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Published: March 19th 2009
Hiro, hostel owner in Okinawa
I suppose when you pay $10 per night, a narcoleptic for a hostel owner isn't that much of a stretch.We've managed to find time again to sit down and write a bit more of our adventures in Japan. You'd be surprised at how hard it is to find time and a decent internet connection amidst all of our travels and hostels; it's kind of like the elusive holy grail - once you get it, you take your first opportunity to use it.
We are writing to you from Nagasaki, which is located on the northwestern tip on the island of Kyushu (but slightly south from Fukuoka). Since the last time we've written, we visited Okinawa and most of Kyushu via our Japan rail pass. Generally, this was the "warm" leg of our trip (if you can call it that); the rain seems to be following us around everywhere we go. This country definitely isn't t-shirt weather in February and March!
Upon arriving in Okinawa, I couldn't help but be reminded of Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita's B-movie classic "The Karate Kid II," and I wasn't disappointed. Everything seemed as lush and green as I remembered it from the movie, although I wasn't greeted by an angry former foe or a head-strong young punk that provided the obligatory villians
Naha by day
The city of Naha, Okinawa. in the film (just watch it if you have $3 to spare at a Wal-Mart movie bin).
We managed to score a hostel in Naha called the "Kerama Guest House," a rather conviniently-located hostel with a cheap price-tag and a quirky owner named Hiro. This was evident when we found out it was only $10 per night, and even more evident when we walked in and found our host sleeping face-down on the floor. Now normally I would find this odd, but given that Naha (and Okinawa in general) seemed to have a unique charm of it's own, this seemed only par for the course.
To make a long story short, we pretty much saw everything there is to see in Naha, and made a few trips out of town as well. Naha is quite a bustling little place, although it seemed to be stuck in a time warp from the 70's or 80's. This place did not have the high-pace, technological commericalization that Tokyo or Osaka had to offer, but that's pretty much what made it memorable. The culture and the people where just amazing, and some of the best food we had on our trip so
Okinawa bunker
An underground bunker in Naha, once used as a defense fortress against the Americans in WWII. far was here. Okinawa specializes in pork, and we had pork spareribs, pork ears, fatty pork, pork cutlets and probably pork ice cream (that last one's just for added effect).
We took two day trips - one to Tokashiki Island, and the other to Cape Hedo, the northern tip of Okinawa. Tokashiki is only an hour-long ferry ride from Naha, but it was almost a completely different island: very humid, nice and warm, and beaches that would rival those of any tropical Asian country. We met a nice lady on the bus from Wakayama who decided to spend a good chunk of the day with us, and we had a delightful afternoon with her, having lunch at the only restaurant in town and her trying to set us up with two Japanese girls she may or may not have known. Either way, it was picturesque, and the pictures speak for themselves.
Cape Hedo was a bit of a different story. We decided t chance it the next day in the wind and rain, and this required about four hours of bus time, three transfers, and a heck of a long wait for the third bus. By about 4:30
American warheads
unexploded (but disarmed) American warheads located at the Okinawa Peace Monument Park. we finally made it up there, only to arrive to frigid temperatures, torrential rain, and the worst yakitori I've eaten since I discovered Japanese food. To make the trip more fun, we also missed the last bus back to Hentona, where we were supposed to transfer to Nago. Thankfully the restaurant owners kicked in with their trusty Japanese hospitality, and they drove us back. Three smelly
gaijin in the back of their car in the middle of nowhere. Finally we made it back to Hentona, and then on to Nago. We caught the second last bus back to Naha sometime in the evening (lost track of time at that point), only to have need to use the washroom without being able to wait. As a result, we disembarked at the next stop, which was in the middle of nowhere with next to no lighting. The next bus didn't come for 45 minutes, so we tried to hike to the next bus stop, but to no avail. Finally, we turned around, hiked back down along a quiet road surrounded by dense Okinawan shrubbery, and caught the last bus back. The next morning we departed for Kagoshima via airplane, and for obvious
reasons a small, economy-class seat was much more enjoyable than eight hours of bus rides and a ridiculous adventure to boot.
After arriving in Kagoshima, we managed to squeeze into a ryokan - for those who don't know, it is a traditional Japanese guest house. Mr. Nakazono was the owner, and he made our stay incredibly welcome. Banzai trees, running water, kimonos, he ran quite the establishment! We went to the observatories on Chuo park that night and snapped some great pictures, and then finished up with some shabu-shabu dining. The next day, we trekked out to a volcano-turned-island called Sakurajima - we had a chance to walk through dried up lava fields (amidst very cold coastal weather, admittedly) That night, we went to an onsen (hot spring) at a hotel just below the volcano but almost right in line with the ocean! This was an interesting hot spring as there was a shrine in the middle of it, and the view overlooked the scenic, hilly gateway to Japan as the bay that opened to China. The next day, we hopped on the shinkansen (train) and made our way to the coastal city of Miyazaki, located on the eastern
Tokashiki Island
Beautiful beaches and water, on a tiny tropical island southwest of Okinawa. side of the island of Kyushu. We got a chance to see the entire city from a a fantastic park called Heiwadai-koen, which sported tall observatories, baseball parks, cricket parks, playgrounds, fantastic walkways, and everything was extremely well kept. THis was arguably the nicest public park we have ever seen... it beats anything back home by comparison. There were some weird haniwa figurines in the park, which were stone statues of hundreds of people from many generations ago. Check out the pictures, theyre in there!
After some traditional Indian cuisine that night, we headed out the next day to Beppu - apparently one of the tackiest, most vile tourist-ridden traps in the country. Alas, it wasnt that bad! We ran into a too-friendly Montanan there (named Mike) who was was rather creepy and offered us to stop by his place later.... nope, don't think so! That day, we decided to do the onsen thing again.... since, that was what Beppu was famous for. Andrew and I went to a traditional mud onsen, while Phil went to a regular onsen. Mud onsens arent all as cool as they sound - this was mud that other people had sat in, and
its not a pleasant experience to get someone elses uh, hairs, on your shoulder as you try to do as the locals do and rub mud on yourself. By the way, all these onsens require you to be completely naked. At this particular onsen, Michael stood up and stretched, and didnt realize that he was facing the women's pool. The few women that were in there had quite the surprise! They"ll go back and tell that one to their grandkids. Afterwards, we went to a sex museum. It is what it is, and you can use your imagination as to what that entailed. Lets just say the Japanese dont hold anything back. If you ever go to Beppu one day and see this, youve been warned. That night, we ate izikaya style food with the locals in a local hangout, and they loved the fact that the gaijin were wolfing down mass quantities of food. It was entertaining to them, but normal to us!
* UPDATE * Visited Aso-san, Nagasaki, Huis Ten Bosch, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Himeiji and now in Kobe. Too tired to write about this stuff, so pictures will have to suffice.
This will probably be the last blog we'll do, because we're constantly on the move right now with the train pass and it's just too hard to sit down and write these things. We might write a short one at the end of the trip, but we'll see. We'll have plenty to talk about when we get back though!
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