Okinawa Summer Holiday 2013

For my summer holiday this year I went to Okinawa, a chain of islands south of the main islands of Japan leading down to Taiwan that form the Ryukyu islands. The temperature is generally above 20°C all year round and the islands have some of the most abundant coral in the world. Okinawa is also recognised as being the longest lived country in the world with 4 times more people over 100 years old than anywhere else. The island are a popular summer holiday destination for Japanese tourists and great for diving and beach holidays. My friend Martin (the same who brought me my passport at the last minute when I first came to Japan) managed to get a place on a science course at a university there over the summer, which was perfect timing since his course finished the exact same day as my summer holiday started.

On arrival I met Martin at the airport where he had been waiting for 6 hours since he had no idea where our hostel osaru-oyadou (Monkey’s Inn) was; he kindly left the planning up to me then forgot to ask where we were staying. Since I’d forgotten to print a map I didn’t know where the hostel was either except for some vague instructions from Hostelworld.com. But by following those we actually managed to find our hostel by chance just walking along a side road trying to get back to the main road which was on the instructions so it kind of worked out anyway.

On our first day we looked around the city a bit seeing some of the sites such as a Chinese garden that aims to transport you into a world of tranquillity and make you forget you’re in the big city of Naha.

We next went to a rather nice beach in the middle of the city with very hot sand and probably the clearest sea water I’ve ever seen. There was just one tiny problem with the beech, aside from the sand burning your feet; a massive flyover crossing the bay blocking the view out to sea. We came back to this beach on the second day of out holiday after visiting the castle. We had intended to get here around 4 pm just as the sun was starting to go down, but due to us getting up really late to visit the castle we didn’t actually arrive at the beach until about 9 pm when it was already dark. Still not to pass up the opportunity we went for a swim, the water was still very warm and we only got out when we started to get stung by jellyfish, which unfortunately are rather small and hard to see, especially at night.

Next was visited the main shopping street in the middle of Naha called kokusaidori which consisted of mostly souvenir shops and restaurants for the tourists, but also loads of shops with massive models of comic book characters and films. We also saw about 4 different full size Velociraptor  models in different shops on this street. Why they have them or where they even got them from I have no idea but they seem to be popular. Possibly the Okinawans like to display them on their mantelpieces.

For dinner we went to an all you can eat hamburger steak restaurant where I managed to eat enough food for the next day as well as being able to ride on a zebra! Although unlike Europe I don’t think our burgers were made from these particular zebras. (On a side note the Japanese actually eat horse sashimi  (raw meat) known as basashi and it’s readily available in larger cities. It’s very tasty!)

Still within Naha was Shuri Castle, the former palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom and which dates back to the 1300s. However, as I have mentioned before, Japanese castles and temples have a habit of getting burnt down over the centuries and simply rebuilt in the same location, and sure enough Shuri castle’s latest restoration was finished in 1992 which makes it 21 years old! Although there was scaffolding up when we visited so even that 1992 date might be a bit optimistic for what we in Europe would call old. Still it was nice to look around and we arrived just in time to see some traditional dance being performed at the castle.

One of the things that Okinawa is most famous for are Shisa statues which adorn the entrance of pretty much every single building there. Shisa look like a cross between a lion and a dog and are almost always in pairs, one with its mouth open the other with its mouth closed. The open mouthed Shisa is to ward off evil spirits while the closed mouthed Shisa is to keep good spirits in. Back in the shopping street Kokusaidori every other shop was selling these, with hundreds of different models to choose between. Here are the two Shisa guarding Shuji castle.

Our last trip on the mainland was to Churaumi Aquarium the North of the island. The aquarium is one of the largest in the world with a massive tank holding 7,500 cubic metres of water and several whale sharks and manta rays.

After the aquarium we went to Emerald beach for a swim and which is only 5 minutes walk away. I’d somehow managed to forget my goggles in Tokyo so bought a new pair to use at the beach there and later on Zamami island. And it was quite lucky that I did as while chasing a fish underwater I came across a facemask on the sea bed buried under some sand which were perfect for Martin who had also forgotten to bring any goggles. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming around before having to catch the very early 6pm bus back to Naha and our hostel.

Finally it was time to go to Zamami island. This was the part of the trip I had been most looking forward to. About 30 km to the West of Naha are the Kerama islands and while these don’t quite have the picture perfect white sand beaches you see in postcards of tropical paradises they are pretty close and in addition also have some of the best coral reef and diving areas in the world. To get there we took what I think is the fastest boat I’ve ever been on, which isn’t saying much since the only other boats I’ve been on are ferries to France and some rowing boats in city lakes.

