes we were flying back to Naha. After landing we went through the motions and got back to our first hostel. Had cold showers and, after stealing a branch of aloe from a plant outside, Christina dosed my burned parts with soothing aloe. Ahhh, such a great plant. My thanks to aloe. After that we went and ate at a tree house restaurant a half a block away. I had spotted it before I had seen the hostel on the first day, a huge tree in the sky with a building at the top. It was a Chinese food restaurant with Okinawa cuisine as well. We ate our meal, then called it a night.
9) April 11th, Easter Sunday. My friend Sachiyo, whom I met a year ago in Kimobetsu, is from and is back living in Okinawa. In Gushikawa city, about an hour an half drive north of Naha. She and I had been exchanging cell phone emails and today was the day we would meet up. Not knowing what was planned, we got up, had breakfast, had a cold shower, aloed, dressed, and waited for 11am, when Sachiyo was to meet us at the hostel. We waited in our room, reading, when we got a phone call saying we had to leave our room because they were going to clean it. So we went out to the hostel deck and waited outside. Eventually we went down and found Sachiyo there, it was great to see her after a year. So bright and cheerful. Okinawans are the best. She took us to Shurijo castle, and we explored the remains of a long fallen kingdom. The kingdom of Ryukyu, not Japanese. In fact, their ties were mostly to China, it wasn't till much later that Okinawa became a part of Japan. The art was very Chinese looking, and in fact, the dragons in the framework of the castle only had 4 claws because the Chinese ruler at the time had 5 on his castle and so out of respect, the king put one less on his. The castle was extremely interesting, and afterwards (still painfully walking around in 25C heat), we went to the grave of the royal family, a large solemn looking stone building. There is something about that building that brings out a sense of sadness and loss. And that day there were families outside having a picnic, and I found out from Sachiyo that it was the ancestors of that family that were there. And that for that week (once a year) Okinawas would be going to their ancestors graves to pray, give offerings, and then eat lunch right there. A shared meal with their deceased relatives. Nice how the dead are honored on such a regular occasion. After that, it was around 2pm, Christina and I hadn't eaten since our breakfast at 7:30am, and the sun was getting more intense. We drove from Naha to Okinawa city, to Gushikawa city, and at a beach rest stop, we had Okinawa soba. I was looking forward to cold clean noodles on such a hot day, but it ended up being a hot bowl. But the noodles themselves were DELICIOUS. Japanese soba is made from buckwheat flour and these ones were made from regular wheat and were white in colour instead of brown. They were amazing. After our lunch/supper at 3:30pm, we drove to this picture postcard perfect beach. It was gorgeous. Of course by that time, my feet were swollen and hurting, my shoulders were on fire, and my head was going to explode, so I didn't feel like walking around. We drove to Chatan town instead, a place where the young people hang out. It was the sort of beach front mall you would expect to see in North America, equipped with lots of foreigners. There was a Ferris wheel there and we ended up riding that for 15 minutes. The sun was setting a gorgeous orange, and it was nice to relax for a bit. We walked around some more, and ended up talking Sachiyo into taking us back to the hostel, but not before she bought us cakes to take back with us. After we parted and pictures were taken, it was 8:30pm. That is one long day of sight seeing and driving around. We had seen pretty much all of central Okinawa in those hours. Back in our room we ate the cakes, had cold cold showers, and after being aloed, fell fast a sleep.
10) April 12th, last full day in Naha. My feet were way too sore, sunburned, and hurt to consider going to the beach again. Although we did plan another beach adventure for that day. Nope, a slow day walking the main street of kokusai street. Dead tired, and seeking cool places we decided to go see a movie. We searched for a movie theatre but then gave up and jumped into a taxi and went off to New Town. A big movie theatre and shopping mall. We ended up seeing Lord of the rings, the return of the king, which was AMAZING. Such a great movie. And the trailer for the new Harry Potter movie before it began got me truly excited. Really can't wait to see that movie. Christina, not having seen the first or second Lord of the rings, was a bit hesitant about seeing it, for good reason, but wanted to go, if not to see the movie, at least to be inside where there was shade. We were both fading fast. After the movie we found a gocery store in the mall, and I bought two big cans of mushroom soup. The only time I have seen it in Japan, and these cans are HUGE. Hopefully that will last me for a little while. Hunger was calling, and so we went for another bowl of Okinawa soba, the noodle delight. And Christina tried goyachan, a dish made from the Okinawa cucumber, egg, tofu, and meat. It was pretty good, all in all. Then back for our last night in Naha. We wanted to go out, we thought we should go celebrate our last night there, but our bodies wanted to sleep. We had cold showers, I got the aloe treatment, and we read on the deck before falling a sleep.
