Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Ghibli Museum

Ghibli Museum

I am so tiny!!
(The robot is from the animation "Castle in the Sky")

Spicy Thai food

070131, Wednesday

Today my friends and I went to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. The museum holds work of Japanese anime. Since my friends love anime they were all very excited about going here. However, I have barely no interest at all in anime but still decided to go to see what the museum is about. For my friends it was as though they transformed into little children inside a candy shop :) They know all the characters so they had a good time. After going around in the museum we saw a 16 min long anime. It was actually a pretty cute story but still, I can't say that I am swept away by the whole anime culture. Afterwards we went to enjoy Thai food at a restaurant in Takadanobaba. It was very spicy and good :)

posted by xyphoideus at 7:24 AM

Disneyland

Entering the magical place
A lot of nationalities gathered; Switzerland, USA, Sweden, Thailand, Egypt and Taiwan

Cute head wear

Before seeing a 3D movie

Even the hamburger has the shape of Mickey Mouse :)

070130, Tuesday

I went to Disneyland, in Maihama, with six friends. I have been here once before, but I was 1 year old then so I don't really remember anything :) Disneyland is a nice, cute and magical place. The theme park doesn't hold any thrilling attractions, since it is made for children, but you can still have a nice time here as an adult. From about 1030-20 we enjoyed a lot of attractions, for instance Winnie the Pooh's Honey Hunt and Astro Blasters (Buzz Lightyear). We also went to a ghost house and later on saw a 3D movie. We all had a great time! Before going home we had dinner together at our favorite kaitenzushi place in Takadanobaba! What can I say? I will never, ever get tired of sushi!! :)


posted by xyphoideus at 7:23 AM

Odaiba

Cool architecture

Nice view

070128, Sunday

My friends and I went to Odaiba where we walked around to check out the area. After that we went to a kaitenzushi place. The sushi was great as always!!

posted by xyphoideus at 7:22 AM

Yokohama

070127, Saturday

I went to Yokohama to visit my uncle, his wife and one of my cousins & his family. Last time I saw them was in November so it has been a while. It was very nice seeing them again :)

posted by xyphoideus at 7:21 AM

Party

Delicious food

There are so many songs to choose from

070125, Thursday

Today I went to a tabehoudai and nomihoudai place in Takadanobaba with one of my classes from school. We enjoyed tasty Japanese food, for instance sashimi, for 2 hours. Then we continued the evening with singing karaoke in the Waseda area. We sang from about 10PM to 3AM!! Haha, it was great fun :)

posted by xyphoideus at 7:20 AM

Last day of school

Enjoying lunch together

A big buffet

Sushi!!

070126, Friday

Today was the last day of school for this semester. I can't believe it!! Where did all the time go??
During the last week, which was very tough, we had big final exams almost everyday. So a lot of people, me included, have been craming these last days and now it is all over. It is a very strange feeling. However, I celebrated with one of my classes with having lunch together in the classroom. The pizza was great. I have not had that in a very long time. Almost everyone from this class will continue for one more semester but for a lot of people this was their second semester and they will return to their home countries shortly. Therefore, in the evening, there was a farewell party for those students. Even though my friends and I are not returning home yet we went to this party. There was a huge buffet with great food. After everyone had eaten, all the students who are going home gave a speach. On the stage they were divided into their countries while giving the speach. It was very easy to see that all of them had had a great year at Waseda. Hearing them give their speach I realized that shortly it will be time for my friends and I to do the same thing....and that felt sad because I don't want to leave. I know there is one whole semester left but still, time will go so fast. After this party my friends and I went to sing karaoke. For me it was the second day in a row haha. After singing for about five hours today as well, we felt content and went home.

