Mensore!

While I rarely take a vacation in the summer, a buddy who moved to Okinawa texted me saying that he'll be on vacay and wondered if I were interested in visiting. He said he'll have his guest room ready for my visit if I'm coming. He lives in an area near good snorkeling spots, so visiting sounded like a good idea and it's been a long minute since I've been to the island. So I looked up prices. As usual, package tours end up to be cheaper than booking flights and hotels separately. I made my booking and sent my itinerary. Since I scheduled to fly in late at night, I felt bad about asking my buddy to come pick me up so I planned to stay the first night at the hotel and have him pick me up the next morning, but he offered to come pick me up the night I land. Kewl.

I headed for the airport after work. The trains ran smoothly and I got to the airport with plenty of time. I checked in my suitcase, picked up a couple of things from the shop at the airport, then headed through security. I find out, however, that the flight is delayed by an hour and 40 minutes because the airline decided to use a different airplane. Argh!! So I texted my buddy about the delay. He told me not to worry about it.

I finally land in Okinawa close to 2 hours later than the original landing schedule. My buddy greeted me with a smile and bear hug. I felt bad about the delay since I knew his work schedule was like mine, so it was way past his usual bedtime. But, he's on vacation and didn't have to wake up early the next day. At least, there's not much traffic at that hour. We stopped by the hotel so I could check in to keep the room before we headed to his place. My buddy gave me a brief tour of his place, showed me my room, where the bathrooms and shower was. I took a quick shower and collapsed on the bed. I slept pretty well. The sky was still a bit dark and clear so I got a lovely view of the crescent moon and Orion's Belt (although the time zone is the same as Tokyo, sunrise is about an hour later in Okinawa).

It rained for a bit in the morning, but stopped just as soon as it started. Tropical weather. Humidity will rise along with the temps. We went to see the sights at Cape Zanpa, where there was a lighthouse and cliffs with a gorgeous view. The water was a lovely, clear deep blue and emerald green. Snorkeling would probably be awesome if there was any way down those cliffs. The sun was blazing hot, but I slathered on sunscreen before we left the house, donned my trusty denim hat, and sunnies. There was a bus renovated into a cafe at the cape. I thought that was a cool concept. I was tempted to get a purple sweet potato ice cream, but I refrained. Ice cream can come later.

We then headed for Cave Okinawa. There was some mushroom-shaped structure along the way. My buddy said that Mario was here. LOL The cave is a 200 meter long sacred site and local power spot famed for red and white stalactites, which are symbols of good fortune. It was so cool seeing the limestone formations, although water was constantly dripping from the ceiling. Areas of the cave were lit up in blue lights, adding to the surreal feel. The temps in the cave wasn't as cool as I thought it was, but it was slightly cooler inside. We saw a couple of bats flying around near the ceiling but didn't see any hanging on a ledge. At the exit, there was an opening that was heart-shaped. My buddy took a pic of me standing at the opening. The trek back to the parking lot wasn't all that pleasant.

After exploring the cave, my buddy took me to a food truck that serves great burgers. With full bellies, we went to American Village, a popular outdoor shopping mall. A Snoopy Surf Shop newly opened and my buddy got me a T-shirt from the shop as a belated birthday present. Yay! There was also a Xmas store. I loved browsing around that shop but I didn't get anything, although there were decorations that caught my attention. One interesting thing is that there's a walkway by the water with a world map. My buddy pointed it out since a lot of people miss it, and when I started taking pics, other people started to notice and foreign tourists were taking pics of them with the areas they're from. We got an ice cream float to cool down. We kept dinner light since we had dessert (the float) first.

We got back to his place and watched a movie before we called it a night.

The next morning started with buckets of rain falling from the sky, but like the morning before, it stopped as soon as it started. We went to a small island off the main island connected by a bridge. Articles said that the island was one of the best snorkeling spots. They didn't lie. Although the water was super shallow since the tide was out, there was a bunch of pretty fishies swimming around the coral. I had so much fun playing paparazzi. LOL I got really excited seeing clownfish. I would have loved staying at the beach snorkeling till the sun went down, but we booked an appointment to tour an awamori brewery, so beach time was short and sweet.

