Day 12: Travelling from Kyoto to Ahara beach Okinawa

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Hello world,

(maddie again) I woke today at 4am after a wonderful dream but could not manage to put myself back to sleep for fear of sleeping in and missing our flight to Okinawa.

We did the usual things and decided to leave all the remaining food in the apartment as we knew that we would be carrying the backs for a long time today, and hey, shoes will always win over food (even though i did ditch two pairs on this leg of the trip, one old pair of sneakers and a pair of flats that had been totally ruined by the rainy walk we did to see the golden temple). So with bags on backs we left the apartment at 5:55am and walked the 2kms to the train station, Emmachi. While several buses had passed us on our walk (which was still dark) we have found when going short(ish) distances in Japan with bulky luggage, it is sometimes better to just suck it up and trudge on. For after all thats why we bought the packs in the first place. Having reached the station we then conquered the complicate ticket machine yet again, and bought our one ways to Kyoto (central) station. Upon arriving we found an information desk to ask about tickets to Osaka Kansai airport, and we are glad we did and were there earlier. We bought our tickets on the JR line and decided to head straight down to the platform. The train arrived seconds later and we found the non-reserved seat section, with the best spot to put our massive packs directly behind our seats we settled in for the 1 and 1/2 hr journey to the airport. As the train stopped at the varying stations along the way, it got fuller and fuller, to point which people had to stand (and shove Brad) to get in our car. Listening to music and reading an awesome book (The outlander series book 2, Dragonfly in Amber) I began to feel re-enchanted with backpacking. Brad has been wonderful with helping me with pack and repack the pack, and he now takes the majority of the weight in his pack, and I greatly appreciate his gallant efforts. In saying that my pack is still no feather either. We had made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, Brad had broke a plastic clasp on his pack strap which I calmly tied a stiff knot in the remain strap and his pack was once again ready for the adventure. We had to catch the terminal connecting bus to reach our departure gate, which was no problem, we checked in our big packs and settled down for breakfast, i had pancakes and Brad had a traditional breakfast of salmon (which was cooked within an inch of its life, which was unforgivable), rice and miso soup. we then boarded the plane, giving each other high fives spastically along the way, just because we had were so pleased we made it without a hiccup.

After the 2 hour flight, we had arrived, it was a tiny airport with no baggage carrousel, we weren't warned of this but the signs seemed to indicate not to go out any further, so confused we waited... eventually our packs appeared and we existed. The domestic airport in Okinawa is the smallest airport i have ever been inside of, we went to the rental car desk and enquired about hiring a car. The lady was very patient behind the counter and phoned a translator to help with the enquiry, having found out that the cost for the 5 days car hire would be around $600 AUD, we decided to take our chances on the public transport. We caught the another terminal bus to the international arrival gate where we jumped on the 120 local public bus, we were on this bus for over and hour when we decided to disembark on what we could only assume would be near to our apartment. At this point it was around 3:30pm and i hadn't eaten a single thing since pancakes that morning, but determined we started walking to reach the apartment. We figured if we walked down to the water and followed it, we would have to eventually find our place (as we knew it had water views) i was beginning to think that maybe the host had taken a picture of a poster of the view... but just as i was about to give up hope, we spotted it. Walking around a massive park we made our way to the lock box, obtained the key and went up to the apartment. We had finally arrived at exactly 4pm.

First priority was something to eat and a bevy... so brad having dumped the pack went back down to the Lawson convince store, with drinks in hand we rang our good friend Lauren back home to catch up and see what we had been missing on the home front, I talked a lot about little things that we hadn't included in this blog.

We are now sitting on our deck listening to the small (and when i say small, i mean small, Lake Macquarie gets bigger waves) lap at the white sands... we are yet to take a dip, but i can tell you folks, it will be one of the first things i do tomorrow morning, and i can not wait! it seems that there are several island wide announcements happening around 6pm, all in Japanese of course so we have no idea what it is about... we will try and find out for you in the 5 days we are here. Prior to this we herd American military bugle call prior to these ones, again, i'm not entirely such what for but we think we saw some soldiers down on the beach in front of our view salute. I can only assume it is something in regards to the sunsetting.

Sorry this is a bit of a long goodbye tonight, if your interested, read on, if not skip.

With sun down there are only a few lights in front of us and the beam from the laptop lighting our little porch, and with us both happily sipping on a beer and a wine we will also say goodnight. We made it to one of the furthest tips of Japan and we are still so elated to be here. This country is truly a wonder, we have gone from the busy streets of Tokyo, to the religious centre of Kyoto, we have experienced the commercialised epicentre of their theme parks and now we are hoping to experience something a little more familiar, the relaxed beach culture that we love so much of home. I can only refer to this section of the holiday as "the holiday within a holiday"... so many of our most enjoyed vacations at home involve the beach. So when we planed this trip we had a massive decision to make, either head north to wonderful freezing snow, or south to the tropic's... anyone that knows me, knows that while i have always wanted to see snow, i am most comfortable and feel the most relaxed when warm and usually swimming in the ocean. So final thought today, we hope everyone at home is staying cool in the summer heat and well hydrated. This trip has been nothing short of truly amazing, and it still feels so surreal that we are actually here. When we are old an no longer able to carry heavy backpacks, i know that writing all this down will be much more valuable than it may seem to anyone reading it now. It is so often that we take holidays and forget the feelings and things we have seen, photo's get put away or filed in an electronic folder never to be retrieved again. While we haven't had so many first hand or in-depth experiences with the people (having not knowing anyone to start with, makes it difficult) we have shared beautifully brief encounters with strangers, that i will never forget and hold them dear to my sentimental heart. My families joke is that they always refer to me as a Nana (grandma)... they think that i am over pre-coursious, or maybe a worry wart. I no longer see it as a negative, i just think i am able to appreciate the slower, smaller things in life, which require a little more time and attention to fully acknowledge their beauty. i think Japan gets this philosophy and in subtle way's they manage to incorporate this into their daily living, even though Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto are manic places at times... you can still find moments of solitudes either rushing down the street on a bike, praying at a shrine, visiting a museum or even while sitting on a packed train. All i can say is this, if you love travel, there is no where in the world i have seen (not that i have seen that much yet) that has surprised, impressed and completely made me feel safe, like Japan has. Little children still walk home from school alone here, which Brad and i were taken aback by at first, but they also have police boxes at each major intersection, we have not seen any bad arguments, car accidents or herd any bad language, people are just respectful of being in the presences of other people. Which i love, and try to do as the locals do. There is a trust of honesty here, whereby people don't pay when first getting on a bus but when they depart.... little things like that, or at train stations there are fair adjustments machines... so even though you may have gone further than planning you can honestly just fix up your fair. It is not all wonderful and i promise to get to that in a later entries but for now, Japan you have taken my heart...you are even more than what i could have imagined.

Sayonara for now lovely readers, we send you peace and love from Okinawa xo Bradaline xo

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