posted by xyphoideus at 7:20 AM

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Kenpou fight: Kagamibiraki

3 dan Waseda fighter to the right

070114, Sunday
My kenpou friends and I went to a kenpou competition held at an university in Umegaoka in Tokyo. Since we just had the winter holiday and have not done kenpou for a long time we all wondered how it would go today. The Kagamibiraki is a special type of competition also known as King of the Hill. Usually in our competitions you have a fight and if you win you can rest a bit while others are fighting and then it is your turn again. But today, if you won, you had to fight again right away. If you won even the second time then it was time for a third fight right away. After five won fights you were "King of the Hill" and then you could just sit back and relax. All five women members from Waseda entered the competition. To our big surprise we were only seven women in total, i.e. us five and two other women from two other universities. This meant that the Waseda women would have to fight each other. We lined up in two lines, three people in my line and four in the other line. It was best out of 3 points, 2 minutes fight. In the first fight I had to meet the same woman I met 061210 at the grading test. Now she is 1 kyuu and I am 2 kyuu. Luckily I won by scoring two points, so 2-0. Since we were so few the referees decided that we would only have one fight each except for me. After the two other women in my line had fought I would have to meet the fourth woman in the other line. This woman is from Waseda and has 3 dan. She is probably the best woman kenpou fighter in Kantou region and I understand why. She has a lot of talent! Just my kind of luck having to fight her, I thought. After the others fights it was my turn again. Actually I was able to grab a hold of her and toss her down, allowing me to get a point by a punch to the head. But then, as fast as she is with her punches, she scored two points by two very fast and very "nice" punches to my head so I lost with 1-2. I was really disappointed at myself being fooled twice by the same thing :( After this fight it was time for the men. A lot more men had gathered so they competed in the King of the Hill spirit. Only two men represented Waseda today. One, 2 kyuu, won his first fight. The referees called of his second fight due to his head protection almost falling of after his opponent hitting him. It is really a shame "losing" a fight this way :( The other Waseda man, 3 dan, did very well. He won three fights but unfortunately lost the fourth. It is pretty tough to continue fighting new opponents without being given a couple of minutes to catch your breath so he performed well. With all the fighting being over all the fighters lined up in neat lines for the closing ceremony. The people in charge called out the names of people who would receive a prize. Among them were the men who had won five fights. To my surprise, me as the only woman, I also received a prize :) We got a Burberry towel! Nice. After this the Waseda team went to have tasty Curry Rice at the restaurant Nakamuraya in Shinjuku :)

posted by xyphoideus at 2:27 AM

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Cats


070111, Thursday
I went to see the mucial "Cats" in Gotanda with my friends. It was the first time for me to see a musical and on top of that it was in Japanese! It was a nice experience, maybe not quite my cup of tea, but still a new and interesting experience. The performers are very talented at dancing and singing. It felt a bit strange though hearing "Memory" and the other songs in Japanese :) After the musical we had dinner together. It was a nice ending to this evening.

posted by xyphoideus at 8:05 AM

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Okinawa

061227. We had a great view of Mount Fuji from the airplane :)

The Kokusaidori

At the Makishi Public Market the sortiment of fish etc is very big

Pork is popular in Okinawa

Shisa figures


061228. Outside the Peace Memorial Museum there are many tombstones of the people that fell in the war

Navy Underground Headquarters

Enjoying the fish and the shrimps we chose from quite a collection downstairs

061229. Gyokusendo Cave

Delicious Habu sake

Me holding an albino Burmese pyhton

The local dish Okinawa soba

061230. The entrance to Shuri Castle
Shuri Castle

Traditional dancing.
Though women characters the dancing is performed only by men

Shikinaen Garden

An extraordinary location of a restaurant
061231. Nakagusuku Castle

Nakamura House

Me saying a pray for the coming year

Shuri Castle by night

070101. Is there a better way to start the new year!!?? :)
Me to the left and Claudia to the right

Is it Nemo?

A frog like fish

070102. The water surrounding the Kerama Islands is very clear

Me to the left and Claudia to the right

A red and white fish

Two sea snakes

The divers today were, from the left, a boy, Claudia and I

070103. At the World Expo Park I got my picture taken with a woman wearing traditional Okinawan clothes

A lot of sea stars which the guests were able to touch

Huge (!) shrimps

Beautiful coralls

Sea horses

The big aquarium is truly breathtaking

A sting ray looking happy

It is a great feeling having lunch beside the big aquarium

Cool sharks

070104. The cute pineapple car in Nago Pineapple Park

Tiny, tiny pineapples

From the Shell Exhibition House

Goya

Goya burger

070105. We were able to see a lot of fishes from the glass boat

Underwater Observatory

The famous Elephant Rock
Bios On the Hill

In the canoe with orchids in the background

The famous local dish Goya Chanpuru

070106. It is a very special feeling diving through a cave

A big fish

The diving squad, from the left a man, me, Claudia and in the background another man

