Sunburn: BAD. ^_^
(I once said to a student: 'oh well, getting a sunburn means you had fun'. She responded very seriously, 'oh really?', as though I had just taught her a legitimate fact.)
So here's the lowdown.
Day 1
We flew from Haneda airport, and I can't tell you what a blessing that is. Narita is my bane. I hate it. Last week we did a lesson on 'pet peeves'. For a moment I couldn't think of any (which is astonishing for me, considering how many I have - the fake bird songs on train stations, train announcers who shout, the vacuousness of Japanese girls on TV, the people who lie in wait outside my department store building to try to get me to give money to earthquake appeals - how many months has this one appeal been running?! I've given to the same campaign three times over the last year and STILL they haven't left, people who smoke while walking in front of you and thus leave you in a trail of smoke, etc.)
Anyway, ahem, sorry. Narita sucks because it really is nowhere near Yokohama, and Yokohama has no international airport. If you live in the east of Tokyo, sure, it's not so bad. But the cheapest way for me to get to the airport costs about 1600 yen ($20) and 2 hours 28 minutes. Two and a half hours!! These days I generally just say 'stuff it' and come home from Narita via the limousine bus. It may be 3500 yen ($40) but it takes me directly to Yokohama station, without having to haul my suitcases on various train transfers.
By contrast, I got from my door to Haneda airport in less than an hour, including walking time.
I do like the fact that Haneda still calls itself an 'international airport', despite only having a handful of international flights (to Seoul, in Korea). If it's an 'international' airport, it has a rather poor selection of English books, magazines and newspapers (total number found after scouring entire airport: 0). Hahaha...
So anyway, I met my friend - let's call her Asami - at the airport. We flew to Naha and on arrival, had taco rice*. The airport was full of signs saying めんそーれー (menso-re-) which means 'welcome' in the Okinawan language. There were huge omiyage (packaged souvenir) sections.
*Taco rice is a typical Okinawan food, very easy to make. Just take the ingredients of tacos - taco meat, cheese, tomato, lettuce - and serve it, with taco sauce, on rice.
We began the journey to our hotel. We stayed in a hotel in Motobucho, right near the famous Churaumi aquarium. Okinawa is very much a car-dependent society, and neither of us could rent a car (Asami doesn't have a driver's license, I can't rent without an international license). To get there from Naha we had to take a bus and taxi, total trip about 2 and a half hours. Our taxi driver was friendly and talked to Asami the whole time, telling her interesting info and giving her tourist tips. I could understand a bit of it.
We took taxis a few times in Okinawa, and *none of them* charged us their full fare. The last driver lopped about $4 off the fare since 'the airport was kind of on his way home anyway'.
After we got to our hotel, we had a swim in the hotel pool. The weather in Okinawa was warm but not as hot as I expected; it was about 27 and humid during the day, but not super tropical hot; actually it wasn't *that* much warmer than here in Yokohama. Actually, the weather was really, really good our whole stay. Just perfect, and sunny. (And several people had warned us we would be going during the rainy season.)
(In Japan they have this idea of 'hare onna' (sunshine woman) or 'ame onna' (rain woman) - someone who brings good or bad weather with them. Last year I was convinced I was 'ame onna'. For example, it seemed to rain pretty well every weekend of spring (on my days off, that is; not necessarily on Saturday); it was cold and rather rainy while my sister was here; most of all, the night we climbed Mt Fuji was one of the most relentlessly rainy of the summer.
I came to have a very cynical attitude toward the weather, resenting the rain and constantly suspecting it would rain every time I planned something. However, this year I seem to have become Hare Onna, and I am delighted about it. Every time I've taken a trip *this* year, the weather has been lovely.)
After the swim, that we wanted to have dinner, but there was nowhere. I mean literally nowhere; it was 9:30 and everything was closed or about to close. Our hotel was on a dark road in the middle of nowhere; it was a long cry from being here in the city suburbs. Even in my quiet little suburb, if I walk for ten minutes I can pass at least a dozen restaurants that are open until midnight or later.
That was okay though, we bought some cup ramen (actually cup 'soki soba' - soki soba being a local specialty in Okinawa) and Blue Seal icecream (another Okinawan specialty) and retreated to our room. Our room was huge, had a great balcony, and had not only beds and a 'Western-style' part of the room, but a tatami mat 'Japanese-style' section, with flat seats on the ground. I think sitting on tatami mats at one of those tables, makes you feel like you are having a special treat, even if you're just eating instant noodles and icecream. ^_^
Actually, Okinawa has a lot of specialties, just like everywhere in Japan. Japan is big on local specialties. If you travel somewhere, you have to eat x and y. Thus, when you go to Okinawa, you should:
I did do all these things. I even tried taco pizza. It may surprise you to hear that this was not a good combination.
*(If you ever get the chance to try this, I can personally recommend the pineapple. It was one of the Best Icecreams Ever. It even had tiny little pieces of actual pineapple in it.)
Speaking of our hotel, though, we noticed a lot of graves around it; like little houses built from concrete. We could see a lot of them from our hotel room. I later heard this was because in Okinawa, traditionally, there haven't been many shrines or temples, so people would build these graves to house their family members. A lot of graves overlook the ocean, so the deceased can enjoy the ocean views.
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