Mensōre - Welcome to Okinawa
Life as a JET participant has some serious advantages, including generous vacation time. So as the spring of my last year approached, I knew I wanted to take advantage of it and travel somewhere awesome, but had to do so on a budget. During the same time last year, I went to South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines and seriously loved every moment. Unfortunately, international travel can be a little expensive. Thus, I opted to stay in Japan this year but still go somewhere I've always wanted to go. Welcome to Okinawa!
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| Arriving at Naha Airport, "Welcome to Okinawa" in the local dialect |
Along with my friend Patrick, we managed to get all round trip travel costs from Aomori to Okinawa for about $240. For accommodations, we stayed a variety of places to spread those costs out to about $160 for 5 nights (each). Not bad, right?
We arrived in Naha City, Okinawa, on an awfully dreary, rainy evening. Patrick's nerves were tested during the bumpy landing, but we made it just the same and the weather didn't matter at that point anyway. Yet after taking a 9-hour night bus from Aomori to Tokyo, and then flying to Naha City through turbulent skies, we had to take another long 2-hour bus ride to Motobu in the north. We planned it this way so we could start the next day with ease instead of wasting time traveling in the morning.
Churaumi Aquarium and Ocean Expo Park
A must-see destination in Okinawa is Churaumi Aquarium (沖縄美ら海水族館), part of the Ocean Expo Park located in Motobu. We had stayed the night the nearest hotel in the area so getting there was nice and convenient in the morning. I woke up before Pat and briefly explored a Emerald Beach, part of the Ocean Park grounds. A bit later we met up and strolled over to the aquarium shortly after it opened.
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| Standing outside of Churaumi Aquarium |
Upon entering the aquarium, I was immediately impressed by the huge variation of sizes, colors, and shapes of sea life presented. It boasts a huge array of tropical fish, sharks, deep sea life, and coral. For me, it was the first time to see many of the fish and sea creatures present so I really enjoyed watching them.
The main attraction at the aquarium is called the Kuroshio Sea, an enormous tank featuring large whale sharks, manta rays, and other large fish. It's one of the only aquariums in the world capable of holding whale sharks in captivity, and the incredibly large glass panel that let's visitors get such spectacular views is also one-of-a-kind. The size of the tank is a staggering 35 meters (115 ft) long, 27 meters (89 ft) wide and 10 meters (33 ft) deep. Also, it holds 7,500 cubic meters (nearly 2 million gallons) of water.
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| The Kuroshio Sea tank is stunningly beautiful |
We spent a lot of time at the aquarium. The layout and viewing spaces around the main tank are very well thought-out; there's even has a a nice seating area where you can relax and watch all the fish and whale sharks for awhile. One of my personal favorite things we did there was eat lunch at a cafe right next to the tank.
As evening came, we checked into the next hotel and then walked to a restaurant nearby. We got our first taste of Okinawan food (kind of); I ate a taco rice dish and Patrick had Okinawa soba (Japanese noodles). It was good, but truthfully we saved our Okinawan food experiences for the second half of our trip when we were in Naha City, so I'll come back to that later.
The hotel was actually a condominium building that apparently was later turned into the hotel it is now. As such, it was by far my favorite accommodation during the trip. It was spacious and clean; it had a full kitchen, laundry, internet; and a nice balcony with table, chairs, and amazing view of the sea. Since we had a kitchen, we bought eggs, bread, and some other breakfast stuff for the next day.
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| The simplest things are often the most memorable |
I woke up early the next morning just as the sun was coming up. I excitedly jumped out of bed and went out to the balcony while Patrick was still snoozing (I learned that he's not exactly a 'morning person'). Eventually he also woke up and together we ate a delicious home-cooked breakfast while enjoying great views of the sea.
Minna Jima Island
After a lovely morning, we departed the hotel and made our way to Toguchi Port, several kilometers away. From there we would take a ferry to a small island called Minna Jima. After two days of ugly weather, it was now a beautiful Saturday and I was worried that the seldom-departing ferry would be booked full unless we got there early. Patrick was less concerned and when we arrived an hour early, he proved to be right. We were the first people there and it clearly was not a busy day. But as the common expression goes, "better safe than sorry!"
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| The ferry is actually a very fast boat |
We got on the ferry with maybe two dozen more other people and a quick 20 minutes later we arrived at the tiny island. I had read many glowing reviews from previous travelers and was grateful to have wonderful weather on our planned beach day.
I'm not exaggerating when I say the island is tiny. You could easily walk around the perimeter if the beach wasn't blocked by sharp coral in a few places. Surprisingly it is inhabited--there's even a small elementary/junior high school--but on our visit is seemed completely deserted. We walked along a main path that went into the center of the island and passed by some weather-beaten houses and food stands. We walked by an old lady doing some gardening and then to the school. It was very quiet and nothing was going on, so we retreated back to the beach. But the beach was indeed our main reason for going anyway, so the lack of anything particularly interesting wasn't such a big deal to me.
We spent most of our time strolling around, sitting on the beach, going into the water, and collecting seashells and pretty stones. The sun was intense, but the temperature was moderate and the winds were fairly strong. So although it wasn't hot enough to really swim in the water too much, it was certainly hot enough to spend the day with our shirts off. Why do I mention this somewhat obvious point? Well, earlier I had attempted to adequately put sunscreen on myself. Attempted, but failed. At the end of the day my back was like a splotchy abstract canvas of burnt-red skin and white hand prints. Yeah, I was too stubborn to ask my friend to put sunscreen on my back and I paid for it. In his case, he just didn't bother trying to do his back so at least his sunburn was uniform.
Near the boat dock on Minna Jima were a few rental stands where visitors could rent out beach stuff like parasols, snorkeling gear, etc. There were also jet skis available for rent but they we felt like prices were unreasonable and from what we saw of other visitors, it looked like they were jet ski rides, as in you could sit in the back while one of the workers drove it around (really!?). So to close out our day on the island we walked back onto the main path and found a small shack and nice old lady that cooked a late lunch for us. We showered at the public facilities and got back on the last ferry leaving at four o'clock (if you plan to go here, note that ferry times change depending on the season).
Once back on the main island, we hopped on a bus bound for Naha City, where we would spend stay for the following three nights. In part two of this writeup, I'll talk about our scuba diving trip, Shuri Castle, Okinawan food, and the rest of our adventure.
