Sunday, November 6, 2011

Okinawa 2011







Last weekend I flew out of Haneda Airport to visit my sister and her husband in Okinawa, a large island on the Ryukyu island chain below mainland Japan. I left my place early as I wasn’t sure how long my route would take but the train system got me to the airport an hour before the plane took off. Taking the flight in the afternoon was an amazing idea as I got some awesome photos of clouds and the islands below surrounded by coral.

My sister picked me up in the airport and drove me back to her place. Once her husband got off work we went to a small restaurant down the street from them to talk over lunch. I had an awesome taco pizza appetizer, great curry fried rice, and tried pineapple wine. After that we went back to their place and laughed at their two playful cats while talking and catching up.

The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast before heading out to a local native town. Called Murasaki Mura it was a historical village designed to educate visitors on Okinawan culture years ago. As none of us were quite in a crafty mood that day, we just wandered the grounds and looked at all the crafts we could do. Scared that my batteries were low on my camera, I didn’t take too many pictures there, but I did get a picture of my sister with a green goya, which is considered a native vegetable and she was excited to see it still on the vine. (The green and yellow vegetable to the right is a riper goya.) I also got a picture of a karate studio of a practicing dojo. (Interesting fact is that karate originated in the Ryukan kingdom which became Okinawa Prefecture.)

After making our way through the village we went to a place called Sea Seed where they get coral seeds and grow coral to plant in the sea when it’s big enough to survive. They use a number of aquariums to educate the public while growing the coral and I got a lot of pictures a well as being able to hold a live starfish. After that we walked out on a stone bridge to a stone platform before going to the nearby sea salt factory.

With my time in Okinawa coming to a close, we ate at Freshness Burger before going to a Halloween picnic at my sister’s church. There we met up with a Japanese friend of my sister’s who brought us some kimonos to try on and we got pictures

Okinawa is an awesome place and I'm hoping to return there soon. For those of you interested in visiting there, here is a travel guide. I you want to see more pictures from my trip, visit my Flickr page and enjoy. I hope you enjoy the pictures as I had a blast taking them!