A beautiful turtle

Me happy to be diving :)

The diving people gathered with the instructor in black and red in the background

061227-070107

061227, Wednesday
Starting from the 22nd of December to the 8th of January we had a winter holiday. Since we were free I went to Okinawa today with a good friend from my class. Our trip did not start well at all. We were supposed to meet at 0540 outisde our dormitory but unfortunately my friend overslept so I had to wake her up. She came down at about 6 o'clock and we decided to take the bus to the train station. We waited and waited. The bus came but apparently it was out of order so we had to wait for a new one. After a couple of minutes a new bus came which we got on. Everything seemed fine but suddenly the bus turned, where it was not supposed to turn, so apparently we had got on the wrong bus. We left the bus as quickly as possible and continued to go to the station by foot. We got on the train and managed to go Haneda airport. Now everything was fine we thought but just before we were about to go on the plane my friend could not find her ticket. So she searched for a couple of minutes and finally found it. The plane was delayed for about half an hour (should have left at 0805) but apart from that and our mishappenings in the morning everything went very smooth. We were really lucky to get a very nice view of Mount Fuji from the plane :) We arrived at Okinawa about 11 o'clock. The weather was great, about 24 degrees. It had been raining continously in Tokyo the day before and it was rather could so we embraced this nice weather! At first we wanted to check in at our hotel. We could not find it so we asked a couple of junior high school students. They took a quick look at the map. Instead of just telling us the direction they said that they would walk there with us to make sure we arrived at the right place :) They were very nice people. After checking in my friend and I went to the Kokusaidori which is a famous street with a lot of shops. We tried beniimo soft ice, which is ice made out of a purple like potato. It was very good. Then we continued to the Makishi Public Market where you can buy all sorts of fresh fish, shrimps, lobsters, fish, vegetables etc. On the second floor there are restaurants where they can cook the fish, shrimps etc that you bought downstairs for a small fee. The food in Okinawa differs a bit from the food in the rest of Japan. People in Okinawa tend to eat more pork. At the market we even saw pig feet and pig face skin being sold. After this interesting tour in the market we went to Tsuboya Pottery Village where there are a lot of stores selling shisa figures. A shisa is a lion like creature that many people in Okinawa have on their red tiled roofs. It is supposed to take away the evil spirits. We even went to a pottery museum. After this we went back to the Kokusaidori to have taco rice. I got really surprised but taco rice is rather popular in Okinawa. As the name implies it is tacos meat and vegetables on top of rice. They also sell tacos with bread but we wanted to try the rice version. It was not bad at all. After this we tried a fried cake with beniimo taste. It was good. The taste somewhat resembles that of a cup cake. We then went back to our hotel to get some rest. We were very happy to be in Okinawa!!

061228, Thursday
We left our hotel and moved to a youth hostel instead, (when we bought the flight tickets one night at a hotel was included in the price), since it is cheaper. It is very well situated with about a 20 minutes walk to the Kokusaidori. After moving we went by taxi to The Peace Memorial Museum. It was sad seeing all the tombstones and reading the facts about the terrible conditions the people had had during the war. Many people fell in the battle, about 200 000, most of them civilians. Though it was sad coming here I am glad we went since I think it is important to pay a visit here if you come to Okinawa. After this we continued to the Navy Underground Headquarters. We walked in tunnels and saw the different rooms where soldiers had made their strategies and plans, rooms where doctors took care of injured people and rooms where soldiers could rest. The conditions were not the best. The rooms were often so crowded that the soldiers had to rest and sleep while standing. It was very interesting coming here. Today only being our second day in Okinawa we already have experienced the kindness of the locals living here. Whenever we ask for the direction they always give us a kind answer. Often they walked with us to make sure we would get to the right place. Today we asked a man for the direction of a busstation. He walked with us and even waited for about 10 minutes with us until the bus came. Then after seeing us getting on the right bus he continued with his own business. That is really something special!! We went by bus back to the Kokusaidori and checked out the different souvenir shops again. Then we went to Makishi Public Market and picked out fish and shrimps for our dinner. On the second floor they grilled the fish and marinated the shrimps in chili sauce. We enjoyed this with rice and drank pineapple juice. It was delicious, especially the shrimps!

