Knowing that we would be headed out to okinawa, i started tracking the weather out there for at least a week before i went. the forecasts got worse and worse so i knew there would be rain while we were there. little did i know how much.
getting to the airport was no problem but once we were there, the flight was delayed for at least an hour. this gave us a slow start to the day. the flight took about 2 hours during which time the Brits (adam and clare) sitting behind me and julie kept complaining about how the crossword in the paper was catered to Americans while stealing our answers. we got revenge by taking bad photos of them while they slept.
finally got to okinawa and picked up our rental car. of course the car navigator is all in japanese (although we could change the "voice" so she "spoke" in english. weird) which despite adam's level two japanese and my years of not studying japanese, we found a bit difficult to use.
the hotel was nice but damp (this becomes a running theme throughout this trip), the four of us got our own little bed in each corner of the room, and we headed out to Kokusai Dori where there are lots of shops and restaurants.
we met up with julie's cousin who lives out there and we had some lunner (lunch/dinner)and did a bit of window shopping. this was pretty much all we had time for the first day as most of us were quite tired from the flight. we had a couple drinks up in the revolving restaurant/bar on the top of our hotel where julie and clare tried to figure out adam's riddles (being uninterested in activities that require me to flex my brain muscles after 3 pm, i contributed by sitting back and asking stupid questions).
the next day, it was raining (and i mean raining HARD. buckets and buckets of pelting rain) so we headed out to the top of the main island to get to the Ocean Park Expo that has the Churaumi aquarium which houses the largest single tank in the world. This was super cool. the aquarium is massive with tons of different exhibitions and cool fish and animals. we took tons of photos! the big ass tank had 3 whale sharks and manta rays and whole bunch of other stuff. the park also had a sea turtle house, a manatee house, and a dolphin studio. very cool. afterwards we drove by some old castle ruins but there wasn't much to see. the problem with all the damn rain is that it made it very difficult to do a lot of things. Okinawa is like Los Angeles in that way. when the weather is good, there is plenty to see and do. when it rains, it sucks.
later that night, we met up with john and david on what john calls "cocks eye" dori for dinner and drinks. then we went back to the hotel and passed out.
our last day. we checked out after breakfast and went down to the bottom of the island to Okinawa World which is supposed to show us all things okinawa. Again with the downpour so we didn't get to see much of the stalagtite/mite caves. we only got to go into 1/3 of it cuz the rest of it was flooded! saw the habu snakes and the snake show and the snake alcohol brewing factory complete with the vats of sake with the snakes inside. saw some pottery and glass blowing. interesting but somehow expected more. came back and did a bit more shopping and then just headed back to the airport early. i think we were all a bit tired. AN HOUR before we head back, the rain lets up!!!! can you believe it?! aaaarrrggggghhhhhhhh!!!!
the flight home was delayed as well for 2 hours which meant that when we got back to haneda, there were no more trains left for us to take to our various destinations. i complained like the mad woman i am and got us vouchers for taxis instead of having to fillout reimbursment forms for later which is a pain in the ass.
all in all, a fun but tiring and RAINY vacation. had a great time with my friends though, which reminds me why i love them so much. despite our snoring, sleeptalking disclaimers, we all seemed to sleep well and we had fun in our own way though we would've liked to have done more stuff outside like laying on the beach and seeing shuri castle and stuff. maybe next time!
