Okinawa: Once we meet and talk, we are brothers and sisters.

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I posted up 30 photos, which i'm proud of from Okinawa. I only had a weekend to spend there, but we made the most of it by renting a car, taking it off roading, island hopping, snorkeling, joy riding, fires on the beach, questionable late night swimming, fires on the beach, japanese ofuro (bath)... good times... keep reading all keep me posted..
- Zach

Ok, so next up for me will be a weekend spent in the city of Hiroshima. Instead of being cultural and riding the bullet trains of Japan, I expect to hop around the local JR train system of Japan as to save money in this expensive country. Did you know the most expensive city in the word is Tokyo and number 2 is Osaka??? Two most in the world both in the same country which I happen to be living in. Thank you very much for that luck..

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Photos

Okinawa Sunset
My weekend spent in the islands of Okinawa often ended something along these lines..

Birds Eye View
Arrival to Okinawa from Osaka international airport took about 2.5 hours. If only it was always that easy to go visit the equator.

1 hour into the trip
The great thing about Okinawa is that no matter where you may drive, you always see the ocean and views such as this.

Okinawa Kanji
Just incase any of you out there may be studying Japanese or have some sort of Interest in the language, this is the character representation for Okinawa.

Hotel View
I think we were a tad lucky visiting in the off season because our seemingly lush hotel cost next to nothing for the weekend.

Dodo & Jessie
Spain and Canada back together at last...this was just a little stop among many visiting any possible pretty scenery we could find.

Jessie
Walking along the ocean wall that helps protect Okinawa during typhoon season. This wall was seriously made up of hundreds and hundreds of multiton cement blocks.

Cave
We found a little beach tucked away from any main tourist spot that was so perfect for my first time to go snorkeling. This islands water was straight out of baywatch.

Group Shot
Getting ready to takle the shallow waters and test out our ultra cheap snorkel gear. notice the theme of cheapness... haha

Coral Reef Dislikes Me...
So it seems when you think you only brush up against coral reef you end up with a result much similar to this...

30 point turn
Yes, Autin Powers inspired this whole idea...it's ok the car is a rental and of course with insurance :)

Okinawa Soba (buckwheat noodles)
Ok so this lady moved to Okinawa from Tokyo about a year and a half ago. Soba does not grow in Okinawa so she imports from Tokyo and keeps her own field to grow noodles which have grown and become famous in Okinawa. The food was so delicious and she gave us omiyage of spider shells, which by okinawan tradition bring good luck to anyone who keeps these big guys in their house.

Pride of the Noodle
Another shot with our new shells and showing off the name of the restaurant. I'd give free advertisement anytime for this nice lady.

Okinawa Aquarium
Home of the single largest tank in the world. more photos to come...

My Friend
We easily watched each other for 5 minutes until i decided to take his photo :)

Wait, is that grass???
First time since leaving the US that i've been able to just chill out on grass...

Manzamo
Meaning: 1000 people sitting. Not sure where this came from, but it just reminded me of an elephant.

Manzamo
Better view of the elephant.

Manzamo
Of course we needed to enhance our views so we went beyond the marked off course and walked closer around the cliffs to see what we could find.

Dodo
IF at any given moment the group went down a notch in hyperactivity, this spaniard was there to kick us back into gear.

Comments

[Anne]

Great Pictures!
I always wanted to go to Okinawa. My karate teacher is also from Okinawa and now I want to go even more after looking at your sik photos!

[Jesse]

Oh Okinawa
Great pix my friend, good to see you posted the snorkling injury and the rental u-turn. What a trip! Can't wait to catch up with you again in a few months.