061229, Friday
After about an one hour bus trip from Naha Busterminal we arrived at Gyokusendo (Okinawa World). This place is a theme park and consists of a cave and a village to show how the life was in the old days. We started with entering the Gyokusendo Cave which is 5 km long. It is the second largest cave in Japan. The cave was full of stalagtites and stalagmites. It is very impressive and we enjoyed our walk while admiring the beauty of the nature. After this we went to the Tropical Orchards to see pineapple, dragon fruits etc. Then we continued to Ryukyu Glass Blowing and Pottery station. We did not try it ourselves, we only watched. Both of us getting a bit thirsty we went to a tea place and tried bukubukucha with a cake. The tea had a lot of foam and was very good. Reminded a bit of macha tea but instead of being green it was white. Strenghtened by the tea we proceeded to the Traditional Crafts Village where people wove and dyed fabrics. Brown sugar seems to be a rather big industry in Okinawa so we were not too surprised when we saw that there is a Brown Sugar Factory here as well. They even have a brewery to make sake. A famous type is the Habu Sake. The name comes from the poisonous Habu snake which is found in Okinawa. After removing the poison from the snake the snake gets placed in a sake container. This is a tradition that goes a long way back. The reason for placing the snake in the sake is to benefit from all the healthy components the snake has to offer. People drink this sake when having a cold, a soar throat etc so instead of just being a regular sake it is considered, well maybe not as a remedy, but more as a healthy sake. We had an opportunity to try it and it was very good! It has a little taste of licorice I think. As we continued through the park we came to a station where we could have our picture taken with a yellow albino Burmese python for a fee. Of course we wanted to do this :) Though being my first time to have a python around my neck I was not scared at all. I just thought it was very cool! After this we started to get hungry so we decided to try the local dish Okinawa Soba. It consists of noodles and pork in a soup base. The pork parts were lean meat, fat and a thin slice of skin. It was good. For drinks we had coke with a bit brown sugar ice on top. After the meal we continued to the Snake Show. Once again we could have our picture taken with a pyhton but this time for free. This was not an albino, the colours were brown/black. It was a fun and interesting show where you got to see snakes and learn more about them. In the end there was a water race between a snake and a mongoose, the mongoose won. The show made us more interested in snakes so we continuted to the Snake Museum to learn more. It was very interesting. Before taking the bus back to the youth hostel we tried goya ice cream. Goya is a special type of cucumber in Okinawa and it is very bitter. Since we had the ice cream version we had no problems with any bitterness at all :) The ice was delicious!

061230, Saturday
Today we went to visit Shuri Castle, which was the palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom. Unfortunately most of it got destroyed in WW2 so the castle you see today is mainly restorations. After the castle we went to Shikinaen Garden, which was the second residence of the Ryukyu Kings. For dinner we went to a restaurant that is built in a big fake tree. It looks cool and we had a nice view while eating.

061231, Sunday
We went to central Okinawa to go to Nakagusuku Castle. Though there is not much left but ruins it is one of the Unesco World Heritage Sites. Unfortunately the bus connections for getting to this castle are not too good so we started walking. It is not so easy to find so we asked one of the locals for the direction. At first he explained where it is but said that it is rather far. So he actually offered to drive us there! We were lucky to meet him because it was pretty far away. After driving us to the castle he explained the easiest way to get back again. My friend and I were so happy to witness this pure kindness! :) From the castle we walked for about ten minutes to get to the Nakamura House. Late in the evening we went back to our youth hostel for a quick stop. Since it is the last day of the year today we decided to go to a shrine by the ocean. We arrived there at about 2030. It was somewhat of a festival mood and there were stands where you could buy food. Not too many people had come. We had something to eat but felt that there were just too few people here. So we decided to go to Shuri Castle, which we went to yesterday. Before leaving the shrine both of us said a pray, wishing the coming year to be prosperous in every way. Yesterday we went to Shuri Castle in the daytime so it was nice seeing it by night, nicely lit up, this time. To our surprise we were practically alone. Unfortunately we had to leave early since the last (!) monorail would leave at 2330!! Unbelievable! New Year does not seem to be such a big thing in Okinawa. We feared that we would have to celebrate the new year in the monorail but actually we did not. Instead, the last day of year 2006 my friend and I were in a supermarket buying breakfast for tomorrow!!! What can I say, i have never celebrated New Year in a supermarket before. When we got back to the youth hostel we did our best to celebrate by drinking some Okinawan pineapple sake which was delicious!

