Okinawa Diary

at Cape Hedo

My journey started at the 18.May in the early morning. My flight with Vanilla Airlines departed at 10:00 and was expected in Okinawa at 13:05. Due to a delay I landed at Naha Airport 30min. after the time.
With a shuttle bus I got to the main hall were my friend from Germany was already waiting. He arrived 45min. earlier than me and together we went to the shuttle stop for our rental car.

I was pretty excited, because it was me who had to drive all the trip, since my friend didn't get his license translated in time. Back in Germany I used my car almost every day for work and I hated it but this time I was kinda looking forward to it.

We booked the car online in advance and the pick up was pretty easy and fast. Just a copy and a sign and ere I realized it I was sitting behind the wheel, notwithstanding on the other side that I was used to. In Germany we drive on the right side of the road, but in Japan it's the other way around, which means it was a little tricky for me at first. Instead of the blinker for example I turned on the wiper several times, or wanted to get my belt from the left side while it was to my right side.

Cape Hedo

Beside the fact that I used the wiper instead of the blinker several times I got easily used to driving on the 'wrong side'.

It was around sunset when we arrived our destination, Cape Hedo. From the pick-up-place to our destination we drove about 130km, and stopped at the convenience store and the beach-side on the way. When the sun was about to set we arrived at the observation point and had an awesome few at the sea.

Since we didn't have a hotel we decided to park our car at the big parking area in front of the Cape Hedo and sleep there. At first the place seemed peaceful to us but it turned out that it was getting lively at night. Several people came with car during the night, some were couples, some people came alone. Eventually around 1 am we decided to drive to another point to sleep since the cars that were coming and going all the time wouldn't give us a single quiet moment.

A few 100 meters away there was a fishing point at the side of the road where 2 cars were parked and we finally found sleep.

Of cause the car is not a comfortable place to sleep and at around 6am we were awake again. Sun was rising and we couldn't think about sleeping anymore.

We changed clothes, brushed our teeth and got ready to grab breakfast at the next combini.

at Daisekirizan

The day before my friend found a park not far from the Cape Hedo, the name is Daisekirizan and we decided that this would be our first stop for that day.

The entry was 850¥, but we had a coupon book from our rentalcar which allowed us a discount and we only had to pay 740¥.

With a shuttle bus they brought us to the entry of the hiking trails. In total there were 4 trails, one for wheelchairs, 2 bigger ones that crossed at some point in the middle and the last one brought you back to the entry where we got our tickets. Of course my friend and I combined the 2 longest routes and afterwards took the path that leaded to the exit.

Lion King at Daisekirizan

I guess in total we spend 2h at this place and saw a lot of cool stuff. There were a lot of stones that have an interesting shape thanks to the location close to the sea. We also found some animals like salamander and my friend almost stepped on a snake. Luckily nobody got hurt. 😉

We made our way out of the park and continued our journey. The next stop was the Nature park of Kunigami with the Hiji great waterfall. Again  we had to pay an entrance fee of 500¥. Right behind the entry there was a camping ground where you could set up a tent for 2000¥ per night, shower rooms,  toilets, fireplaces and everything else that you would need for camping.  If we had a tent I would have loved to stay a night at this place but we hadn't and instead we started exploring the nature park. Again we saw a lot of salamander, birds and dragonflies and as well another snake. Around the middle of the way we found a sign that leaded us down to the river that we were walking along. It said it's the 'riverside course' and we were wondering if it was really meant like we...

On the way to Hiji Waterfalls

walk through the river up to the waterfalls. Because we were unsure we decided
to take the normal route and look out for the exit of the river course route if there really was one and take that route on our way back. We continued our way and crossed a swing bridge which already offered a great few over the river. Eventually we found the exit of the river course and passed it to reach the waterfall. It was just amazing. And the water was soooo loud. We took some pictures and after a while of enjoying the few we turned back to go the adventurous route through the river.

at Hiji Waterfalls

Nakijin Castle

The water was not too cold but the stones we were walking on hurtled a lot why we tried to stay on big stones while making our way through the river course and I jumped a little when a snake hurried back into the bushes next to me. Guess she was more afraid then I was, but you should know that Okinawa has very venomous snakes. On our way through the river we saw a lot of butterflies, some fishes and several other animals. On the exit of the river course there was a green lizard who wasn't shy at all and didn't run away when we sat down close to him to get our shoes back on. On our way back to the car we grabbed some drinks, because it was super hot. It was something around 2pm and we still had plenty much time to check out the Nakijin Gusuku, a world heritage in Okinawa. The entry was 400¥ and included not only the entry to castle ruins but also a small but interesting museum which displayed the history, life and culture and other remains of the Nakijin village.
From the top of the ruins itself you had a beautiful view over the landscape and thanks to little signs you were able to inform yourself about the background and history of the important places at Nakijin-jo.
Slowly but steady it was getting later and we decided to drive to a public beach side. We parked our car and jumped

Nakijin Castle

into the water to get refreshed, ate some stuff that we bought at the combini and eventually watched the sun going down.
On the next day it was luckily not as hot anymore as the day before, but you were still able to walk around without a jacket. Our first destination for this day was the Zanpamisaki, a lighthouse at a cliff with another nice view at the ocean and then continued to Okinawa World, which is a little theme park that was really interesting.
At first we were a little confused about the different combination of tickets you can purchase but in the end we just bought the full access ticket. With this we were able to enter the Habu Museum, the Cave and the Kingdom Village.

sunset

The price per Person for the full access was 1485¥ thanks to our 10% discount coupon (1650¥ without discount).
We started at the Habu Museum. The Habu is the most well known snake in Okinawa and it's popular for its poison and that you can get Habu-Sake in Okinawa. The Museum offered a little show that informs you about the different snakes in Okinawa. Since I think snakes are pretty interesting animals I was pretty much into this show and absorbed the information like a sponge.
After the show they offered you to take a picture with a snake on your shoulder but we continued our walk around the museum and visited the cave shortly afterwards. I think it took is around 30 minutes to go though the cave. It was pretty crowded and the air was super thick, yet it was amazing to se so many drips tones were in his cave.
The exit leaded to a tropical Orchard with several fruit plants and trees, like pineapple and bananas. We looked around Kingdom Village for a while, ate ice cream and stopped at Eisa Plaza where the next show was about to start soon.

