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. :)
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. :)
posted by nokillingkenny at 3:07 pm
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