070101, Monday
Is there a better way to start the new year than going diving? My friend and I did not think so. That is why we yesterday booked a time for beach diving today and for boat diving tomorrow. We waited outside the youth hostel for the diving personnel to come pick us up at 8 o'clock. It took us about 40 minutes to get to the beach Sunabe No. 1 by car. Apparently it is not so popular going diving on the first of January hehe so we were only three: the instructor, my friend and I. This was perfect since my friend has not been diving for a couple of years and I am not too experienced myself. In the beginning I had some problems with my ears while descending but then it got better. Our first dive was a refresh dive where we had to show the instructor that we under water were able to take out the regulator from our mouth, toss it behind our back, find it and then safely put it back in our mouth again. The other thing we had to do was to fill our mask with water and then empty it. After successfully doing this it was time to play :) The first dive was 38 minutes long and our deepest depth was 8 meters. The air and water temperature were the same, 22 degrees Celsius. The visibility was 10-15 meters. We saw beautiful soft and hard coralls, a lot of colorful fish including Nemo and his cousins (clown fish). It was great! The instructor had a camera so he shot pictures of different fish and of my friend and I :) Time flew by. We left the water to rest for about 10 minutes then we went down again. This dive lasted for 30 minutes and the deepest depth was 18 meters. The air and water temperature were the same as before, as was the visibility. In the second dive both my friend and I felt more relaxed and it was easier to dive compared to our first dive. I still had a bit problems with my ears but except that everything was fine. It was truly a great feeling diving in this beautiful ocean! We saw about the same types of fish that we saw in the first dive; Clown fish, Parrot fish, Doctor fish, Fire fish etc. We also saw a couple of blue seastars. As in the first dive time flew by even in the second dive and it was time to leave the water. If we could we sure would have liked to dive more. We went back to the diving company by car and wrote our logg book. Since it was the first day of the year the diving company treated us with some special Japanese New Year's food. We were hungry and the food was great. It was still pretty warm, about 22 degrees Celsius, so my friend and I went to suntan for about an hour. It was really cold and rainy when we left Tokyo so we were happy about this nice weather. We were a bit tired after the diving so we went back to the youth hostel to watch some movies and rest. It was really great diving today and I cannot think of a better way to start the year :)

