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Japan: a land of contrasts. A blending of the old and new, the serene and the chaotic, the quiet and the brash, the arctic and the tropical....eeeeeeh? (This is the sound Japanese people make when they are really surprised about something. I love it when a whole classful of students will do this in unison! Just say "eh" and draw it out for a long time, making your intonation rise at the end...try it! It's very Japanese and very fun:)

Okay, back to the confusion that is the tropical climate of Japan! In the north of Japan there is Hokkaido, home to the snow festival, and in the very far south, with parts being very close to Taiwan, there is Okinawa, home of beautiful ocean views and warm, tropical breezes (and sometimes a scorching sun!)

I travelled over a 3-day weekend with my friend Jennifer to the tropicalness that is Okinawa! What a wonderful (yet strange!) area of Japan to experience!

Okinawa is a 2-hour flight from Hiroshima, and is pretty far removed from the "mainland." It has its own distinct culture, that Okinawans seem to be fiercely proud of. The Okinawan culture is called the Ryuku culture. As it is an area so close to Taiwan and China, there are other Asian influences very evident in the islands' landmarks and food.

Our plane landed in the main city of Naha, on the main island, Okinawa Honto. As soon as we stepped off the plane and took public transportation, I definitely felt as if we were in a different region of Japan...all of the public transportation workers were wearing Hawaiian shirts! This is very different when compared to the more formal uniforms of transportation workers around other parts of the country. Ah, the relaxed island life!

During our first day, we visited Shuri Castle, which is a recreation of a castle where the Ryuku kings used to live, as early as the 15th century. I have seen many castles now in Japan, and this one is much different than the others. It has a definite Chinese influence in its design and colour scheme, and parts of it resemble a much smaller version of Beijing's Forbidden City.
On the first day we also visited an Okinawan village theme park and Mabuni Hill, both located south of Naha.

The highlight of the Okinawan village was a limestone cave, featuring massive stalactites and stalagmites, of which visitors can follow a path of about 1 kilometre (although apparently the cave itself is 5 kilometres long) and a quick glance of the Habu snake, a poisonous, indigenous snake of Okinawa. Visiting Mabuni Hill was a quick (we had to take a taxi to get there, and our taxi driver insisted on being our tour guide. Of course, we understood only some of the information being conveyed, as it was all in Japanese! He was very nice, and called his wife on his cell phone to speak to Jennifer, the American--a rare fare I guess!--on our return trip to Naha) but much more solemn affair. Okinawa has a sad, war-filled past, as it was one of the final Japanese battlegrounds during World War II. More than 200 000 troops, Japanese and American, and civilians died here, and there are stone monuments dedicated to these people.

My favourite day was our second day, in which we took a 2-hour ferry ride to an island called Zamami. Zamami is known as a good starting point for whale watching, but our visit was out of whale watching season. However, it also has a wonderful, and fairly quiet beach, with excellent snorkelling. I was so excited to snorkel! It was my first real experience (I tried it in Thailand, but didn't have much success at seeing anything) and it was amazing! The water was incredibly clear, and the coral and fish were so colourful and beautiful, and so close to shore. The weather was great, and it was a fabulous day!

On our third and final day, we ventured north to the Churaumi Aquarium, home to several whale sharks and many other beautiful tropical fish (I was excited as I was able to take pictures of some of the fish I had seen the day before while snorkelling!) The aquarium is located in a beautiful park set on the ocean, that also has manatee viewing and a dolphin show, and a great beach that we never got to spend time at. Little did we know that it would take about 3 hours by bus to reach the aquarium, which gave us very little time to actually spend at the aquarium (if you're travelling in Okinawa, rent a car!)

...and that was our trip, in a (coco)nut shell! 3 days later, and the tropical dream was over. I returned to Hiroshima a little pink, with sand still in my shoes, dreaming of the island life...

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