Manless island Woke up and looked into the mirror, I saw a dark face with white torso. I forgot to put on tanning oil yesterday and there was a tank top shape on my chest, funny.
Today I headed off to swim. I joined a day tour to an outer island of Naha and someone came to pick me up. Later I found pick-up service is very common here and I only paid very little for local transportation in this trip. The girl who picked me up said she was surprised that I could speak Japanese, as she told me last night when they were making calls to all participants, some of them were nervous and refused to call me as they thought they needed to speak in English to me. But as I had already called them once, she told her co-workers that I could understand Japanese and so it was settled. This girl had been studying in Fuzhou for 3 years and so she can speak mandarin. So in turn I was the one who was shocked. She said she loved China, but she loved the sea more, so she decided to come back and devoted to this job.
After reaching the habour I joined another four guys on one boat and we were heading to the outer island. Another girl who drove the boat said we looked as if a 5-guy team. They wanted to talk to me but found it too shy to speak to a shrek-like foreigner. It was quite a speedy boat and I got all wet because water splashed in all the way. Luckily I got my swimming trunks on inside. We five guys yelled and screamed until the boat calmed down. Finally we could open our eyes and saw an island in front of us.
What’s next? How dared you spend time on thinking? Of course jump into the water!
Except for some staff and all participant, there was really nothing around but sand. The water was so clear and cool. I swam farther and farther and finally heard a lady yelling at me, like a mom calling a son back. She asked me to wear a life jacket. Oh mom, I don’t need this thing…
A 90% dark cocoa-like staff woke me and gave me a lunch box. I walked around the island after lunch and went to the opposite side of the island. Heck! It’s not manless! It was so packed with tourists on the other side.
In the afternoon, I swam, got tired, slept, got dried up, swam again, got tired, slept, got dried up….until around 4pm we had to return back to Naha. One of the guy who rid on the same boat with me stuck something on his back and later I was told it was his company’s name. I hoped it was imprinted on his back. I’d never be that devoted to any company.
Live bar After a great shower in the hotel, I went outside again. The first thing I got was an ice-cream with bitter melon flavour. When I ordered the ice-cream girl insisted to give me a taste as she was afraid that I would spitted it out after buying it. It wasn’t bitter at all, tasted just right. I got another red sweet potato tart too.
Again, I was on the main street, only and only place I could walk around.
I got hungry on the middle way and so I went to have a beer and a traditional Okinawa set meal. Took a picture as an evidence of eating, but later found that my skin was lighter than the colour of my tank top, which wasn’t the case anymore when I went on with this trip.
I saw my friend who was sitting outside another toy shop tonight. I got myself a tee shirts and a pair of stone lions, then I went to a live bar for Okinawa drinks and some music. I just meant to have a sip of Awamori but turned out this restaurant served in bottle and a bucket of ice. Tonight’s live singer is Jun, a guy who found passion in music and came here to learn Okinawa singing. His voice has the thing to move people, and I decided to buy 2 of his CDs to show my support. In fact he really sang quite well. He said it was the night of July 7, when Vega and Altair meet once a year. All customers were writing something and tied it on a bamboo tree. Suddenly two words came up.
Suddenly I found that someone squeezed my lap. What was that? When I looked up the girl sitting next to me continued to touch my lap, following the melody. Oh, I was stunned and didn’t know how to response, while some other girls were yelling. I turned into a stone. (I mean my whole body, not a particular part)
Soon my drunkenness responded to her drunkenness and we danced hand in hand…soon everyone in the restaurant stood up and danced together, all holding hands. The atmosphere was so high. Soon I couldn’t listen what Jun was singing…till later he said he’d like to take a picture with me and put it on his blog. Here we go! I took his instrument and held it like a guitar, hope he didn’t mind.
It was a wonderful night, I was a bit drunk when I left. Everybody was still there drinking and shouting. I slipped away quietly as I remembered I got to wake up early to catch a boat tomorrow morning.
I hid myself in the pillow once I arrived, but mom’s call woke me up in the mid way.
When I found out I needed to wake up at 5am this morning, I was a bit regret to take such an early flight. But of course I changed my mind soon when I saw the blue sky as soon as I arrived at the airport. The humid and hot weather and strong air con makes this place special – Okinawa. The southernmost prefecture of Japan but after this trip, it is a place where except Japanese is communicable, nothing is similar to anything I see in other parts of Japan.
There’s no underground, only one monorail is running through the downtown of Naha city. All station staff wear Hawaiian shirts. I could hardly see anybody wearing suit and tie in this 33+ degrees summer, how ironic if you think about those so called businessmen in Tokyo who are sweating in their suits, soaked and stink.