What my buddy really wanted to do was tour a brewery that made "habu sake" (spirit made out of awamori and habu, a venomous viper native to Okinawa). I couldn't find such a brewery that gave tours, so we went to a regular awamori brewery. Awamori is a traditional spirit unique to Okinawa with a 600-year history that's made from long-grained Thai rice, black "koji" mold, yeast, and water. It's distilled once, then put into pots for aging. The brewery started as a rum distillery, then branched out to awamori. Instead of using huge clay pots, they use oak barrels to age the distilled awamori. The walls of the warehouse they store the aging awamori is covered in the black "koji" blown over from the building used to ferment and distill the spirit. Awamori that is aged for more than 3 years is called "kusu." This brewery has a project where they will be aging awamori for 100 years in 3 barrels. This brewery is pretty generous in tasting. While there were a few types of alcohols they charge for tasting, most of they off free tasting for most of their products. I didn't get to partake since I was the designated driver. *sniff He liked the "habu sake" made out of 3 venomous snakes so I got him a bottle as a belated birthday present. He also picked up a bottle of plum wine.

We picked up a take out pizza for dinner, lazed on the couch watching TV before we dragged our tired asses to bed.

It was raining off and on all day on my last full day on the island. But we planned to go visit another cave, so it wasn't a big deal. On our way to Okinawa World, we stopped by the hotel to drop off my suitcase. During the drive, I saw trees with orchids growing off them. It was so cool. I guess it's something that can be done in the tropics.

Okinawa World is a park with the largest limestone cave, tropical orchard, a little traditional village, and habu museum. The cave is over 5,000 meters, but 890 meters is open to the public. Several tour buses just arrived when we got to the park, so there were quite a few tourists passing through the cave. It took a while to get underground but once we managed to get down into the cave, the crowd thinned out since people were going along the walkway at their own pace. The water in the pools was so clear and I would have loved to just sit and dip my toes in the cool water. I bet it would have felt so good. Some of the formations were quite suggestive to those with dirty minds (raises hand lol ).

We walked through the tropical orchard. We didn't see any blossoms but a few of the trees were bearing fruit. Some of them made me wonder if our resident gardener's trees are growing fruit now. There was a glass shop at the end of the orchard. I was tempted to buy a small glass, but I didn't want to risk breaking it before I got home. We got to see an "Eisa" show, a traditional Okinawan performing arts, comprised of synchronized, energetic dances, accompanied by Japanese taiko drums, three-stringed shanshin, and singing. The performance was energetic and really fun to watch. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take any pics or vids of the show.

We walked through the Ryukyu village, a small recreated castle town. There was a performer playing the sanshin, an Okinawan three-stringed instrument. The pricier sanshin is made out of snakeskin. The habu museum was just past the village. The museum housed several types of poisonous snakes, a few reptiles, turtles, models of snake skeletons, and a few bats. An iguana got pretty excited when it saw visitors approaching its enclosure, desperately clawing at the glass walls, looking like it wanted to play and get some attention.

I wouldn't mind visiting the park again sometime, preferably when it's less crowded.

We stopped by a diner for a bite to eat before my buddy dropped me off at the hotel. He was saying he's going to take a nap when he gets back home. Now, that sounded like a good idea. I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up sleeping through the night since it would be close to his bedtime by the time he got home. LOL

The hotel I stayed at catered to a much younger demographic. The walls were lined with bookcases holding manga and the bed in the room was a loft bed. It must've been the smallest room I've ever stayed at. The loft bed wasn't overly uncomfortable, but it's not a place I'd want to stay for more than one night. There was only a shower, no bath tub. The hotel offers a free soft drink bar all day, popcorn during the afternoon, and noodles at night. Breakfast is toast and coffee. Not great, but better than nothing. The hotel was within walking distance to the monorail station that'll take me to the airport.

I was pretty happy that I got a glimpse of Mt. Fuji from the air. It was off in the distance, tho. I saw Mt. Fuji before I noticed any land. I saw some islands, but not sure which ones they are. The flight and train transfers went smoothly and I was home on schedule. I enjoyed a late lunch of chicken and waffles and a well-earned nap when I got home.

The days in Okinawa went by way too fast. I'll definitely spend more time at the beach the next chance I get to visit the island again.