(no longer) LOST IN JAPAN

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Happy New Year!
As we begin the Year of the Dog, let me just say welcome back to "Lost in Japan". I've been back in Nara for over a week now but I've been a little bit busy re-adjusting to my cold apartment and have thus been unable to fulfill my blogging obligations. But I'm back at school now and I have some time to kill today, so now is as good a time as any. And as my 101st post (seeing as my 100th was short), this one will make up for it.

Okinawa was a lot of fun. It's really beautiful down there and to be honest, it really doesn't seem like the Japan I'm used to. Aside from the streets swarming with American servicemen, there are also the palm trees and bougainvillia lining the streets, white sand beaches stretching for miles, the ocean so clear you can see the coral reefs at the bottom, the lack of concrete on mountains and riverbeds... Okinawa really is a tropical paradise.
Unfortunately, we had pretty crappy weather while we were there, but the 4 days of bright sunshine and blue skies that we did have were great. Besides, we were having such a great time that even the 9 days of cloud and rain couldn't dampen our spirits. So here is my first post of 2006, and it's a big 'un.
In addition to the stuff I did, I'm posting pictures and a few notes on Okinawan culture and history so if you're interested, you can take the time to read it. If not, the pictures are pretty.

Okinawa-honto: This is the largest island of the archipelago. It is also home to 50,000 American military personnel (and family). It's a little bit strange seeing them walking around among the natives though. Seems almost unnatural. But I guess that's life in Okinawa.
We had 2 days in Naha in the beginning of our trip. First we saw Shuri Castle, which is a modern reconstruction (from 2000) of the old Ryukyu Kingdom capital. The Ryukyu Kingdom had very strong ties to China so you can definitely see more of a Chinese influence in the architecture, making it very different from traditional Japanese castles. I think I read somewhere that the layout was also influenced by China's Forbidden City, but don't quote me on that. The original was destroyed during World War II.


The King's Residence


Shureimon: The Symbol of Okinawa and also on the World Heritage list (this is on Japan's 2,000 yen bill). This is also a reconstruction but from 1958.


Tamaudun: The Royal Burial Grounds


View of Shuri Castle from across the lake

The last 4 days of our vacation were spent in Naha again. We rented a car and drove around the island: to the North (Motobu Hanto for the aquarium and Manzamo cliff) and to the South where the Battle of Okinawa took place and most of the war memorials are.

A little bit of backround: The Battle of Okinawa lasted about 3 months with the heaviest fighting taking place in June 1945. Everyone had been brainwashed by the Imperial Government and when the high school students (boys AND girls aged 14-19) were mobilized for war, nobody asked any questions. Everyone was convinced of Japan's ultimate victory and everyone had been told to fight and die for the Emperor (or else be killed...) Over 230,000 Okinawans died in the Battle of Okinawa--68,000 military--so there is some resentment towards "mainland" Japan because the Okinawans felt deserted. Laura and I went to the Himeyuri Monument which commemorates 220 high school girls and their 18 teachers who died in the war. The museum was surprisingly moving and everything was translated into English making it on my list of top museums I've been to in Japan.

And now back to something less depressing. The car we rented was decent but the navigation system.... oh it was the GPS from hell... It was super old and since Naha seemed to have had a serious facelift in the last 3 years, half of the places we wanted to go to weren't in the GPS. OH MY GOD! One night, Laura and I were driving around for three hours trying to find the stupid movie theatre (it was raining so we wanted to see a movie). When we finally found it (3 hours later... FOR REAL), the place was huge and could have been seen from space... it was also only about 10 minutes away from the hotel... stupid GPS.

Here are a few choice pics from our second stay in Naha.


Aquarium Front


Aquarium Back


Weirdest fish in the place (Frogfish)


Shark and Ray Tank (This tank was cool. The Osaka Kaiyuukan has 1 whale shark but the Charaumi Aquarium in Okinawa was actually built to breed them. So in this tank there were 3 big ones PLUS baby whale sharks. Neat huh.)


Dolphin Show (YEAH! this was excellent... well by excellent I mean really lame but the dolphins were cute and I'm very easily amused.)


Manzamo Cliff at Sunset (you couldn't actually see the sun because it was cloudy...)