11) April 13th, last day. Sachiyo had emailed me again, asking to meet one more time before we left. She got a small break from work (she is a dental hygienist), and so drove the hour and a half to pick us up for lunch. For us, we had to be out of the hostel by 9am, and not wanting to walk (mostly out of pain, some out of heat), we made it to a set of stairs, and proceeded to entertain ourselves through hat shows, acting games, eating ice cream, and playing cards with a Japanese lady around our age who was wondering what we were doing (we were flicking cards into my hat seeing who could get the most in). A good game, and we laughed and played for the 2 hours. Then Sachiyo came and we went for yet again, another bowl of Okinawa soba. But considering you can only eat it there, I wanted to get my fill. We tried that, and some sea vegetable, but one small dish that Sachiyo ordered I didn't like. It was curly something in peanut sauce, but I tried it, didn't like it, and she told me later that it was pig's ear!!!! BARF! The specialty of Okinawa is pig, in all it's form, and pig's ear and feet are a specialty. Yuck, yuck, yuck. But we ate lunch, and then she drove us to the airport, early, but she had to get back to work, and we figured, what else are we going to do? So we hung around the airport for a while, and eventually got on the plane to get back. The parking company where I parked my car was there to pick us up and bring us to the parking place. Such a good system, and I paid my $33 for a weeks worth of parking. A good deal to be sure. Into the car and back home. Lydia had agreed to look after the place while we were away and a tired mistake on the note we left her said we would be back on the 15th, so there she was, stuff everywhere. So she stayed the night, and is probably still packing up her things as I write this.
Cause here I am, at work. Just finished my school lunch, my stomach is still battling with it. And now I am off to plan a lesson for my brand new first grader eikaiwa. Having never met any of them before, I am kind of excited, a little worried. Specially after not doing an eikaiwa for 2 weeks now, I am a little rusty. But the real world has to kick in some time. And money has to be made.
Thanks to those who sent me Easter packages, I love you all, you totally brightened my days. Mom, I didn't see any sea turtles, but I am sure if I was brave enough to venture into the deeper waters I would have. Dad, you would have loved the food and castle, and Geoff, you got to see this place!
Well this was the trip. Although there are many other tales and stories, emotions felt, things seen, but that would take way to long. I would suggest seeing this place for yourself, but don't spread the word, this little piece of paradise is perfect the way it is.
Hugs and love to you all.
I guess, it should be stated that I am back at work, in Hokkaido. Normally a statement that would bring about mixed feelings but this time it brings out depression.
Yesterday Christina and I got back from our trip to Okinawa. There are more than a million stories, but one word captivates the Okinawa adventure perfectly:
BEAUTY
I have never seen, nor experienced, such a beautiful place. Which would explain downloading my pictures and finding out that I took over 300 pictures. And after being bombarded by beauty for 9 days, the dead grass and dirty snow of Hokkaido seems BLAH. I know soon that this northern island will once again come alive, grass will appear, trees will grow leaves. But the transition period is just yucky. In comparison of course.
Okay so I am still trying to digest all the events, so bare with me, I have a few tales to tell.
1) the flight over. Leaving early in the morning, and packing all night the night before, I was EXHAUSTED. But somehow we managed to get to our gate, and into the plane. So check, first step complete. Not knowing at all how long the flight was (I have no idea why none of our information had arrival times), we settled in for an long ride. And it turned out to be 3 hours long, and there was no food served, which was sad news for our starving bellies. But the highlight of the plane ride was when the flight attendants started handing out BINGO CARDS!!! And the whole plane played a game of bingo!!!! It was crazy, and tons of fun. Of course no one won, they stopped calling numbers after 25 or so. It is some flight promotion where ONLY the flights going to Okinawa get to play. Strange, but I had no complaints. Ingenious who ever thought of group games for the flight people. I can just imagine how much fun it would be to have more plane group games. Ahh yes, the wheels are turning.
