Okinawa

A couple months ago, I realized that I hadn’t had a vacation since arriving in Japan, and I was in need of one. So over Memorial Day weekend, I went to Okinawa and stayed at a hotel on the beach about a half hour north of Naha. What I envisioned was sun, ocean and a little touring. Something relaxing. But when we arrived, the weather was like this:

So instead of sun, ocean and a little touring, we got clouds/rain, ocean and a lot of touring. Still good! Of course, the day we left, it looked like this:

[Sigh.] I clearly need to go back. And now that I’ve done so much touristy stuff, I can focus the next trip on more nature stuff. Maybe try snorkeling!

The hotel was right next to the American Village, which was a nice little area – designed in the manner of an eastern U.S. boardwalk - full of a variety of restaurants and cute shops. 

On Friday, we went to the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Park. The Park is beautifully situated right on the water and contains a large number of memorials to various groups of people. There were several school groups there when we went, and at one point, we got chased down by a couple teenage boys who wanted a picture taken with us. That was… unusual.  

In the park, there is a Peace Plaza with a Flame of Peace and 4 sections of marble inscribed with the names of those who died in the Battle of Okinawa – 2 sections of Okinawans, 1 section of Japanese from other prefectures, and 1 small section of foreigners (U.S., U.K., Taiwan and the Koreas). I discovered that an Autry died there, which I hadn’t known. The park also has an interesting museum that basically goes from before WWII to the present and is generally focused on the impact of war on the local population.   

During our visit to Okinawa, we also visited three of the nine “Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryuku” that were declared to be UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Sefa Utaki

On Friday, we visited Sefa Utaki, a sacred site where the Ryukyu’s highest-ranking priestesses were inaugurated and conducted special deifying rituals. It’s all built into the hillside, with the occasional view of the ocean, ruins of altars, and a couple stalactites that drop water into pots. The water was considered to be holy and was used to tell the fortunes of the priestess and the King’s Son. 

On Saturday, we went to Shurijo Castle, which has been renovated since it was destroyed during the war. It’s quite beautiful, with Chinese and Japanese influences in the architecture.

This is a panorama of where the Queen and the women of the court would spend time. Not a bad place to conduct business.

The last World Heritage site we went to was the ruins of Nakagusuku Castle. The ruins are quite lovely, with a view of both the Pacific Ocean on one side and the East China Sea on the other.

For nature, we drove on the sea road to a couple other islands one afternoon. It was rainy and windy, but it was still pretty.

On Sunday, we went to Cape Zanpa. It’s a beautiful spot. Some blog posts I saw indicated that you could climb to the top of the lighthouse for a great view, but it appeared to be closed when we were there. Sadly, Cape Zanpa is also known to be where, during the final days of the Battle of Okinawa, Japanese soldiers forced Okinawans to jump off the cliffs to their deaths in order to avoid capture by the American soldiers. There’s a small memorial and a little shrine, but not much else for remembrance. 

From Cape Zanpa, we continued up the coast to Ocean Expo Park, where we visited the Native Okinawan Village and the excellent Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. The aquarium is known for its large tank containing whale sharks and manta rays and other fish. We arrived right at feeding time, which was very interesting. The sharks go almost vertical and suck in tons of water, just like whales. 

  

We also got to see the dolphin show, which was a lot of fun. As we were leaving the dolphin show, I saw this tsunami sign, which was a first for me. 

Two other items of interest while we were there… The first - food. Apparently, they love Spam. I chose not to eat anything containing Spam during my stay.

However, I did eat some sea grapes, which are salty and quite good, and a number of other local items. Of course, my favorite was the sugar cane ice cream. So yummy!

Sea grapes

And last, but certainly not least – the shisa! They’re kind of lion dogs that are seen everywhere in Okinawa as a symbol to ward off evil. They are almost always in pairs, either flanking doors or on roofs. One (the male) typically has its mouth open to ward off evil spirits, and the other (the female) has its mouth closed to keep good spirits in. They are EVERYWHERE. 

So after 4 1/2 fun days, I came home. Which was a funny feeling, because it was the first time that I returned to Tokyo and felt like I had returned "home". Of course, the U.S. still feels like HOME, but I took it as a good sign, because it shows I've at least partially settled in and created a home for myself here.

Now to plan my next vacation!