Okinawa is a lovely tropical island which is very far south of Japan. Caitlyn and I flew to Naha Airport in Okinawa from Tokyo which was a 2 ½ hour flight. Taking a boat would’ve taken about half a day, and since it’s in the ocean, there aren’t exactly any trains that we could take.

Caitlyn and I had been traveling non-stop across mainland Japan throughout most of June, so we were grateful to be able to stay an entire week in Okinawa.  We stayed with some friends who graciously opened their home to us, and had more space than we had seen in a month!  It was nice to unpack for a week and stay in one place!

Okinawa is between the East China Sea and Pacific ocean.  The waters are a beautiful blue and there are many beaches and coral reefs!  The first evening we were in Okinawa we enjoyed walking along the seawall by the East China Sea.  The beautiful scenery and rolling tide was very relaxing after so many crazy adventures on mainland Japan. Unless there is a storm, you can always expect a really beautiful sunset too!

Sushi is always a treat when staying by the ocean, so we ate lunch at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.  It was so much fun ordering all kinds of seafood and watch it come by on the conveyor belt! Every order of sushi is 1-3 pieces and comes on its own plate. Each table has a game attached where after you’re finished with your plate, you slide it into a slot, and once it reaches five plates a little cartoon plays and you have the chance of winning a prize, which out of 30 plates from 4 people, we won once! Our host has a young son who loved all the lights, sound and action of the restaurant.  It was a fun and delicious experience!

That evening the whole family went to an Indian restaurant. We certainly weren’t expecting such good Indian food, but I had mango curry that was awesome!  Naan was served on a huge hook that’s bigger than your head – we got the garlic butter naan so everyone had garlic breath!

The next day Marie drove us to Futami.  On a back road in Futami there is a stretch of road called “Melody Lane”.  A love song written after WWII has been translated into rumble strips so that when you drive at 40 kph, you can hear the song.  It was a really neat experience to hear the song and learn the story about the couple that wrote the song.

Next we went to the Ryukyu-Mura Village. It is a recreation of Okinawa’s past culture, music and history.  There were many thatched houses, barns, animals, arts and crafts.  I especially enjoyed watching the shows, hearing the many folk songs and watching the sanshin played, a folk instrument that is a cross between a guitar and banjo.

We celebrated July 4th by eating brunch at an oceanside restaurant.  I enjoyed mango waffles which were fantastic!  If you haven’t figured it out, I LOVE fresh mangoes.  They were in season, so they were extra delicious!!  Eating has definitely been a theme of this trip, and if it weren’t for all the walking we’ve done, both Caitlyn and I would have gained a LOT of weight!!

That afternoon Caitlyn and I got our first big attempt at snorkeling in the East China sea.  We went with one of our hosts who fortunately knew a lot more than we did about snorkeling.  She had taken us to another beach earlier in the week to let us practice using a mask and snorkel.  Today was the big test – could we successfully snorkel in the open sea off a huge coral reef?  I was a bit terrified and wore a swimmers vest. The first challenge was to get down the steep rocky steps to the coral reef.  The next challenge was to get across the coral reef since the tide was out.  Coral reefs are sharp and full of little creatures.  It was very tricky walking and swimming across the reef.  Once past the reef, the ocean opened up deep and wide.  I had to take a DEEP breath to step off that coral reef into the deep abyss!  The ocean was beautiful and the sea creatures were exquisite, but I had to keep repeating, “I can float, I can float”. It was also very tricky not taking big gulps of ocean water through the snorkel.  Thanks to Caitlyn and Marie I managed to snorkel with success and enjoyed the experience.  However, I will confess, I was very glad to walk on dry ground when we finished snorkeling!

Shuri Castle was our next destination.  It had been destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt in 1992 based on historical documents and pictures.  It is an impressive castle and is the only Okinawan castle that has been fully restored. We enjoyed walking through the huge building and seeing what this castle life was like in it’s glory days.  Originally there were as many as 220 castles during the Ryukyu era.  We saw Miss Okinawa touring the castle, but unfortunately wasn’t able to get our picture with her.

Later that afternoon, Caitlyn and I enjoyed a spa time at Coco’s.  We had our finger and toe nails painted with beautiful designs.  The ladies that painted our nails were truly artists.  It was a fantastic few hours of pure luxury!!
Only July 6th we got back on an airplane and flew back to Tokyo.  Caitlyn and I left lovely Okinawa feeling rested and pampered!