070102, Tuesday
Having had such a great time yesterday diving from the beach we went to dive from a boat today. We got picked up at 0740 and drove to the boat which after about 40 minutes brought us to The Kerama Islands. The first dive took place at a spot called Dragon Lady. Today I had no ear problems but instead I had problems with the weights. A had too little weight which meant that I kept going up even though I tried to stay down. This bothered me a bit but apart from that everything was great. We saw beautiful fish and coralls again in this dive which lasted for 41 minutes. The deepest depth was 21 meters. The air temperature was 23 degrees Celsius and the water temperature was 22 degrees Celsius. The visibility was about 20 meters. We got on the boat again and drove to the next stop which was Touma, not too far away from Dragon Lady, to have our second dive. Before I jumped into the water I put on some more weight. Having done this I had no problems anymore moving in the water. While we were descending we saw a poisonous sea snake. When we had descended we saw in one place fish to such an extent that it really felt like we were in an aquarium! We saw two more sea snakes that were playing with eachother. The instructor showed us a "cleaning shrimp" among the coralls. As I put out my hand it started cleaning my fingers hehe. We continued our journey in the water to coralls where a lot of small blue fish were gathered. The instructor wrote on his board that he would show us something so we should sit down and wait. He swam to the coralls and pretended to attack the fish. Then all the fish swam in unison to hide in the coralls. As soon as the instructor stepped back all the fish protruded in unison again. He pretended to attack them again and the fish responded in the same way with hiding in the coralls in unison. It was great watching this beautiful unison swimming of the fish. The second dive lasted for 43 minutes and the deepest depth was 11,6 meters. The air and water temperatures as well as the visibility were the same as before. After this we had a break for about 50 minutes. The captain had caught a tuna while we were diving so we had sashimi on the boat :) It was delicious. Strenghtened by the food my friend and I decided to snorkel a bit before the third and last dive. The water was clear and we saw a lot of fish. We even saw two sea snakes again. We kept our distance but in some way we must have disturbed them since they stopped playing and came swimming in my direction! They stook out their heads in the surface and looked in my way. I was really surprised and felt a bit uncomfortable. We wore wet suits so if they would have bitten us the bite would probably not have gone through the suit but still, they are poisonous so you have to show respect for them! A bit shocked after this we snorkelled back to the boat to go to the last stop Ariga Minami. We saw a lot of fish and blue sea stars. We even got to see a big turtle as it was swimming towards the surface to get air. It was great seeing this! We dove for 35 minutes and the deepest depth was 14,6 meters. Both the air and water temperature was 23 degrees Celsius and the visibility was 30 meters. This last dive was a bit different from the previous two since it was a rescue dive. In the first two dives the captain used the anchor to prevent the boat from moving but in the last dive we did a giant stride from the boat and then the boat went away. When we were done diving the instructor sent up a red "rescue balloon" to point out our position to the captain. The boat then came towards us and the people on board threw out a lifebuoy. I grabbed hold on it and was taken safely on board the boat. When the others also had returned safely to the boat we returned back. My friend and I were a bit tired so we fell alseep on the deck hehe. We wrote our logg book when we came back to the diving company. It was now about 5 o'clock. We went to the youth hostel to rest. My friend and I thought that we would leave the youth hostel tomorrow for a hotel in Nago (west coast of central Okinawa) but apparently my friend had unfortunately got the dates mixed up so we found out that we have to go to Nago tonight!! We packed our things and left Naha by bus. After about 2,5 hours we arrived in Nago. To our surprise our hotel is in the middle of nowhere so we had to take a taxi to find the place. We quickly understood that travelling in Nago will be more complicated than travelling in Naha. In Naha our youth hostel was very close to the Kokusaidori, the monorail and Naha busterminal but the only thing our hotel in Nago is close to is the beach that we have just outside our window :)

070103, Wednesday
Today it is one week ago we arrived in Okinawa, unbelievable!! Today we took the taxi to visit the World Expo Park, which is one of the largest aquariums in the world! We arrived at about 10 o'clock and the place was so impressive that we stayed until it closed at 1730!! Time flew by. We were able to touch different kinds of sea stars, including the blue sea star that we have seen several times while diving :) We also recognized a lot of fish in the aquarium from our diving adventures. To our surprise we met a couple here that we went diving with yesterday hehe. The park consists of several aquariums that differ in size. The biggest of them is extremely impressive! It holds two huge whale sharks, other kinds of smaller sharks, mantra rays, sting rays, tuna fish etc :) For us it was impossible to just pass this aquarium without stopping for a couple of minutes to admire these beautiful creatures! Non the less we actually also managed to go to the Okichan Theather (within the park) to see a short movie about the different creatures in the sea around Okinawa. After this it was time to see a nice dolphin show. Then we went back to the big aquarium again and had lunch while sitting next to it! It was great that we could enjoy our lunch while having nothing between us and all these creatures except a 60 cm glass wall. It was breathtaking to see all these sharks and sting rays pass us by :) Actually while we were eating it was about 3 o'clock, the time when the sharks etc are getting fed, so we were able to see this too. The almost 8 hours we spent at this place felt like not even 2 hours. If we could have had we would have stayed longer. You just cannot help getting stunned when you see this big aquarium!!! :)

