Living in Japan: Beautiful Okinawa! (May 2-6)

I spent Golden Week in the most southern prefecture of Japan, Okinawa. There were four of us travelling together: Julie from Saga, Renee from Ibaraki and Erica from Kumamoto. I didn't realize just how different Okinawa was from the rest of Japan! The fact that the culture and way of life are so different makes it a very popular holiday destination for mainlander Japanese!

When I got to Fukuoka, I got off at the international airport, instead of domestic...I didnt realize I made the mistake till I tried to find my airline. This is the second time that i've headed to the international airport by mistake, I did the same when Roxy came to visit...!

We had rented a car for our stay in Okinawa. We drove up to the north of the island, but spent most of our time in Naha. There were so many beautiful sites to see, and the weather was gorgeous!

Here are some of the places we visited:

Shurijo Castle and Park, a World Heritage site.

On the second day, we drove up to the northern area where we spent the night. We stopped by Manzamo (meaning: '10 000 people sit'), where a beautiful coral reef could be seen below the cliff.

As we were wandered down the path, we met some friendly people, took pictures together before parting ways.

Ryuku Park, a replica of an old Okinawan village with 100 year-old houses brought over from other parts of the island was also up north.

The statue of what looks like a cross between a lion and a dragon is called kirin. It can be found all over the place in Okinawa, at the entrances of people's homes especially. People believe that it will protect them from evil.

This was the restaurant where we waited over an hour for the food to come, and when it did, the proportions were crazy...but hey, we still had a good time :)

Cornerstone of Peace, found in the Peace Memorial Park, was where the last battle of the war in Okinawa was fought.

Okinawa World cave Park is a cave of long limestone which is about 5km long, 2km of which is open to visitors.Near the outside of the caves, there were many little shops where you could try different instruments, clothes, food etc.

We spent most of the third day on Aguni island, about a 2 hour ferry ride from Tomari Port. The pace of life on the small island of about 1000 people is slow and relaxed. There are no buses or taxis on the island, however people are really friendly, a couple of times offering us rides to where we we wanted to go!