Okinawa World

They performed some traditional dance and did some funny performance involving the audience. Unfortunately it was prohibited to take pictures during the show but I really loved the sound of their music a lot.
We still had a lot of time after leaving Okinawa Wold and decided visiting the Heiwanoishiji, which is a Memorial that reminds of the "Battle of Okinawa". The park is super huge and nice for a long walk, but there are also some nice old Japanese man who drive you around in their Caddies for 15 min. for 100¥ and told us a little about the important memorials. Unfortunately only in Japanese so I was not able to understand a lot.

Cave at Okinawa World

After the memorial we headed to Shikinaen and stopped by a Starbucks Drive-Through on the way since there is no such thing in Germany (as far as I know) and we wanted to try it at least once. It was an interesting and somehow funny experience to order your Drink the way your parents used to order your Happy Meal when you were younger and we got a cute little sticker on our drinks that said 'Have A Good Drive'.
Soon afterwards we reached the Royal Garden 'Shikinaen' which was the residence of the Ryukyu families in the end of the 18th and became another World Heritage. Unfortunately the garden closet at 17:30 (Entry Fee: 400¥ per Person) and we only had 30 min. to look around but it was really really beautiful and interesting to walk around and see the old so called Udun Palace from the inside.
A last stop for the day was supposed to be the former navi underground headquarter, since my friend is super interested in army stuff, but we've been too late and just walked around the area a bit, before finding a place for the night.

Peace Memorial of Okinawa Battle

We stopped at a public parking area close to American Village and stayed there for the night. During the night I woke up once or twice because I heard some weird noise that sounded like a meowing. I was irritated but I thought it was just an animal that was roaming around and it would go away. On the next morning we left the car to walk around American Village and grabbed breakfast, then we wanted to have ice cream at Blue Seal, which is a super popular ice cream store in Okinawa, but I think it has it's origin in America.

Shikina En

When we got back into the car I heard the meowing that I heard the night before again and argued with my friend where it comes from. He was the opinion that it was just some animal in the bushes and I shouldn't worry but when I started the engine and drove a few meters the meowing was still there and I stopped the car after a few meters. I told my friend that it was coming out of the engine compartment and opened the cover. I thought I was going nuts!!! When I checked the engine there was a small cute kitten looking up at me out of the engine compartment. We freed her and kitty ran off as quickly as it could.
I was super relieved that I stopped the car and didn't ignore the meowing. I don't want to know what it would have been like if it stayed in the compartment the whole drive...
Well, after this incident we went to the Blue Seal and had our super caloric ice cream with Oreo cookies and Cornflakes. It was our last day with the car so we went to the petrol station and returned the car.

American Village

To get to the hotel we had to return to the Airport and bought a super expensive shuttle ticket (2200¥ per Person) for our hotel. At the check in we asked about the shuttle bus back to the airport since our flights were super early and it turned out we had to arrange a taxi.
For the hotel with breakfast we payed 68000¥ in total for 6 nights. The rooms were super clean, light and huge with ocean view and the breakfast had a lot of different food from salad over cornflakes and bread to pasta and rice and it even slightly changed every day. They also offered pineapple butter and I kinda felt in love with it. The hotel was located next to the beach and offered a lot of activities like a waterpark, jetski, banana boat and so on and also had a small pool. But who needs pool when you can lie in the sand at the beach?! ;)

kitty in our compartment

Starting this day our days became lazy. We got up, had breakfast, relaxed at the beach (I read in a book almost all day), we went into our room for a sun-break at noon, returned to the beach and got dinner at the convenience store.
One day we went diving with a guide that my friend reserved before. He asked me if I was interested and I really wanted to try it. It was my first time diving in forever and I had a lot of fun seeing all the fishes and corals... we saw a lot of animals under water, whose names I don't know and it was super amazing to see whats living there. I don't know how to describe the feeling but even though it was a little expensive (20.000¥ per Person) I was super happy I did that!
On our last day we decided to use the waterpark in front of our hotel and payed 1000¥ (per Person) for the whole day. It was a little bit like Takeshi's Castle and after passing one round you were already supper KO, but it was fun. I'm super sure my littlest brother would have had a lot of fun on this water park.
On the next morning when we checked out we got lunchboxes that we ordered the day before since we had booked breakfast but wouldn't be able to have it since we left at 5:00AM. The drive to the Airport took us about 1 hour and cost 14.000¥... a lot of money in my eyes, but we had no other choice. At the Airport we ate our Lunch Box and eventually I said goodbye to my friend who took the flight back to Germany.
I was a little sad that this awesome time was over but I know this wasn't my last time!
My conclusion? I've fallen in love with Okinawa and want to come back as soon as possible.

LIST OF COSTS:
Flight: 17.000¥
Car: 23.507¥ (4 days)
Gasoline: ~3.000¥
Hotel: 68000¥ (6 nights for 2 persons incl. breakfast)
Diving: 20.000¥
Other: (parks, shuttle, food and beverage): ~15.000¥ (for 10 days)
Taxi: 14.000¥

See you next time. ♥

Yours Miharu

overview of our route with the car