I visited Okinawa last winter, whoops. But the weather being what it was, I think that this recap fits well enough into early autumn. My family squeezed this trip in right before Christmas, and it was a wonderful way to make the most out of the sliver of time between the end of my fall semester at school and the beginning of my winter break internship. On our first full day in Okinawa, my dad took me and my brothers on a bus tour (Mom would arrive later in day, delayed by a business trip), and on our second and last full day in Okinawa, the whole family went whale watching. As for the details, I’ll remember as much as I can from the photos I took and the little notes I wrote throughout the trip.
From the airport, our taxi wound up a mountain and dropped us off at our hotel. Being so high up, we got a great overarching view of the city, but that also meant that there wasn’t much immediately surrounding us. To get a taste of the nightlife, we’d have to make our way back down the mountain, but after a day of travel, we had enough of moving around.
Luckily for us, there was a Family Mart in the lobby, and so, there we got our first meal in Okinawa! If it were up to my brothers, we would have had every meal at Family Mart. I admit that I was tempted. Y’all already know how great Japanese convenience stores are! (Taiwanese ones are great too, but let’s get back to Okinawa.)
The next day, we had a full day on tour. Before loading up on our tour bus, we grabbed a quick breakfast near our bus stop at T’s Style Coffee. Step aside hot cocoa and marshmallows; we’ve got red bean soup and mochi!
Kicking off the tour, it soon became apparent that Blue Seal was a popular ice cream brand in Okinawa with shops around every other corner. Getting off at the beach for the first stop of our tour, there was a Blue Seal concession stand. The beach is the best place for ice cream after all! I had almond pistachio ice cream, Ken had mango sorbet, Danny had Blue Wave (soda sherbet swirled with pineapple ice cream), and Dad had beni-imo (purple sweet potato) ice cream. My almond pistachio was so good!!
Whenever I travel, I always end up taking a bunch of photos of food. In an effort to take more meaningful photos, I hunted around for other muses. Ken recommended this ~ distinctly Okinawan Kato excavator ~ (sarcastic).
The main event of the first stop was the Kouri Bridge, the longest toll free bridge in the country, running almost 2000m.
The next stop was the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, which held the title for the largest aquarium in the world until 2005. For some reason, I remembered the garden eels so clearly, and after leaving the aquarium, I started noticing lots of garden eel related souvenirs around the island. I suppose that’s because you can find these fish on the ocean floors of tropical waters, that of Okinawa included. I saw two types of garden eels in the aquarium: the spotted garden eel (black and white) and the orange barred garden eel, which I call the Nemo garden eel. Okay yup, that was why I remembered the garden eels so clearly–not because of all the souvenirs around the island, but because of Nemo. If you don’t look for Nemo when you’re at the aquarium, you are lying to yourself or you had a deprived childhood.
Found this sign by a touch pool, declaring no “star fish on star fish.” Call me immature for finding this hilarious. Other special quotes from the day were, “It’s very hard. It might be a rock,” and, “The little stingrays are so cute. Yeah they’re like birds.” We sat in front of Kuroshio Sea — the main tank holding 7,500,000L of water — for the longest time (Dad had to wait for the whale sharks to come around a few times for his epic photos and videos), and it really did look like the fish were flying.
Next up was Cape Manza, popular for its beautiful view and an elephant-shaped cliff. I don’t remember much else. After that we popped by a 土产店, which roughly translates to a local delicacy shop, you know, the shop that all tours take you to spend your money at. We bought boxes and boxes of beni-imo tarts, and I also threw in some matcha flavoured treats.
Besides beni-imo, Okinawa is also popular for its black sugar. Pictured above is a sugarcane grinder powered by a water buffalo (out of frame), which we saw at our last stop of the day at Ryukyu Mura, a cultural village. Other notable sights at the village were the performances and pottery.
On the first day, we spent the whole time on a bus. On the second day, we spent the whole time on a speed boat. My family lucked out in that we were the only people who booked a whale watching tour with our guide that day, so we had the whole boat to ourselves!
As a retired competitive swimmer who never exercises anymore, whenever I see a body of water, whether it’s a pool or the ocean, my body aches to swim. As we sped away from the dock, I said, “I want to jump in the water.” One brother replied, “There are jellyfish.” The other replied, “Maybe the whales will eat them.”
The speed boat had two levels: the top had three seats (one of which was for the captain/guide) and the bottom was for everyone else. My family switched in and out of the top seats. At one point, Mom and I were up there together and her Tiffany sunnies flew off her head, landed on the awning below us, and was making its way off the edge and into the ocean, but I caught it with my ninja reflexes. It was a proud moment for me.
The prime seating wasn’t on the top level though; it was on the bottom level at the front of the boat. At the beginning of the trip, there were a ton of waves and the ride was rough, so we had to inch very carefully to the front, and we were only allowed to do so two at a time. The second half of the trip out and the trip back to shore were smooth though, and we got pretty comfortable. I spent most of my time sitting at the very front, and Danny and Ken joined me as well.
Look at how tightly we were gripping the railing! haha. Danny seemed especially nervous. I told him, “It’s like riding a horse!” to which he replied, “I’ve never ridden a horse…” He’s allergic to animal hair so… that would make sense. He did eventually loosen up though!
We didn’t end up seeing any whales, but my brothers and I did spy two flying fish. Still, it was a fun experience, plus, we got to sit the whole time. I love riding waves so I love speed boats, whale sightings or not. In my notes, I wrote that it was like an expensive inner tube (all I ever want to do at the beach is float on an inner tube and ride the waves).
Weeks after our trip, our whale watching guide texted my dad with whale photos he took whilst he was out on another watch.