2) We land. First thing I notice, besides the hot sticky air, the airport is FILLED with orchids. They are everywhere. Extremely beautiful.
Moving right along.
3) Naha, where we landed is Okinawa's biggest city. Okinawa is the biggest of the southern islands. It has the most army bases and there was definitely a certain American feel to most things. You couldn't help but see military things if you traveled out of the city. A base here, a military supply store there. But besides that, everything was a deep lush green. There is no train system in Okinawa and in fact Naha is the only city to have a monorail. Lucky for us, the monorail was extremely accommodating. We hopped on, enjoyed the view for 9 minutes, and hopped off at our stop. The youth hostel was only a 5 minute walk from 2 of the stations. Not only that the hostel was close to the main street, and right next to the cities park, river, and ocean. It was great. My running shoes were exchanged for my birkenstocks after we checked into our room, and we went out to explore. It felt like I was in Florida again, and the city seemed so alive in the relaxed, flowing, hot sort of way.
4) First full day there, April 6th, we catch the monorail to the bus station, and take a bus to gyokusendo, a huge Okinawan cultural theme park and home to one of the largest stalagmite caves in the world. The cave itself was 5km long and the stalagmites were AMAZING. You step into the cave entrance, down the long stairway, and into an extremely humid, dripping cave. It was unreal. Truly breath taking. I took a lot of pictures. After the cave, we walked into a fruit orchard, and I tried goya juice, a famous Okinawa cucumber, sadly it tasted awful. A bit like a big glass of wheat grass, but with an extremely bitter after taste. YUCK. But I tried it. Christina had to finish it for me. I also chomped on a bit of sugar cane, that was good. Good koala moment. From there, we were led into gift shops, a beer making factory, a brown sugar factory, and a traditional dance show. I volunteered Christina to go up and learn how to play a wooden hand instrument in front of the crowd. She was totally a good sport and went up there and showed those people how it was done. Good stuff. After the theme park, it was back to Naha.
5) April 7th, we flew to Ishigaki in the morning. An Easter basket surprise, ahhh Easter. I love Easter. Once again to the airport, baggage check, get on, fly, get off, baggage claim. The airport was the size of the airport in High Level. Slightly bigger. But not by much. For those of you who have never flown into the High Level airport, it is small. After talking to the information people I managed to find out there was a bus that would take us to the Ishigaki port where we had to catch a ferry to Iriomote.
http://www.wonder-okinawa.jp/006/english/point/index.html
Has information about the area and some pictures.
Anyway, when we got to the port, the water was an amazing light blue, crystal like, but rich. It was magnificent. The ferry place was easy to find, and we got a later one which ended up giving us some time to walk around. And we did walk around, funny enough, we found an A & W. They are only in Okinawa (in Japan of course), and so I enjoyed a root beer, and an ice cream, and pushed the ice cream with my straw into my cup and had a root beer float. AHHHH soooooo good. After the small fast food excursion, we found Ishigaki market and bought a bunch of bananas and oranges to eat in Iriomote, because the guide I had read prior said that you should bring your own food. With that sentence lingering in my head I wanted to hoard hoard hoard. But Christina told me to relax, that we would find food, and so I didn't stuff my bag full or anything. We walked back to the port and jumped aboard the small ferry that would take us to our jungle destination. The island Iriomote is described as the Japan version of the Galapagos islands, and that sums it up to a tee. It is gorgeous. Lucky for us, the hostel we made reservations at, said that they would pick us up at the port and bring us to the hostel. But when we got off the boat, there was no one. There were locals there picking up boxes of groceries from the main land, and my mind at that time, was thinking, DAMN. We really should have brought more food. But the owner of the hostel, this sparkling grey haired woman full of life, came swerving around the corner in a van and swooped us up and off we went. On the roads of Iriomote, there are no signs, the locals here don't need them. The population, just over 1000. For most people, that is the size of the high school they attended. For us, it was the