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Published: March 21st 2024
After the great experiences of South Korea and Taiwan, it was time to head for our main destination when we first started planning our voyage…..Japan. There are so many considerations when you have the luxury of some three and a half weeks in a single nation, so where do you begin? A country with some 150 million inhabitants crammed on an island where roughly three-quarters of the terrain is mountainous, this is one populous country. With a little research, we ended up on the island of Okinawa, the southernmost and westernmost part of Japan. Part of the strategy was that it was technically still winter and perhaps we would find more forgiving climes here….and we were right. We are always happy when we get off the plane and see palm trees.
We flew on Peach Airlines (yes, that is the name) from Taipei to Naha, the capital of Okinawa prefecture and home to about thirty percent of the island’s total population. Small in comparison to mainland Japan, but it had a pretty busy vibe about it. Our friend Michael flew in a couple of hours later and our latest adventure ensued.
We stayed in a hotel that was very
centrally located in Naha, making our soft landing even more easy. Our hotel was near the main part of the city, which made for a great jumping off point for our island exploration. As Michael arrived a few hours after us, we headed out in the early afternoon for lunch, only to find most restaurants had closed for the afternoon. During our search, we did find a place a name of a place that was highly recommended (more on that later). After grabbing a mango shake that was delicious to tide us over, we headed back to the hotel. When Michael arrived later, we had a nice pizza and some wine at the Coby Wine and Pizza Bar.
Our hotel had a communal bath and heated pool on the top floor for guests. This was not a real “onsen,” in the traditional sense, but MJ took full advantage of the facilities more than once during our stay. We would have even more opportunities to utilize this wonderful amenity later in Japan. Below will be the link to the hotel if you want to see what their pools looked like. These are more modern looking than most.
Naha has
a monorail, which can take you to many places in the city and we took advantage of this when visiting Shurijo Castle, which was originally built in the 1400’s for the Ryuku Kingdom, which for generations of Ryuku Kings was the center of government, diplomacy, and culture of the Ryukyu Dynasty. Huge stone walls surround this castle on a large hill, which fell into disrepair over the years. The Battle of Okinawa saw it almost completely destroyed. Rebuilt in 1992, a fire in 2010 severely damaged it, so they are once again rebuilding it, using the original designs and many of the same tools used centuries ago. The shrine is being entirely rebuilt indoors, to protect it from the elements during the long process. We jumped back on the monorail after this visit and eventually found ourselves in a park with a very nice view of the surrounding area.
We dined in a local corner restaurant that Michael found. It was rather non-descript, but the food was very good. We ordered several small plates to enjoy a variety of meats on a stick and a few vegetables.
Okinawa is a spread-out island north to south and after some
research we decided that although public transport could get you to many places, if you really wanted to do some exploration, you needed to rent a car, and so we did. Driving on the left is not a new concept to us, but it had been a few years. Fortunately, this was not an incredibly hard place to drive once you’re outside Naha’s city limits, so off we went.
Dave is keenly interested in World War II history and Okinawa saw some incredibly fierce fighting in the last year of the war as the Japanese saw American forces advancing towards the mainland of Japan. Okinawa was chosen as a barrier to prevent a mainland invasion. The name “Typhoon of Steel” captured the essence of an incredibly brutal onslaught. The battle was considered the bloodiest in the Pacific Theater. There were some 50,000 Allied and about 100,000 Japanese casualties in the conflict, but worse, almost 150,000 Okinawans were killed, died by coerced suicide, or went missing. The island was destroyed by munitions, leaving the remaining denizens with little or nothing. The U.S “administered” the island for many years after the war and still have a military presence there to this
day.
Our visit to the Peace Memorial Park provided a very solemn reminder yet again of man’s inhumanity to man. The park is extremely impressive, with the scenic surrounding grounds showing a stunning view of the Pacific Ocean. The museum conveys the atrocities of war and does not try to hide the history of the war here. As a matter of fact, the location of the last fighting of the Battle of Okinawa was on the spot where they built this museum.
An ensuing drive up the west coast of the island enabled us to stop at Sefa Utaki Sacred Site. In Okinawa, utaki are natural and sacred places where people pray. Seft Utaki was the most sacred place in the Ryukyu Kingdom. We are certain we cannot understand the spiritual significance of this location as we followed many locals climbing their way up to pray. This site was a bit understated and not exactly what we expected to see but we could sense the reverence the local were felling in their sojourn to this location. On the path to the shrine, we observed more than a few people down at a pond taking pictures of some small
creatures in and around the pond. Upon investigation, they were black salamander-like (possibly a Japanese Fire-bellied newt), and quite photogenic at that
On our way back to our car we discovered a very nice place for a sashimi lunch and time to see some of the scenery on this side of the island. As the afternoon progressed, we figured we had time for one more stop, and chose the Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters for a visit. Construction was completed in 1944 and allowed the Japanese to guard the airport as the tunnels were built into a hill above the airport. The tunnels were about 450 meters long and contained many rooms utilized to support the troops stationed there. Unfortunately, the headquarters became surrounded and although the troops fought bitterly, they perished, and the commanding officer committed suicide. About 4000 troops died.
The next day, we looked for more uplifting sights to take in and found them on a very nice drive north and west of Naha. The Kaichu-doro Drive towards Henza Island and Mayagi Island was very pleasant, and we stopped a few times to get out and take in the view of the surrounding waters, while
we watched a multitude of kite surfers and wind surfers enjoying the strong winds that day. We were quite impressed by the engineering designs of the bridges, with some of the “carved out” roads having some very interesting designs. We stopped for lunch at the equivalent of a Japanese/Mexican carry out and had taco meat and cheese over rice for lunch. Quite different, but not bad. The weather deteriorated as the day went, but we stopped at the Ryuku Mura, which was a cultural village that showed Japanese life from long ago and featured performances that we found quite interesting…. Drumming, dancing, singing and various musical instruments. Alas, after that it was time to head back to Naha to turn the car in.
After a rest, it was time for our last dinner with Michael and we went to a marvelous place near our hotel. As foodies, finding a quality local restaurant is such a nice treat and this one was fabulous. It was a small affair, you could not make a reservation, and although we arrived at about 6PM, we waited patiently outside with others for more than an hour. Once inside the food fest began, with many
small plates served. The food was delicious and the restaurant, although small had a very festive feeling to it that only added to the evening’s fun. The foods were outrageously good and well worth the wait.
After four very exciting days on Okinawa and great fun with Michael, it was time to part ways, as he was headed to the Philippines and we were headed to mainland Japan….and Snow Monkeys!
Where we stayed:
Almonte Hotel Naha, Okinawa
1-3-5 Kumoji, Okinawa
Here is the link so you can see the baths. https://global.hokke.co.jp/almont-naha/en/
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Piprey on wheels
Shona
Nice orchid
Hi, looks nice though the history sounds brutal. Folk music must be very sweet. Keep writing! Cheers, Sagarika