(Click either picture for video, parental advisory explicit lyrics)

On the island we went to the nearest beach and started swimming around. There was absolutely loads of coral and thousands of fish everywhere just a few metres below the surface so that all you need to see everything was a pair of goggles or recently found facemask. Obviously I can’t show you the pictures of the fish as my camera is not waterproof despite it having an underwater setting on it, not quite sure what that’s there actually, but if you should ever be in Okinawa a trip to Zamami and some snorkelling is an absolute must. Since both me and Martin were super organised for the trip we had decided not to bother booking a hostel and just find somewhere to sleep outside for the night. Our first night we spent at an outlook post which had a stunning view of the sunset.

Before we settled down for the night on a large picnic table (actually comfy) we went into the village to look around and find some food. Guess who we met in an izakaya there. None other than Mr Miyage from the karate kid. It turns out he isn’t dead but just running a bar on a tiny Okinawan island.

With an early start the next day…

 

…it was off to a different beach for more snorkelling, lots of fish and some horrendous sunburn, the first of the trip for me . Despite taking more care than usual and putting on loads of sun cream I was still well done by the sun. Unfortunately you just don’t feel the heat while swimming around in the water. We decided to spend a second night on the island and take the ferry back the next afternoon rather than cutting our time on the beach short that day and so we “borrowed” some deck chairs from the beach that one of the tourist companies on the island were renting out and decided to sleep on them for our second night (actually not comfy at all).

My pillow for the night.

The next day we did a little bit of snorkelling in the morning but unfortunately there were rather a lot of tiny jellyfish in the water which made it rather painful, especially on sunburn, then it was back to Naha, a bit of souvenir shopping on the high-street and a final night in osaru-oyado before flying back to Tokyo.

 

I’ve uploaded all of the photos Martin and I took to my Google drive which you can view here. I will take them down after a while as they take up quite a lot of room of my free storage so please feel free to download any you like. If you would like to download all of the pictures they are in a .zip file here.

Korea Day 4

My final day in Korea began too early but without a hangover which was a big plus, although I think I was still a bit drunk. The vodka of the night before had been joined by tequila and they worked hand in hand to stave off hangover.

Which was rather fortunate as I went with my friend HyeJung to see Nanta, a Korean cooking musical comedy show about 3 chefs and newly installed manager’s son preparing e a banquet in time for the royal wedding. A simple premise but a great show, it’s main theme is traditional Korean music, which is mainly rhythmic, but improvised on kitchen utensils and so on. It also has some fart jokes, pantomime audience participation and magic tricks. If it shows anywhere near you I highly recommend it.

In Starbucks after Nanta.

After that I wandered around Myeongdong with my former housemate YuJin who had fortunately moved back to Korea for a month just in time to show me around. Cheap clothes, a nice fountain being cleaned and some tasty food and then to see some fountains from the side of a big bridge.

After that it was time to get back to the hostel, pack my back and work out how to get to the airport for an 8am flight the next day, which was thankfully accomplished with the aid of the 3am night-bus. And then finally back to Japan.

 

Incheon airport at 7am.

Korea Day 3

Today I spent the day with Hyejung and Beth who very kindly showed me around Seoul. First was a trip to the national museum to see lots of old pottery and a very nice pagoda.

Next we wandered around the shopping areas and visited a Buddhist temple which had a lot of paper lanterns on the ceiling.

Then we went to an awesome restaurant called “Meat-ing” which is an all you can eat Korean style barbeque meat buffet, where I ate much to much meat.

And finally in the evening we went out to a bar/club where I drank much to much vodka, which wasn’t as forgiving as the meat.

Korea day 2 (DMZ Trip)

Today I got to hang out with my North Korean buddies! They are a charming lot, that’s for sure.

So a quick history in case you can’t quite remember what the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) is. The story goes like this: at the start of the 20th century Japan decides it wants and empire like all its Western buddies and so start attacking everywhere decides it doesn’t like Chinese influence in Korea, supports some revolting peasants, gets some troops in there to put down revolting peasants when the wrong ones start revolting, fights the Russians a bit, assassinates the Korean Princess, forces Korean annexation from China, fights the Russians again and ends up as the main power in Korea. They keep control from 1910 until 1945 when the Japanese are slightly blown up and forced to surrender at the end of WWII. A few months earlier the Soviets had declared war on Japan in agreement with the Allies and marched down Korea to roughly where the current division is (as agreed), anything further south would be under American control. Two governments are effectively installed, the northern one supported by the Soviets and Chinese the southern one by the Americans and allies. There is rather a lot of fighting (5 million dead a lot) and uprisings up and down the country mostly as a proxy war but the eventual dividing line is essentially decided upon by the Americans and Chinese and Soviets as an acceptable place to have a buffer zone between the communist countries and the capitalist ones. And so they build a big fence that runs right across the country 250km long and effectively separates the capitalist states from the Soviet and Communist block. Except that communism has mostly fallen and North Korea didn’t get the memo. The two Koreas are still technically at war with only a temporary ceasefire having been agreed so either side could “legally” attack at any time.

