Okinawa
We had a morning flight to Okinawa scheduled. After checking out of our AirBnb we made the short walk to Shinjuku station where we boarded the Narita Express train for the hour long ride to the airport. Checking in was a breeze and within an hour we were on our way to Okinawa.
Okinawa is a completely different climate than tokyo. I guess before coming I had always just thought of Japan as a single region with a fairly similar climate. But after walking across the tarmac towards the terminal I realized how hot and humid it was! It is certainly a tropical region, and many compare Okinawa to Hawaii (I haven’t been so I can’t quite make the same comparison).
Although personally I prefer cooler climates, I was looking forward to the fun in the sun we were going to have over the next few days.
We collected our bags and picked up our rental car. I was a bit nervous to be driving on the other side of the road again. The last time I did this in Australia I ended up getting into a little fender bender. But to get around the island it’s probably easiest to have a vehicle so rental car it is!
MacDonalds
Our first stop was lunch. At some point on this trip we had wanted to visit a mcdonald’s to try the more region specific offerings. Now was as good a time as any, so we stopped at a local Mcdonald’s. I ordered an ebi burger, a bacon potato pie, ice tea and had chicken nuggets on the side in place of fries (We need this option in North America!)
It was the first time I’d had shrimp in a McDonald’s burger and I loved it! It was a bit refreshing to have some North American styled food for a change.
After lunch, we had planned on finding a local beach to hang out at, but ultimately decid to check into our AirBNB first. We take a little time to settle, and do some googling to find a beach that looks nice and is nearby.
Nishihara beach
Nishihara Beach is about a half hours drive east of Naha, normally. However, we learned that google directions is not 100% intuitive when it comes to driving in Japan (or maybe it was just us). FunkyCat was navigating and what we thought would have been a short easy drive. Turned into a series of reroutes and paths along what seemed to be small farm lanes and sugar cane fields.
I’ve learned over the years that getting lost, or rather taking an “alternative” path to your destination often results in some “happy accidents”. This time was no different. At some point we ended up in an open field and as we looked backwards we saw a pretty gorgeous sunset. We had to pull over for a few minutes to snap a few picks. Happy Accidents!
After a little more driving we finally arrive at the beach. By this time the sun was close to setting, the beach was pretty much empty and we had it all to ourselves. We dipped our feet into the water and to our surprise it was really warm! We marveled at how lovely the beach was, and how great it would have been to spend time here.
Sadly, we were losing light, so we strolled along the beach for about an hour as the sun disappeared behind the horizon.
Curry Katsu/Pork on Rice/Okinawan Soba Dinner
We were able to get back to Naha without any more navigational issues. We parked the car near our place and walked the few blocks to kokusaidori street, which is one of the main roads in Naha. Its a very busy and lively road full of shops, restaurants and bars. We walked up the street a ways taking in the atmosphere, though our main goal was to find a place to eat.
After a bit of discussion we settled on this small “hole in the wall” restaurant near one of the main intersections. I call it a hole in the wall because even after googling I cannot find the name of the restaurant, only a location. If anyone finds themselves in Naha, I’d love to finally discover the name of this place.
Inside you have the familiar Japanese vending machine where you order what you want and give the slip to the waiter to get the food started. We all were craving curry and was also curious about Okinawan soba because it was suppose to be regionally different. So we all ordered the “manage’s special” which had a little bit of everything. When it arrived it was more than a little bit and we stuffed our faces with good good food.
Blue Seal Ice Cream
On our initial walk on kokusaidori street, we stumbled an ice cream store called Blue Seal Ice Cream. According to Salmonella this was also an Okinawan specialty so for desert we all grabbed ice cream. I had the salted milk and passion fruit mix. It was very tasty and especially fitting given how warm it was in Okinawa.
We were all pretty tired and so we returned back to our place to crash. Tomorrow would be a very packed day with the aquarium being the main focus.