070104, Thursday
We went to Nago Pineapple Park where we, while being in an automatic driven pineapple car, could see a park where they grow pineapples. We saw tiny, cute pineapples. After this we went to the Shell Exhibition House. It was very nice. Then we came to the shop where we for free could try all the pineapple products. Among them are pineapple wine, pineapple juice, pineapple candy, different kinds of pineapple cakes etc. They also have a stand where you can eat as much fresh pineapple as you want for free. It was delicious! After leaving this place we just had to buy a pineapple soft ice cream, of course hehe. We went on to the Goya Park where goya are grown. We continued on the same track as we went to the Goya House to have a goya burger. Well, the burger is not really made out of goya. It is a plain burger, but on top of the meat you have a slice of cut goya mixed with egg to an omelett-ish kind of thing. The hamburger was great because preparing it this way we could not really taste the bitterness of the goya. After the lunch we went to the Neo Park, which is really close by. There we hopped into a small train that took us through a zoo where we saw flamingos, ostriches, donkeys, lamas etc. Taking the taxi back to our hotell we arrived at about 5 o'clock. There are not too many buses here so we had to travel by taxi while being in Nago. Since my friend and I just cannot get enough of diving we called the diving company in Naha to book a time for the 6th :) We have been diving with them a lot lately so they were able to offer us a bit discount. Great! After the phone call we rested a bit in our room before joining the owners of the hotel and the other guests downstairs. We had a great time chatting with the others while drinking the local sake Awamori.

070105, Friday
We checked out from the hotel early in the morning. Some of the guests were having breakfast at the time but they stopped eating to wave goodbye to us. When my friend and I sat in our taxi and the driver started to drive away from the hotel the owners and some of the guests kept waving goodbye to us. We enjoyed staying at this hotell. Though poorly situated in terms of getting hold of local transportation the people at the hotell were great! We were a bit sad to leave but....show must go on. Taking the taxi to Nago Busterminal we went by bus to Busena Resort Underwater Observatory. We went on a glassboat and could see fish through the glass in the bottom of the boat. It was nice but having already went diving and going to the World Expo Park we were not too excited. However, it is not a fair comparison! After the boat trip we went to the Underwater Observatory, which is a tower in the water. Walking down the stairs we descended to a depth of about 3-4 meters and could see fish through glass holes. It was nice but compared to the diving not too spectacular. Then we took a taxi to get to Bios On the Hill. Our driver was really one of a kind. He kept joking a lot with us and showed us different pamphlets of things to see in Okinawa. On our way to Bios On the Hill he suggested to take us to the Elephant Rock as a service. It is a famous place so we accepted the offer. He took our picture and gave us a qucik tour of the place. After this visit we continued to Bios On the Hill. He asked us if we were going to Naha later. After we said yes he suggested that he could drive us there for a special price. It would be cheaper than us taking the bus, as we had planned, so we accepted. When we got to Bios On the Hill he gave us a quick tour of the place even here and took our picture haha. Then my friend and I continued on our own while the driver rested in the taxi. My friend and I went on a boat trip. It felt like we were in the Amazonas when we saw all these green vegetation. We also saw a lot of orchids and even butterflies and birds. After the boat trip, which lasted for about 20 minutes, my friend and I decided to rent a canoe for half an hour to make our own trip in the same water. Now we could decide the route on our own and it was really fun canoeing. After this we walked around in the park and saw more orchids and even an ox and some goats. We were satisfied with our visit and went back to the taxi driver who drove us back to Naha. The ride took about 1,5 hours. Before leaving us the driver gave us some mandarins which he had bought in Nago. He was really one of a kind :) It was a nice feeling getting back to the same youth hostel that we had stayed at before. Since my friend and I have spent quite some time in Naha we missed this place a bit while being in Nago. We were both happy to be back. We thought that we would probably return to Naha in the evening if we took the bus but thanks to our lucky star that we met this taxi driver we were back in Naha at about 3 o'clock. It was great because now we had a lot of time to buy souvenirs from the shops at the Kokusaidori. While we were looking at some items we happened to meet a couple that we met for the first time yesterday at the hotel in Nago. What are the odds hehe :) Done with the shopping we decided to try the local food "Goya Chanpuru" which consists of goya, tofu, pork and egg. Since neither my friend nor I like goya that much we only ordered one dish of this famous food and the other dish was a steak. In this way we could try both. The goya chanpuru was ok, a bit bitter though, so I must admit that I preferred the steak and so did my friend. However, I am happy we tried the dish!!

