I found Nemo

I didn't have a whole lot of time on Miyako so I just did a lot of walking. This beach has a natural rock arch and is very beautiful. As you can see the water is crystal clear and the sand was very white and soft.Here's the view from inside the arch, you can just see some of the netting that was covering the roof, I guess to prevent anything falling on the heads of visitors!

I flew back to Naha on Friday afternoon and then took a bus north to Okinawa City. This area is mostly famous for its shopping and its proximity to the American air base. I think I can safely say that I have never seen so many crew cuts in one place.

My reason for visiting Okinawa city was so that I could go scuba diving with an English speaking company. The reefs around the outer islands are reputedly far more beautiful than the one near Okinawa city but as I had never tried scuba before I wanted the reassurance of knowing that I would have no communication difficulties with my instructor. My instructor, Hanako, was Japanese but she had spent many years in England. She was very competent and reassuring. We did some preparatory work in the shallows where she showed me how to recapture the mouthpiece if I should drop it, clear the mask if it filled with water and so on. Then it was time to explore the (unfortunately somewhat murky) depths. I never realised how much there is to remember when scuba diving, breathing, keeping your pressure equalised, body position (it's necessary to keep it flat), taking pictures! It was certainly pretty full on. We saw loads of fish and interesting corals but the highlight had to be seeing some clown fish (as made famous by the movie 'Finding Nemo') like the ones below.After the dive Hanako congratulated me on my breathing and body position, I guess all those years of snorkelling at Somers really paid off.

She dropped me off at the American Village. An area of shops and movie theatres and so forth, which is designed to look like it's in America, hence the name :P. To me it felt more like what Japanese people think America is like but it was interesting to have a wander around. I particularly enjoyed looking through the enormous army surplus store. I guess their proximity to the base gives them access to more equipment than your average shop. You could even buy a parachute, stetcher or a wide range of gas masks! Lots of the toys were very tempting but probably not legal in Australia so I just bought a cloth badge and left it at that.

My final day I spent back in Naha, getting some souvenirs and omiyage (presents for co-workers). This river is right near Kokusai street and was decorated with carp banners in honour of 'Children's Day'.
Something you don't see to often in Japan...
Got one final laugh on my way out of Okinawa. This sign was posted at the entrance of the Naha airport. I was particularly bemused by the second item at number 1...
What have puddings ever done to you!?!

Take me to Taketomi

On Thursday I took another ferry, this time to Taketomi Island. This was probably my favourite, mostly because the other islands were all so big that they lost the 'island' feel somewhat. Taketomi was small enough that you could walk around it and see coastline in several directions at once. One of the things it's famous for is the 'star sand' beach where some of the sand grains are like tiny stars. I had a very pleasant surprise as I was walking along, I heard my name and when I turned around I found Yoshie, who I had gone canoeing with the day before. So we went and ate Okinawa Soba together and then went sightseeing. This house had a great example of a Shisa (lion dogs who act as guardian gods of houses and villages) on the roof. Unfortunately I have no zoom but you can get the idea. Here's a street scape, good place for cycling so Yoshie and I did so, only we just had one bike between the two of us... Lucky I've got horserider's legs!
Once we got back to Ishigaki, a slightly more major island, Yoshie hired a car and we went exploring. This bay is famous for its black pearls and its beauty, you can see why.
Heading back towards the airport (as I was flying to Miyako Island that evening) we passed this shop. Inside were many pairs of Shisa, most of which looked like they'd been designed by the folks at Mambo! It was certainly colourful.

I couldn't resist ;)

Tarzette, Queen of the jungle

My third day I made my way to Iriomote Island. Iriomote had a much more island feel to it. This may have been because I had to take a ferry to get there but I am sure that the lack of tall buildings helped too. The youth hostel was up on a hill overlooking the sea so the view was really beautiful. It was nice to see some nature too, a fruit bat and some glow worms and fireflies. No sign of the elusive Iriomote lynx though.

I took a trip by riverboat (which was strangely reminiscent of the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland) to see the waterfall you can just about see pictured below.Once back at the landing area I did some canoeing. The guide took us all around the mangroves and explained about the different species (I was given a special card in English) and also showed us some wildlife such as this crab...
And its mother...
Then we headed even further into the wilds to see an area where there was once a coal mine. It looked like nothing so much as a piece of scenery from an Indiana Jones movie. In this area we also saw some tiny lizards and large butterflies.

Oki Ok

Last week in Japan was 'Golden Week', when just about the entire country gets a week of holidays. Naturally this means that all prices rise, accommodations are full and tourist areas are heaving, makes perfect sense... Anyway, not one to let that deter me from further exploration I decided to visit the Okinawa Islands.

My first two days I spent on Okinawa-Honto (the main island). This garden was right near my hostel. The day was quite overcast as you can see, but it was very humid.

After visiting the garden I made my way to Kokusai-Dori, the main street of Naha city. This was a great place to be as it is closed to traffic on a Sunday afternoon and there are many street performances. I watched this drum troop for a while, and being a former percussionist started hankering after one of their drums... well maybe just a small one...
Just off Kokusai-Dori is a couple of market streets so I wandered down them to get to the Tsyboya pottery district. This actually just looked like a lot of shops, so not quite as atmospheric as I had been hoping. But the market lanes were a bit better and felt more 'typically Asian' than much of Japan.

On Monday I just about killed myself riding a very old bike up a very steep hill to Shuri-jo (it was also much hotter that day). This castle is unfortunately a reconstruction as the original was burnt down during WW2. However it was very different to the mainland castle style so I was glad that I made the effort to get there. As you can see there is a very obvious Chinese influence as is true of a lot of things found in the islands.In the courtyard of the castle this woman was demonstrating some traditional dance. She moved incredibly slowly and gracefully and had no facial expression. It was fascinating to watch. Although I have to admit that I didn't stick it out for long ;)

From the castle I made my way (somewhat roundaboutly as the Japanese don't seem to believe in street signs) to the Shikanaen Royal Garden. I had hoped to eat my lunch here but there was no food or drink allowed! So I ate outside the gate and then went in to look around. It was quite beautiful but I actually felt that the smaller garden I visited on Sunday was nicer.
Finally I rode along the river to look at the Manko Mangrove, which was disappointingly polluted, although I did see a couple of birds, and to get to the Underground Naval Headquarters. Now as most of you know I am a bit of a military history buff so I was a little disappointed here too as there wasn't a whole lot of information available and not really a lot to see, aside from this example of what sort of damage a hand grenade can do in a small concrete room.

Also the officers room was set up with a table and you could see some writing on the walls, but mostly it just felt like a cellar.

After that I decided to reward all my hard cycling efforts (did I mention that the Naval HQ was also up a steep hill?) with a steak dinner. I had hoped to try Ishigaki (another island I was going to on Tuesday) beef, but I think I actually ended up with Tasmanian! :P Was pleasantly surprised to learn that when the menu offered an accompaniment of soup, salad, rice or bread it actually meant soup and salad and rice or bread. :)