island. Through the windy roads, with jungle surrounding us, and a spectacular ocean view behind, beside, and sometimes in front of us, we got to the hostel. The hostel itself is a big house, on an immaculate lawn, the only real and really nice green grass lawn I have seen in Japan. To one side pineapple fields, and just past the lawn, an amazing view of the ocean. You can imagine had this been a popular tourist spot, that a beach view like the one that had surrounded us would be worth millions. But for us, it was out little hide away, and a paradise found. We were show to our rooms, and then just left to do what we wanted. A few things, one the feeling surrounded the place was one you would experience on a lazy Sunday with tons of sunshine and a book in hand. The other, was WHAT NOW? I had noticed a sign on the door that said it was possible to rent bicycles, and so that is what we did. Only there for minutes and we were off on our 3 gear bikes with baskets into the jungle. We rode until the road ended, and then ventured on what looked like a deserted path into the jungle. The trees were amazing, the vegetation was lush, and the experience, legendary. There were vines hanging, trees that looked the same as army camouflaged. We walked until we reached a river, then I suggested to go back. Since it was only moments before dusk, and the hungry jungle animals (completely unknown to me), would probably be feeding soon. I didn't want to be dinner. As we were walking back, beside us, in the trees we heard purring. Now, had we not been in the middle of the jungle on an island famous for the Iriomote wild cat, I would have investigated further. After all, purring is a happy sound. As it was, I kept walking straight, making sure not to look behind me. A bit of a scare, but we made it out, and rode our bikes back down the road. We found the ONE restaurant for that town, and by town, I should mention it was more like random houses in the trees, and ate there. It wasn't till later that we had found the actual town. But that comes later. We ate our meal, and rode back home, and then went to sleep in our futons on the tatami mats. Oh, our room was a corner one, and so our view was spectacular, but sleep time now.
6) Ahhh first day in the jungle. Wake up, go downstairs for hostel breakfast. Japanese style and very delicious, a bit of fish, rice, plums, miso soup, side salads, all good things. After that, shower. The shower room, when you opened the window, looked out at the lawn, and on the lawn, there were DUCKS. Really cute ducks, waiting around till they too were fed breakfast. And so as we showered we got to stare out into the lush trees and the cute ducks quacking and waddling around. Oh, the downfall, we were experiencing torrential rains and strong winds. So after showering, we went back up to our room, and hung out for a bit before Christina got too anxious. I mean, after day after day of exploring and walking around till our feet could take no more, it is difficult when you are home bound. So we put on our rain jackets, pants and hiking boots and out we went. The rain had slowed down to a drizzle, but the winds were enough to sail the streets with. And speaking of streets, we went in the opposite way from where we biked, and found a gas station, and more than one building. More than one restaurant, and all things I never thought I would be scared about not seeing. Places that seem like such primitive marks of civilization. I definitely felt ridiculous after I realized my fear and what I had been thinking. And by the afternoon, it didn't matter how many restaurants or gas station this island had. This island had more magic than I have ever experienced.
We had walked about a half an hour when the big rain came. We were DRENCHED by the time we got back. The rain coats had held out, but our non rain pants and hiking boots were soaked. Christina was walking in puddles in her boots, my boots were only wet at the top where my soaking socks were getting them wet from the inside out. Once back, we changed, hung our clothes up in our room, read for a bit, then crazily enough, we went back outside. By this time though, the rain was more like mist. And we walked back, in our running shoes, to the main street of town, and found the most amazing tempura at a little fish shop by the road. We got a whole bag full of fish tempura. The fish name, I still don't know, but it had white meat and it was delicious. We carried our treasure back to the hostel, and with the pineapple that we brought from Naha, we had supper. After the feast, and our newly cut up mouths (from the acid in the pineapple), we went to sleep.
