Konichiwa from Okinawa
July 31- August 6, 2017
Summer vacation from Hanslang and I decided to book early to fly to Japan for a few days! We only had one week off, and I was craving some beach time, so where better to go on the cheap than Japan's version of Hawaii?! Okinawa is a small island off the south coast of Japan, and seemed like a great idea for an international getaway. Turns out I wasn't wrong! I convinced my British friend Jeni, and fellow Canadian Selina to come with and off we went!
Flying in was a strange experience since the Peach airlines arrivals come in through the old military base. Probably not the warmest of welcomes but once we got to the main airport I was happy to see the Asian culture and ever-present 7-11's were alive and well on the Japanese islands
Day 1
So, we've checked in to our Air B&B after a long (and sweaty) walk from the monorail. Selina and I venture off, without a sleepy Jeni, to find a restaurant to stuff our faces with fresh sashimi to find that our place is right smack-dab in the middle of an area peppered with "female dance clubs". As inviting as this may sound, the men dressed in all black speaking on their Bluetooth headsets were a slight deterrent from entering.
We walked for a good 20 minutes trying our best to find a restaurant with a picture filled menu to satisfy our needs. *spoiler alert* We found something and with our bellies full retreated quietly back to our place to see Naha in the daylight after a well deserved sleep.
Day 2
Beach day! Naha has a neat little beach in the city, and we all knew the main reason we were going to an island was so that we could spend some quality time with the clean ocean. We packed our beach
bags, coated on some SPF and headed towards the beach! After a slow and entertaining stroll, we finally found it and got ourselves an umbrella as to not completely burn to a crisp in the Okinawan sun *spoiler alert* but we did anyways. Jeni and I were quick to get in the water where we were greeted by some high-school aged boys wanting to practice their English with the very obviously western females. It was cute. Questions of " Where are you from?", "How old are you?", and the final "It's nice to meet you" never get old especially now that I teach and know how much courage it takes for these youngsters to pipe up.
Soaked up a few rays while listening to English hip-hop music on the loud speakers. So weird to be in Japan and hear Justin Beiber and some very R-rated Nicki Minaj being blasted over the whole beach. Shortly after, we'd had enough of the heat so we we headed off to find some breakfast! Challenging. After having been in Korea for 4 months at this point, I am used to restaurants being literally everywhere, but this wasn't the case in Okinawa. We're all certain this was when we got our lobster colored complexions because it took a good hour to find a place to sit for a decent meal. So far, the restaurant search has been difficult. But we found a gem of a spot and ate there a few times over the course of the week.
With our bellies happy, we realized that sun-stroke was quickly approaching so we decided to head back home for a quick siesta to re-charge for the night out.
Day 3
The girls had made the plan to go on a scuba diving excursion but I opted out seeing as I had gone once in Thailand and discovered I am slightly claustrophobic. I took today to buy myself a mono-rail pass and see what Naha had to offer.
I wandered around an old Japanese fortress where I soon realized I wasn't down with walking around alone and finding snakes.
I followed that up by walking awkwardly around a luxury brand shopping mall in my Blue Jays jersey and bucket hat. YOLO.
It was a nice day to myself with a book, multiple cold bottles of water, and copious amounts of sweat. Mom said that's a Sasha- style vacation. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing but whatever. Thanks mudder-Tone. It was a good day!
Day 4
Sweet lord, I have never driven in a foreign country, let alone one that has backwards cars on the opposite side of the street. Today though, we put Selina behind the wheel of a fresh Honda Fit so that we could make our way up to the north of the island to go to the amazing aquarium! I nearly shit myself. I'm not joking. Getting out of crowded Naha in the front seat of that car was a test of my strength. Clenched fists (& butt-cheeks), and fingers crossed, we made it out and suddenly we found ourselves cruising on the Japanese highway boppin' out to my playlist of Chance the Rapper and Childish Gambino.
The aquarium was fantastic, certainly above and beyond what I was expecting and people that have me on snapchat knew my level of excitement from how I uploaded videos to my story every ten seconds. They had some truly enormous tanks housing Whale Sharks, Stingrays, Manta Rays, Jellyfish, dangerous sharks as well as many other wonderful creatures from the sea. It was a lovely day. Still sweat my ass off, but we had an A/C car, so what more can you ask for.
OH! we also found the Japanese Daiso which was a godsend because we bought actual Doritos. If anyone reading has been to Korea, you know the struggle I'm talking about. We bought a few bags and devoured them all on the the drive back home to Naha.
The rest of our time in Naha was spent back and forth to the beach, eating sushi, and doing some souvenir shopping for friends and family!
I really enjoyed this corner of Japan, but I can't wait for my visit to the mainland to get a real taste of the quirky and inviting culture Japan is known for!
Until next time!
안녕! 🤗