Anyway, that’s where I went today.

 

Freedom Bridge looking into North Korea was used to exchange POWs.

 

There are lots of mines everywhere. These happen to be by the 3rd Tunnel. The 3rd Tunnel was the 3rd of 4 tunnels discovered being dug by North Korea into the south, all in the direction of Seoul. When the South Koreans discovered and dug down to the tunnel and questioned what was going on North Korea first denied having dug it, despite the entrance being on the North Korean side and water draining out to the North, and the holes for dynamite pointing towards the South. Then when asked again they said they were mining for coal and had got lost, despite the rock being solid granite with no possibility of coal being present. To bolster their claim they painted the walls of the tunnel black and said it was coal.

 

There be North Korea. And there be the flag. You can see that all the mountains in North Korea are basically bare with no woodland around. This is because the North Koreans have cut the trees down firstly use use as fuel and secondly to prevent spies from the South hiding in the hills. The flag there is the 3rd tallest in the world. The two Koreas kept competing with each other to build a taller flag on each side of the border until the South gave up leaving the 160m tall flag of North Korea the clear winner.

The JSA (Joint Security Area) is the only part of the DMZ where troops from either side directly face each other. The South Korean soldiers stand half hidden by the buildings so that they offer a smaller target to the North and so that they can give secret signals to the South. Also a North Korean soldier checking us out with his binoculars while we take photographs of him.

Inside one of the blue huts, used for meetings between diplomats. The microphones down the middle of the table mark the dividing line between North and South Korea (South to the left North to the right). Me hanging with a South Korean soldier in the North Korean side of the hut. Since both sides use the huts for tours, use of the huts runs on a first come first server basis with the South Koreans not allowed in while the North Koreans are inside and vice versa.

I wonder if he plays much Playstation over there.

Korea Day 1 (actually day 2 because I slept on day one after getting to the hostel and being really tired).

During the school summer holiday I thought I’d take a holiday and visit Seoul in Korea for a few days.

Day 1 was to see the main tourist sites around Seoul such as the palaces, which are nice and big and impressive. They also have some people in traditional costume wandering around looking very cool.

Inside is a rather impressive mechanical bow thing which can fire 100 odd bolts all at once by using gunpowder. Further along is a big statue of King Sejong who created the Hangul alphabet that is still used today. It’s really easy to learn being entirely phonetic and only having 24 characters. He made it so that even the common people would be able to read and write easily instead of having to rely on Chinese characters or hanja. So that was pretty good of him.

Then in the evening I went to the big tower in the centre of Seoul which has a great view all around and also the best view of any toilet I’ve ever used.

Things What I Did on my Holidays

I’m now back at school for my second year of teaching English in Japanese primary school. I’ll write something about this and my whole last year teaching when I get around to it. Anyway here are some of the things I did during the spring holiday. In case you were wondering the Japanese school year starts in April as opposed to September. The Japanese don’t celebrate Easter either so there weren’t any chocolate eggs going around this year. It also transpires that because I didn’t get any Easter eggs even from Granddad this year as I am “too old and far away” that my last Easter egg I would have eaten would have been last year. When I only received one egg from Granddad. But since I was in Japan, Joseph ate it. Joseph ate my only Easter egg in 2 years. There will be vengeance.

Anyway here’s what I did.

Snowboarding in Fukushima with my housemates. Don’t you think my chic ‘90s styled snow gear is great? I definitely stand out.

A trip to Odawara castle on one of the only nice days of spring this year. Odawara castle was originally built in the mid-15th century and passed through various families as they kept having battles to take control of it. As you can see in the first picture this ‘historic’ castle is looking rather good for its age. This might be because the original castle  keep was actually destroyed in 1703 by an earthquake and so had to be rebuilt. After which the keep and other structures were taken down and sold. After which a villa was built on the site in 1901. Which was they destroyed by an earthquake in 1923 along with other remaining reconstructed walls and original ruins. Then the castle was built again in 1960 with the various gates only being finished in 2009.  This is a rather common theme among Japanese castles in that they are not actually that old at all and yet are still hailed as historic monuments.

Here are some cute fish I saw at the aquarium!