Anyway, let’s put away everything about Tokyo. Everything that I could see here was so different. Two significant things: Sisha and bitter melon. They symbolize Okinawa and nearly every house has a pair of sisha (it means lions) at the corner. Except for specialty, it is of course non-defensive to globalization. Here is my Ms S at the corner of the main street.
My stomach started rumbling so I went to the market place to search for something to eat. There were all kinds of juices and dried snacks made of tropical food but I headed for a cup of mango shake from the “Quickly”. It’s kind of a new thing in Japan. Then I bought a Sata-andagi, an Okinawa donut. It tasted good. The nice lady showed me all donuts and mangoes and let me take pictures of them. Going into the indoor market, they were selling food raw, without processed, different from those I usually get from supermarket in a pack. So at least kids in Okinawa know what is a whole pig, a whole chicken or a whole fish, but not fillet and processed meat in packs. So on the 2nd floor I found a place to lunch. My menu was braised pig hands and fried bitter melon with tofu, two common dishes in Okinawa.
Jasmine tea was my travel companion this time. People here don’t drink green tea but Jasmine tea. I think I’d drunken more than 15 cans during the whole trip…walking along the main street I took monorail to its terminus and visited the old palace of Okinawa. The main entrance is the gate printed on 2,000 yen money notes, you can check it if you have any. It’s rare. It was constructed in Chinese style and I was a little confused with the Imperial Palace in Beijing. Both are red in colour and with the same style of roof. Shame on me that I even could not pronounce the four words hung in the main hall. From the fortress I could see the sea. The sky was ever blue, with fat white angels flying and playing. You’ll never get bored to look at the sky. I took a self picture to make reference to the change of my skin colour during the trip.
Afterwards I followed a little kid to a rocky road; it was quiet, with old style houses alongside. At the corner there is a public rest house, where I found a young girl sleeping inside. Oh, what a peaceful afternoon nap.
Passing through the dragon lake (no tiger cave here), I took monorail again as I had to fully used the day pass. No one was sitting around me and I doubted if I really was badly stink. Anyway, it was hot. My next stop is…oh what the heck were those signboards…at first I thought it was an outlet but later on I found that it’s just a DFS. All I wanted was to cool down myself but none of those brands, so I just went in, tried to wear some perfume samples and had an ice cream in the food court.
After a short rest back at the hotel, I went out again for the sunset. Passing through a Fuzhou garden, I reached the only beach in Naha city. Disappointed to see some cranes at the beach side which looked like claws and also a flyover was right on the water! Anyhow there were many youngsters playing on the beach, with their school uniforms on.
Before going back to the main street, I went to find the poster of Audrey Hepburn. I saw it at a glance through buildings when I was on the monorail. It is called the beauty at a glance.
Naha city isn’t large and all eateries and shops are located on the main streets. All shops are selling the same things which I was not much interested in. I saw my friend Buzz outside a toy shop. Many are selling Awamori, a famous Japanese wine manufactured in Okinawa. I found a very special brand of Awamori and took a picture of the billboard. Sorry to be naughty. Having no idea of what to eat, finally I chose a restaurant with good style. It was a grill restaurant and I ordered something at its mid price level on the menu – Japanese steak with lobster. There came my private chef. Oh wait, was it the restaurant introduced by the guidebook? Oops…I went to an expensive one….who cares, I was on holiday!
I was so full and satisfied with the service but still I needed to spare some space of my stomach to have some tropical fruits. I got lychee, apple mango and passion fruit. Later I learned that no one eats passion fruits like this. That’s why I was confused when I cut it open…which to eat? Purple or yellow?
Today's schedule was too packed, I got no time to think and read a book. Lazy.
Today I headed off to swim. I joined a day tour to an outer island of Naha and someone came to pick me up. Later I found pick-up service is very common here and I only paid very little for local transportation in this trip. The girl who picked me up said she was surprised that I could speak Japanese, as she told me last night when they were making calls to all participants, some of them were nervous and refused to call me as they thought they needed to speak in English to me. But as I had already called them once, she told her co-workers that I could understand Japanese and so it was settled. This girl had been studying in Fuzhou for 3 years and so she can speak mandarin. So in turn I was the one who was shocked. She said she loved China, but she loved the sea more, so she decided to come back and devoted to this job.
slept, got dried up, swam again, got tired, slept, got dried up….until around 4pm we had to return back to Naha. One of the guy who rid on the same boat with me stuck something on his back and later I was told it was his company’s name. I hoped it was imprinted on his back. I’d never be that devoted to any company.
It was a wonderful night, I was a bit drunk when I left. Everybody was still there drinking and shouting. I slipped away quietly as I remembered I got to wake up early to catch a boat tomorrow morning.