070106, Saturday
Today being our next last day in Okinawa we wanted to spent it by going diving...AGAIN! :) The personnel picked us up at 8 o'clock and we were happy to see that we would have the same instructor as we had had on the 2nd of January. We went by boat to the Kerama Islands again but we would go to different spots than the ones we had gone to before. The first spot was Kamiyama Minami. We did not see too many fishes but we got to see a sleeping white tip shark in a cave!! I was about 4-5 meters away from it and it was very cool :) Not wanting to disturb the shark so it would wake up we continued with our route. The instructor wrote on the board that we would swim through a cave. He swam in first with the flashlight to make sure that it was safe. After the instructor it was my turn and then the others followed. It was cool but a bit scary. Somehow it just feels safer to dive in open water but luckily we had no problems at all. The dive lasted for 42 minutes and the deepest depth was 13,1 meters. The air temperature was 17 degrees Celsius and the water was 22 degrees. The visibility was 25 meters. After a couple of minutes of rest it was time for our second dive at the spot Naganu Isanbashi Mae. Once again I saw a sea snake. I made sure I was at a safe distance so it would not feel threatened. Unfortunately this second dive did not start too well for me :( Only after a couple of minutes I wanted to clear my mask since I could not see so well due to some mist on my mask. After filling the mask with some water I was about to empty it. Apparently my mind was somewhere else since I made a mistake that I have never ever done before. When I thought I was emptying the mask I actually filled it with more water. Not at all expecting this to happen I got really surprised. The mask got completely filled with water and I could not see anything at all. I started to panic a bit and my breathing got a bit irregular for a few seconds. I probably accidentally swallowed some water through the nose. During these first couple of seconds I must admit that I got really scared!! Then I managed to calm myself down and started breathing normally again. I reached the surface, emptied the mask properly and took a couple of deep breaths before going down again. The first couple of minutes I was still a bit shaken of what had happened but then I was able to relax more and more. We dove through a cave again and the instructor showed us a huge shrimp, about 50-60 cm long, that lives in the cave. It was very cool. After having dived for 49 minutes it was time to return to the boat. The deepest depth was 13,1 meters. As in the first dive the air temperature was 17 degrees Celsius and the water was 22 degrees. The visibility was 25 meters. After having lunch we had our third dive at the spot Naganu Okibui. I had a bit too much weight so I had some problems swimming horisontally. And still I could not forget the unpleasant experience in the previous dive completely. However, I realized that this would be my last dive for a very, very long time so I did my best to relax and enjoy. Luckily I managed to do it :) We saw a huge turtle that was asleep. I was about 3-4 meters away. The instructor and some of the other divers took pictures of the turtle and unfortunately it woke up. Seeing us it felt a bit intimidated so it swam away. While doing this we saw that there was something wrong with the right fin. Only about half of the fin was left. Probably the turtle had had a misfortunate meeting with a shark in its earlier years. As we continued we saw a school of big diamond shaped fish. Then it was time to leave the water. The last dive lasted for 34 minutes and the deepest depth was 15,2 meters. As before the air temperature was 17 degrees Celsius and the water was 22 degrees. The visibility was 25 meters. When we left the water and got on the boat it was so cold! The wind was very strong now and we froze. The boat transported us in the big waves back to the shore. We went back to the diving campany by car to write our logg book. I felt really sad saying goodbye to these people. It has been great diving with these people in this beautiful water!! I will truly miss this! :(

070107, Sunday
Today being our last day in Okinawa we left the youth hostel at about 9 o'clock. The owners are very nice people and they told us to please come back again. By monorail we got to Naha Airport at about 1030. Our plane would leave at 1240 so we had some time to sit back and relax. Getting there was not a problem in terms of transportation but it was very sad for both my friend and I to leave this place :( The wind was very strong and the 1220 plane to Tokyo got cancelled due to the bad weather. While we were waiting we did not know if our plane too would get cancelled but it did not. The flight back to Tokyo went fine. When we arrived in Tokyo we were a bit sad to be back. Even though we spent 12 days in Okinawa we did not want to leave. We wanted to stay a little longer. Okinawa is really a great place with a lot of wonderful people!! I feel fortunate having been able to experience so much on that island. I had a great time and I will always, always remember my days at Okinawa, that is for sure!! :)

posted by xyphoideus at 8:29 PM