So after fours straight months of dealing with wild children all day, no breaks, no pauses, no time-outs, I went on vacation. And it was worth the wait. Okinawa is probably the most beautiful place I've been. Thinking back on the places I've been...'probably' is swinging closer to 'definitely.'
I think in total 13 people ended up going, a rag-tag group of English teachers who either knew each other or had some connection to the others in the group. Luckily, all 13 of ended up being not only very nice but also incredibly laid back, which meant we almost completely avoided the normal stresses of group travel. And the bonus was that we had with us not one but TWO Japanese speakers! You have no idea how much easier this makes eating, shopping, or doing almost any activity at all in Japan.
We stayed in the main city, Naha. It was a nice place, similar to those in mainland Japan in the sense that it was seemingly endless - city blends with town, blends back into city again. It had a much more relaxed atmosphere, however, and there were definitely a lot more non-Japanese people walking around.
Two days were spent taking ferries to small, outlying islands, and then lying around on various beaches. The first, Zamami, was beautiful, though the day was a bit cloudy. The second, though, Tokashiki, blew it out of the water.
Not bad, huh?
It was absolutely incredible. We rented snorkels to check out the coral underneath
the water, and - wow - no one was lying when they said coral is home to thousands of species. The sea life was incredible!...and scary. Being, in general, pretty afraid of stuff, it took me a while to get used to being close to fish and other things. Especially because some fish, particularly these little guys - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >seemed to find people super interesting and wanted to be REALLY close to them. And if you swam away, they chased you. Ok, so these fish are harmless and I'm a pretty big baby. But, right before leaving, Ashleigh and I went out snorkeling, and before you knew it we wer
e really far out there. She suddenly made a noise for me to look at something she thought was cool, and luckily she did, because it made me lift up my head just in time to notice a big, square, orange jellyfish about a foot from my face. That was enough to make us hightail it for the shore.So, a few other things I learned about Okinawa:
1. American military base = American things. I found M&M's, and Andy and I even had a root beer float (which was amazing, except that they put ice in the root beer first....so then the ice cream was all crunchy. Come on, guys).
2. They really love pork. The have key chains and postcards and t-shirts with pictures of it, or slogans like "We love pork!"...so you know I'm not exaggerating. They even play dress up with pig heads. So there.
3. People in clubs can do synchronized dances to certain songs. That's right, just like a movie.
4. You can see mongeese on the streets and live penguins inside a bar. Unfortunately, the penguins do not serve you drinks, as I had hoped.
5. If Mexicans thought they were badass putting worms into their tequila, they were wrong. Try a whole poisonous snake. Or how about two? ...pussies.
6. They can do amazing things with sweet potatoes.
7. Mango KitKats.
On the whole, the trip was fabulous. At the moment I am back in Toyama, where it is, once again, raining. But at least the rain is warm.