7) April 9th, second full day in the jungle, the weather was cloudy, but looked promising. We had agreed the day before, that regardless of the weather we were going to go on the famous hike to the waterfalls and on the jungle river. And so, again, lucky for us, the hostel people already had a schedule for people who wanted to go on the hike. They would drive us to the starting point, and then pick us up at 1:40pm. Everyone staying at the hostel got dressed in what they thought would be appropriate jungle hike wear, and set off. So there we were 13 people, mostly foreigners, sitting in a 6 seater van, some on the seats, some on the floor. The back of the van could have fit two more sets of seats but they had long since been removed in exchange for a tarp on the floor. The seats on the tarp in the back, were titled, "special seats" by the hostel owner. No one seemed to mind. We all climbed in, and off we were, we drove through town for a while, and got to the entrance. We all hopped out, and went and paid the river boat company to take us to the start of the trail. And so we started our jungle trek. The boat ride was amazing, and I can imagine in blue sky weather that the view would be immaculate. As it was, I was taken back. There were mangroves, sea pineapples, and green green trees. Halfway through the boat ride, it started to rain. Once we got to land again, we followed the path to the first set of water falls. The path itself had a few, and the trees we found were amazing. Some had a base that looked like ribbon, smooth to the touch, hard to believe it was solid. The path was filled with orange rocks that had been smoothed down by rain fall and water, and now looked almost plastic, very odd, but very beautiful. The rain continued to pour and soon my head was dripping, as we trudged on. We found the water falls, walked on them, around them, Christina wanted to play. And so we abandon the group, and because we had wore our bathing suits underneath, she ditched her shoes, socks, and pants, and ventured on the rocks up the water fall. The rocks themselves had pot holes, strange pools and holes in the rocks, and with no real information, that is all I can really say of them. And as I watched Christina wander off in her raincoat, while the group went back onto the trail, I ditched the shoes too, and socks, rolled up my pants, and followed. We played in the water for a while, drinking, laughing, and then went back onto the regular path, got reunited with our footwear and hightailed it back to the start of the trail. Since we had no idea what time the boat came or where the group was, only that our ride back to the hostel was at 1:40pm, we were worried. But a boat came, and we got back in time to meet up with everyone before the van came. And when the van came we asked to be taken to the hoshizuna beach. The one place I was DYING to go to. Why? They said that the sand was shaped like little stars. Being a star lover like I am, that was the selling point. They had failed to say anything else about what we were going to find. But we went, a cloudy day for the beach, drenched in sweat, wet from rain, we went to the beach. She dropped us off, and Christina and I walked down this little path, and the first sight of the beach came into view.
Jaw dropped.
Eyes wide.
GORGEOUS!!!!
Even with the grey skies and the clouds, I have never seen such a beautiful sight. Big coral rocks, and blue blue water. Spectacular really. Breath taking, all the used adjectives for an experience I will never be able to properly describe. It was amazing. Everywhere we walked to, each rock, each hidden beach, was amazing. And I, remembering the description, launched fist first into the sand, looking for the promised stars. And sure enough, when I examined the contents in my hand, there they were, little stars, everywhere. Or course, later we found stores and stores selling sand from there in little bottles. I am afraid that in a few years, the stars may be gone. But for then, they were there. And we managed to buy two little empty bottles, and filled them ourselves. A token really. We played and explored in our shoes and still wet with sweat, until 4pm, when we were picked up again to be taken back to the hostel. This was the last full day on the island, and it was a full one. When we got into the van exhausted I was sure I would go to sleep as soon as I reached my room. But the French women that were also in the van had been talking to the hostel owner when she offered to take us at 7:50pm to see FIREFLIES!!!! I was so excited, I couldn't sleep. I was exhausted, but I wouldn't miss it, couldn't miss it. Around 7pm, I felt the hostel stirring, and went downstairs to see what, if anything, was going on. Seems like the time had been changed and we were going right then and there to see the fireflies. I ran back up to get my bag and tell Christina, and within minutes we were all piled into the van and riding down the road. We drove for a while, seeing the ocean in the moonlight, cool wind through the windows. Exhausted. We stopped, and were given flashlights for the hike up the mountain. It wasn't that long before we saw the first one. A glimmering light flying around. And then a few steps up and the whole jungle was alive. Twinkling, dancing, beautiful. It was magical. One of the guys had one on his hands and it looked like a small flat fly, but it was lit up, black under the flash light. Magical in the moon light. Later I found out, the reason for the rush, is that fireflies only light up for 30 minutes after sun set, for communication purposes, mating really. And walking back to the van, fireflies in my eyes, a smile on my face, Christina noticed a laser beam in the sky. Green, bright. Another strange beacon for 30 minutes after sunset, to indicate latitude and longitude, but for reasons unknown. Times like those, I wish my Japanese was better. But we climbed back into the van and drove back, and then bed, oh sweet bed.