Cool picture taken from behind a waterfall in a Chinese style garden in Naha


Limestone cave in the south (considering it takes 3 years for stalagmites/stalagtites to grow a millimetre so imagine how old this thing is...)


Habu-shuu is Awamori (the local liquor) with Habu inside. It is the grossest thing EVER. And you can see it everywhere! A jar of the stuff goes for 20-30,000 yen. 60,000 in the jars that have 2 snakes. If you think a tequila worm is bad, try a frikkin poisonous snake... EWWWWWWWW. That's all I have to say.
Not saying I'm surprised though seeing as pig ears and pig feet are sold in snak-paks at the convenience stores... How come my Okinawa Diet never mentioned that?!

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Yaeyama-shoto: This area has two big islands: Iriomote and Ishigaki, the 2nd and 3rd largest islands of Okinawa. We didn't explore Ishigaki much but there are supposed to be some nice beaches. We did however find the A&W... Root Beer Floats, baby! Oh YEAH!!! Ishigaki is also famous for its cultivation of black pearls... so there are pearl stores everywhere and I developed a love for the precious gem (prompting my not-so-secret admirer to give me a lovely little pearl necklace for Christmas^^).
We did go to Iriomote though. Iriomote is a World Heritage Site because it has the last jungle in Japan. It is also home to all 3 types of mangroves found in Japan. Laura and I signed on for a day-trip with a Japanese tour group to visit Iriomote. We were a little worried at first but it turned out to be a really good day. The tour included a boat trip down the Urauchi river, hiking through the jungle to see 2 waterfalls, lunch at a super swanky resort, collecting starsand (for the 3rd time) and then crossing a river on water-buffalo carts to see Yubu-jima (a tiny little island with a botanical garden).

Mangroves on the Urauchi River


Mariyudo waterfall on Iriomote


Kanpire waterfall on Iriomote


Looking for Starsand (in case you missed the explanation in my post a few weeks ago, starsand is the skeletons of tiny little sea creatures. There is sad legend surrounding it though...


Finding Starsand... Can you spot it?


Crossing on water-buffalo cart (water-buffalo are not as cool the second time around, by the way... the one in the Philippines was WAY better!)


We also took a day to explore Taketomi-jima, a cute little island famous for its red-tile-roofed houses and starsand (although they never mentioned that starsand is found basically everywhere in Yaeyama Shoto). It's only about 9km in diametre so with 4 hours on rent-a-cycles, we were able to see the whole thing twice over. We ran into our friends Andy and Mamie on this island, much to our surprise. They had just finished a 2-day trek through the jungle of Iriomote... sheer cliffs, dead pigs, leeches... the whole nine yards... Craziness




Red rooftops


Cute kitten (If you look closely, this kitten looks like it's a giant watching over 2 tiny little people. Pure coincidence but I thought it was cool when Laura pointed it out)

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Miyako-shoto: Miyako island is the 4th largest island in the archipelago. It has some of the best beaches and dive spots in Japan. Odd little fact, it also has a German Village in commemoration of a German merchant ship that crashed off the coast of Miyako-jima sometime in the end of the 19th century. The nice people of Miyako saved the crew and, as they say, it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
These 3 days were quite possibly my favorite and most eventful vacation days even though it rained every day except on the last day. It was raining so hard one day that the roof in our guesthouse room leaked... And this after we had spent the whole day outside sightseeing being battered by the storm. We had rented a car for the day to explore the other parts of the island but unfortunately, we picked the worst possible day to do it. Awesome. We made friends with the other guests at the guesthouse, ate together, drank together... It was really nice. Our last day was beautiful. We took a glass-bottomed boat to see the coral reefs near Ikema-jima (north of Miyako). It was AMAZING. I'd never seen anything like it. There were fish and coral and anemonies... we also saw 2 sea turtles and a Manta ray! It was absolutely beautiful. Two thumbs up!


Dinner at the Guesthouse on the first night


Sunayama Beach... That's me and Mamie under the archway


Higashi-Henna Cape Lighthouse


Waves crashing against the rocks because it was stormy


Rainbow on the ocean after 2 full days of rain


Laura, Andy and Mamie walking on the beach


Ohama Bridge between Miyako and Ikema-jima


Last Sunset of 2005

And there you have it. My vacation in a nutshell. Hope you had fun reading. I promise my next post won't be this long.

posted by Samantha @ 1:48 AM