Hello Naha

PICTURES

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.