8) April 10th. Last day on the jungle island. Clear blue skies, sunshine. We ate our breakfast, and talked to the hostel people, they said that we could store our luggage at the hostel, they would drive us to the beach in an hour, and then pick us up at 2pm, and after that, drive us to the port to catch our ferry back. It was perfect. Truly kind on their part, considering we were no longer paying guests. We went back to the beach, and the places we walked before were covered in water, obviously this was high tide. But we found a place by the rocks to put our things, and set off exploring. My feet, burning, and being rubbed raw. Oh my tender feet, it was like a torture walking around, but it would have been more of a torture to have missed the things I saw when I did. Eventually I found a good spot to snorkel and found Christina, brought her to it, and it turned out to be a coral reef, right there. Less than 30 steps from the beach. So we snorkeled in our goggles, and there were tons of fish. Christina was in front of me and under her belly and feet were fish, in front of her fish, behind her fish. Blue fish, striped fish, yellow fish, rainbow fish, under that, a coral reef. Magical. You could not believe how amazing the cool water felt and the beauty before us. We swam until my lips were blue, and I went to the beach to warm and dry in the sun. Christina kept exploring, and soon it was 2pm, time for our ride back. My feet were hurting so bad I could barely walk, and later I found out that my shoulder, butt, and arms were badly sunburned, despite all the sunscreen I had put on that morning. So the ride on the ferry, with the bags, was painful. When we got to Ishigaki we discovered that right then, that very weekend they were having the world cup triathlon. Tons of people, from all walks of life, were there. Every language possible was being spoken in the streets, and Christina and I found a bench to eat our convenient store lunch and watch the passerbyers, which were mostly the athletes. Because of the heat and the pain of sunburn we caught a cab to the airport, over an hour early for our flight, but luckily enough there was lots of room on an earlier flight. And so we got seats, and went through security, only to find that that flight was boarding, RIGHT THEN! We jumped on the bus that took us to the plane, and within 10 minutes we were flying back to Naha. After landing we went through the motions and got back to our first hostel. Had cold showers and, after stealing a branch of aloe from a plant outside, Christina dosed my burned parts with soothing aloe. Ahhh, such a great plant. My thanks to aloe. After that we went and ate at a tree house restaurant a half a block away. I had spotted it before I had seen the hostel on the first day, a huge tree in the sky with a building at the top. It was a Chinese food restaurant with Okinawa cuisine as well. We ate our meal, then called it a night.
9) April 11th, Easter Sunday. My friend Sachiyo, whom I met a year ago in Kimobetsu, is from and is back living in Okinawa. In Gushikawa city, about an hour an half drive north of Naha. She and I had been exchanging cell phone emails and today was the day we would meet up. Not knowing what was planned, we got up, had breakfast, had a cold shower, aloed, dressed, and waited for 11am, when Sachiyo was to meet us at the hostel. We waited in our room, reading, when we got a phone call saying we had to leave our room because they were going to clean it. So we went out to the hostel deck and waited outside. Eventually we went down and found Sachiyo there, it was great to see her after a year. So bright and cheerful. Okinawans are the best. She took us to Shurijo castle, and we explored the remains of a long fallen kingdom. The kingdom of Ryukyu, not Japanese. In fact, their ties were mostly to China, it wasn't till much later that Okinawa became a part of Japan. The art was very Chinese looking, and in fact, the dragons in the framework of the castle only had 4 claws because the Chinese ruler at the time had 5 on his castle and so out of respect, the king put one less on his. The castle was extremely interesting, and afterwards (still painfully walking around in 25C heat), we went to the grave of the royal family, a large solemn looking stone building. There is something about that building that brings out a sense of sadness and loss. And that day there were families outside having a picnic, and I found out from Sachiyo that it was the ancestors of that family that were there. And that for that week (once a year) Okinawas would be going to their ancestors graves to pray, give offerings, and then eat lunch right there. A shared meal with their deceased relatives. Nice how the dead are honored on such a regular occasion. After that, it was around 2pm, Christina and I hadn't eaten since our breakfast at 7:30am, and the sun was getting more intense. We drove from Naha to Okinawa city, to Gushikawa city, and at a beach rest stop, we had Okinawa soba. I was looking forward to cold clean noodles on such a hot day, but it ended up being a hot bowl. But the noodles themselves were DELICIOUS. Japanese soba is made from buckwheat flour and these ones were made from regular wheat and were white in colour instead of brown. They were amazing. After our lunch/supper at 3:30pm, we drove to this picture postcard perfect beach. It was gorgeous. Of course by that time, my feet were swollen and hurting, my shoulders were on fire, and my head was going to explode, so I didn't feel like walking around. We drove to Chatan town instead, a place where the young people hang out. It was the sort of beach front mall you would expect to see in North America, equipped with lots of foreigners. There was a Ferris wheel there and we ended up riding that for 15 minutes. The sun was setting a gorgeous orange, and it was nice to relax for a bit. We walked around some more, and ended up talking Sachiyo into taking us back to the hostel, but not before she bought us cakes to take back with us. After we parted and pictures were taken, it was 8:30pm. That is one long day of sight seeing and driving around. We had seen pretty much all of central Okinawa in those hours. Back in our room we ate the cakes, had cold cold showers, and after being aloed, fell fast a sleep.
