沖縄・Okinawa

Okinawa, the land of the jungles, the beaches, and the butterflies. The Ryukyu Kingdom, replete with its own distinct culture and tradition, became part of Japan as recently as the 1870's. Okinawa boasts Japan's oldest-lived people (and Japan is already the #1 country in the world with the oldest-living people.) If I lived on an island this beautiful, maybe I would live a long time too.

Fellow UCI-er Evelyn and I set out on our six-day journey as a duo, but we met solo traveler Jason from Korea and he quickly became a part of our posse. It's fun meeting people when you travel.

We spent our latter three days on Okinawa's main island, and our first three days on a smaller, more rural island called Miyakojima. While Miyako didn't have much to offer besides beaches, sugarcane-field-laden country drives, and beautiful plant and insect life, in the end that's all I was looking for. I loved experiencing the world-famous Churaumi Aquarium and the hustle-bustle of Naha City on the main island, but if I could come back, I would choose the smaller islands all the way.

Regretfully, it was cloudy almost our whole trip, so we didn't get to experience the world-famous Okinawa sunsets, but at least the cloud cover kept the air temperature and humidity from rising to whine-inducing levels. In fact, the weather felt perfect the entire time--warm enough for shorts and T-shirts, but with a cool breeze and no sticky humidity to speak of. Yay for going in the off-season!

It's true what they say: Okinawa almost doesn't feel like Japan. Japan has such strong cultural associations with its four distinct seasons, which Okinawa doesn't experience. The Japanese are famous for their never-ending work ethic, while Okinawans seemed to be more relaxed at all times. The Okinawan expression なんくるないさ "nankurunaisa"-- comparable to "que sera sera"--embodies this. But what else would you expect from an island culture.

In Okinawan style, I'll spare you the lecture and let the pictures do the talking.