I have so many trips that are worth blogging...let me start with the easy one firsts.
When life throws you storms on a beach holiday, what do you do?
We were 4 days in Okinawa, it rained for 3.
Before takeoff, the BnB at Zamami Island told us that ferries between Naha (main island) and Zamami were cancelled 'cause of strong winds. A typhoon was nearby. With island-hopping cancelled, we grabbed a rental car at the airport, re-designed our itinerary, re-booked all our accommodation, drove up the mountains, settled into one of many cafes of this trip, watched the clouds come in, and nursed our headaches from all the re-shufflings.
Anywhere outside of Naha in Okinawa was pretty sleepy.
We found one restaurant near our Airbnb.
Our Airbnb in Toyohara (near Nago) was very decent.
On the second day we rocked up to a dive shop near Maeda to try our luck - diving for me and snorkeling for the other two. Alas, no luck was to be had - winds were high, rainclouds were in, boats weren't going out anymore. They said they'll call us tomorrow. So back up north we went, stopping by a 'michi no eki' 道の駅 (literally translated as: a stop on the road - so, like a rest stop) for some good Okinawan food (will elaborate on food below) before hitting the world-famous Churaumi Aquarium.
The aquarium was big-ish, but not as big as I had expected it to be - we were done in an hour. Partially because it was so crowded and I didn't have the patience to see everything because that would have involved waiting in queues. And I am a fairly impatient person.
The whale shark tank was very impressive. But also a bit depressing - the tank seemed a bit small for the 3 massive whale sharks, a bunch of manta rays, nurse sharks (I think), schools of tuna, one dolphin, and other fishes. Taking into account how big the whale sharks were and how many other fish were in there, the tank seemed kinda small, and all they did was circling the tank over and over and over again. The lone dolphin kept hassling the divers who were in there trying to clean the tank.
They also had a couple of manatee pools - but they were literally just a couple manatees in swimming pools, nothing else. Same for the sea-turtle pool. No 'habitat' whatsoever. I don't think I'm being too demanding right?
We spent the rest of the afternoon standing on a beach, skipping stones, watching the waves, chasing lonely sea cucumbers, staring out into the raging sea, figuring out what we'd do for the rest of this holiday if the weather doesn't improve.
Our feet were getting too crinkly from standing on a beach that we couldn't swim in, so we flopped back into the car, asked the GPS to find us a cafe nearby, and got caffeinated with some (surprisingly) good coffee from a little one-woman coffee shop in a random back street in the sleepy town of Nago.
For dinner we found some taco rice, a 'typical' Okinawan dish. More like 20th century Okinawan, or at least since the US army starting prodding around these islands.
Day 3 - during the night I was woken up by the rain and the wind, the morning was still grey - so still no snorkeling or diving. Which meant no diving for the trip 'cause you have to leave at least 24 hours between diving and flying :(
I'm usually a bit wary of guidebook-suggested anything, because they're usually rammed with tourists and they're between OK and mediocre. But we decided to go check out the Okinawan Soba place mentioned in the guidebook anyway - I was right about it being crowded and we had to wait a little while, but it was certainly much better than mediocre. It was fantastic - I'm not sure how such a simple dish of noodles and soup and pork ribs can taste so good but it was delicious.
Still raining.
So onto our next cafe, which was also guidebook-suggested, which took us up windy roads into the woods, not another car in sight, but soon enough we arrived at a house in the middle of nowhere surrounded by vegetation and butterflies. The coffee was mediocre (again proving one of my points about guidebooks) but the view and the atmosphere was gold - listening to the sound of rain splashing on the leaves and branches around us, a light mist covering the surrounding mountains like a shroud...
We did a bit more driving, beach-standing, caffeine-injecting before tucking into some mouth-watering pork shabu shabu for dinner.
Will continue with day 4 tomorrow!
(Several photos courtesy of Mike http://www.mikemisc.com/)
When life throws you storms on a beach holiday, what do you do?
We were 4 days in Okinawa, it rained for 3.
Before takeoff, the BnB at Zamami Island told us that ferries between Naha (main island) and Zamami were cancelled 'cause of strong winds. A typhoon was nearby. With island-hopping cancelled, we grabbed a rental car at the airport, re-designed our itinerary, re-booked all our accommodation, drove up the mountains, settled into one of many cafes of this trip, watched the clouds come in, and nursed our headaches from all the re-shufflings.
 |
| The view on a sunny cloud-less day would have been super nice. But at least the mango dessert was yummy. |
Anywhere outside of Naha in Okinawa was pretty sleepy.
We found one restaurant near our Airbnb.
Our Airbnb in Toyohara (near Nago) was very decent.
On the second day we rocked up to a dive shop near Maeda to try our luck - diving for me and snorkeling for the other two. Alas, no luck was to be had - winds were high, rainclouds were in, boats weren't going out anymore. They said they'll call us tomorrow. So back up north we went, stopping by a 'michi no eki' 道の駅 (literally translated as: a stop on the road - so, like a rest stop) for some good Okinawan food (will elaborate on food below) before hitting the world-famous Churaumi Aquarium.
The aquarium was big-ish, but not as big as I had expected it to be - we were done in an hour. Partially because it was so crowded and I didn't have the patience to see everything because that would have involved waiting in queues. And I am a fairly impatient person.
The whale shark tank was very impressive. But also a bit depressing - the tank seemed a bit small for the 3 massive whale sharks, a bunch of manta rays, nurse sharks (I think), schools of tuna, one dolphin, and other fishes. Taking into account how big the whale sharks were and how many other fish were in there, the tank seemed kinda small, and all they did was circling the tank over and over and over again. The lone dolphin kept hassling the divers who were in there trying to clean the tank.
They also had a couple of manatee pools - but they were literally just a couple manatees in swimming pools, nothing else. Same for the sea-turtle pool. No 'habitat' whatsoever. I don't think I'm being too demanding right?
We spent the rest of the afternoon standing on a beach, skipping stones, watching the waves, chasing lonely sea cucumbers, staring out into the raging sea, figuring out what we'd do for the rest of this holiday if the weather doesn't improve.
 |
| Fun times getting grossed out by sea cucumbers |
For dinner we found some taco rice, a 'typical' Okinawan dish. More like 20th century Okinawan, or at least since the US army starting prodding around these islands.
 |
| The taco-rice restaurant had really good roast chicken. And cute little pots of cactus. |
Day 3 - during the night I was woken up by the rain and the wind, the morning was still grey - so still no snorkeling or diving. Which meant no diving for the trip 'cause you have to leave at least 24 hours between diving and flying :(
 |
| Okinawan Soba |
Still raining.
So onto our next cafe, which was also guidebook-suggested, which took us up windy roads into the woods, not another car in sight, but soon enough we arrived at a house in the middle of nowhere surrounded by vegetation and butterflies. The coffee was mediocre (again proving one of my points about guidebooks) but the view and the atmosphere was gold - listening to the sound of rain splashing on the leaves and branches around us, a light mist covering the surrounding mountains like a shroud...
 |
| What tranquility looks like |
We did a bit more driving, beach-standing, caffeine-injecting before tucking into some mouth-watering pork shabu shabu for dinner.
Will continue with day 4 tomorrow!