10) April 12th, last full day in Naha. My feet were way too sore, sunburned, and hurt to consider going to the beach again. Although we did plan another beach adventure for that day. Nope, a slow day walking the main street of kokusai street. Dead tired, and seeking cool places we decided to go see a movie. We searched for a movie theatre but then gave up and jumped into a taxi and went off to New Town. A big movie theatre and shopping mall. We ended up seeing Lord of the rings, the return of the king, which was AMAZING. Such a great movie. And the trailer for the new Harry Potter movie before it began got me truly excited. Really can't wait to see that movie. Christina, not having seen the first or second Lord of the rings, was a bit hesitant about seeing it, for good reason, but wanted to go, if not to see the movie, at least to be inside where there was shade. We were both fading fast. After the movie we found a gocery store in the mall, and I bought two big cans of mushroom soup. The only time I have seen it in Japan, and these cans are HUGE. Hopefully that will last me for a little while. Hunger was calling, and so we went for another bowl of Okinawa soba, the noodle delight. And Christina tried goyachan, a dish made from the Okinawa cucumber, egg, tofu, and meat. It was pretty good, all in all. Then back for our last night in Naha. We wanted to go out, we thought we should go celebrate our last night there, but our bodies wanted to sleep. We had cold showers, I got the aloe treatment, and we read on the deck before falling a sleep.
11) April 13th, last day. Sachiyo had emailed me again, asking to meet one more time before we left. She got a small break from work (she is a dental hygienist), and so drove the hour and a half to pick us up for lunch. For us, we had to be out of the hostel by 9am, and not wanting to walk (mostly out of pain, some out of heat), we made it to a set of stairs, and proceeded to entertain ourselves through hat shows, acting games, eating ice cream, and playing cards with a Japanese lady around our age who was wondering what we were doing (we were flicking cards into my hat seeing who could get the most in). A good game, and we laughed and played for the 2 hours. Then Sachiyo came and we went for yet again, another bowl of Okinawa soba. But considering you can only eat it there, I wanted to get my fill. We tried that, and some sea vegetable, but one small dish that Sachiyo ordered I didn't like. It was curly something in peanut sauce, but I tried it, didn't like it, and she told me later that it was pig's ear!!!! BARF! The specialty of Okinawa is pig, in all it's form, and pig's ear and feet are a specialty. Yuck, yuck, yuck. But we ate lunch, and then she drove us to the airport, early, but she had to get back to work, and we figured, what else are we going to do? So we hung around the airport for a while, and eventually got on the plane to get back. The parking company where I parked my car was there to pick us up and bring us to the parking place. Such a good system, and I paid my $33 for a weeks worth of parking. A good deal to be sure. Into the car and back home. Lydia had agreed to look after the place while we were away and a tired mistake on the note we left her said we would be back on the 15th, so there she was, stuff everywhere. So she stayed the night, and is probably still packing up her things as I write this.
Cause here I am, at work. Just finished my school lunch, my stomach is still battling with it. And now I am off to plan a lesson for my brand new first grader eikaiwa. Having never met any of them before, I am kind of excited, a little worried. Specially after not doing an eikaiwa for 2 weeks now, I am a little rusty. But the real world has to kick in some time. And money has to be made.
Thanks to those who sent me Easter packages, I love you all, you totally brightened my days. Mom, I didn't see any sea turtles, but I am sure if I was brave enough to venture into the deeper waters I would have. Dad, you would have loved the food and castle, and Geoff, you got to see this place!
Well this was the trip. Although there are many other tales and stories, emotions felt, things seen, but that would take way to long. I would suggest seeing this place for yourself, but don't spread the word, this little piece of paradise is perfect the way it is.
Hugs and love to you all.
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