The biggest disappointment was Manzamo. It used to be grassland where people just drove up, parked, and walked among the weeds to see the cliff eroded by the ocean. Now they put up a huge building selling tourist craps and charging ¥100/person to see the cliff. What a ripoff. The old Ryukyu King called this place Manzamo because it looked like it could accommodate 10,000 people (Man in Manzamo means 10,000). With that eye-sore of a building in the middle of the grassland, the King would be seriously disappointed.
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| 万座毛 entrance ticket ¥100/person |
Needless to say, the aquarium is a must-see in Okinawa. It's one of the only two aquariums in the world that houses whale sharks (the other one is in Atlanta, Georgia, USA). Chura means "beautiful" in Okinawan dialect. Umi means "ocean" in Japanese. Churaumi means beautiful ocean.
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| 沖縄美ら海水族館 |
Ocean Culture Pavilion was amazing for ¥190/person. It housed two life-size ship replicas from Pacific islands. It had maps, tools, clothings, music instruments, pictures, etc., about island life. What surprised me the most was the museum claimed the earliest Pacific island life started around Taiwan/Philippines about 5,000 years ago and moved across the Pacific, landed in Hawaii/Polynesia, and then spread out. I had originally thought it was the complete opposite route.
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| 海洋文化館 |
Tuesday: Okinawa Prefecture Museum & Art Museum, San-A Naha Main Place
The Art Museum part was small but might as well enjoyed a bit of artsy stuff while we were in the Prefecture Museum receiving knowledge.
The Art Museum part was small but might as well enjoyed a bit of artsy stuff while we were in the Prefecture Museum receiving knowledge.
San-A Naha Main Place has dwindled. I used to think it was the best place for expensive and cheap stuff all under one roof. Now there are so many malls in Okinawa, Main Place was not impressive anymore.
Wednesday: Nakagusuku Castle Ruins, Aeon Mall Okinawa Rycom
Nakagusuku Castle Ruins was totally worth ¥400/person. The grass was so soft and bouncy; that alone was worth the admission price. The rock walls were amazing; they sat on top of the hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The wind was fierce, perfect for spotting invaders!
Wednesday: Nakagusuku Castle Ruins, Aeon Mall Okinawa Rycom
Nakagusuku Castle Ruins was totally worth ¥400/person. The grass was so soft and bouncy; that alone was worth the admission price. The rock walls were amazing; they sat on top of the hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The wind was fierce, perfect for spotting invaders!
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| 中城 Castle Ruins |
Rycom Aeon Mall: apparently they love Pokemon in Okinawa. Pokemon stuff are everywhere!
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| Rycom Aeon Mall - Pokemon Store |
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| Rycom Aeon Mall - Pikachu in traditional Okinawan dress |
Thursday: Okinawa Karate Kaikan, Shuri castle, Kokusai Dori
Couldn't believe we spent two hours in the Karate Kaikan. We did not know that karate was originally called "Chinese Hand/唐手". By 1930's they finally changed the name to Karate, or "Empty Hand/空手". It was a move to get rid of Chinese culture and influence in Okinawa and to pretend karate was invented/originated in Okinawa itself, not imported from somewhere, *cough cough*, China.
Couldn't believe we spent two hours in the Karate Kaikan. We did not know that karate was originally called "Chinese Hand/唐手". By 1930's they finally changed the name to Karate, or "Empty Hand/空手". It was a move to get rid of Chinese culture and influence in Okinawa and to pretend karate was invented/originated in Okinawa itself, not imported from somewhere, *cough cough*, China.
At least I finally found the English name of a weapon that I was planning for a girl to use in my story. It was called Sai, or a metal tool in the shape of a short truncheon).
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| 空手会館 |
Shuri Castle was burnt down on Halloween, 2019 😢 We still went to visit it, just to pay respect and pay money to help it rebuild.
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| 首里城 |
Another big disappointment was Kokusai Dori. Even though it sold tourist craps, it was still popular among tourists back in the days. Now half the crappy stores are not even open.
Friday: Okinawa Peace Memorial Park
Friday: Okinawa Peace Memorial Park
Look at the website; the park needs to charge more money. This was for Math Teacher; we're collecting WWII peace memorial parks for him. He found three people with his family name engraved on the plaque. For me, it was just sad, sad, sad. There was a video of a boy about five-years-old couldn't stop shaking after being rescued from the cave he had been hiding.
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| Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum |
I did education everyday!
We were very lazy people so we started everyday around 9:30 ~ 10am. Because of the road condition in Okinawa, it took forever to drive anywhere. Basically we could only hit a couple touristy destinations a day.
Roads in Okinawa were so well-paved, so smooth with barely any bumps. On the other hand, the dividing lines are barely visible for half of the streets that we were on. Sometimes we couldn’t tell if the roads were two lanes or three lanes. Also the street signs were so weathered the words were peeling off. We were better off using the GPS on the phone.
The biggest surprise was American Village. It has developed so much, so many new stores, new restaurants. So much shiny lights and so gaudy. The seawall and the ocean are right in front of our eyes. It's trying to imitate the beach life of San Diego. It's not quite there but good enough for tourists. Math teacher had the best coffee mocha at Zhyvago in all of Japan so far.
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| American Village deco |
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| Zhyvago coffee mocha |
Lequ Hotel: this was the hotel that we stayed at. No one, not even my own Japanese teacher, could decide how to pronounce its name.
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| Lequ Hotel - Pokemon display |
Credit Card Use: Okinawa still barely uses credit cards. Not in the Prefecture Museum, not in Peace Park, not in airport!!! Luckily because of American military presence, lots of restaurants/shops will accept dollars and give back yen. Unluckily they use horrible exchange rate!