Okinawa: Churaumi Aquarium and Ocean Expo Park.
As we have no car, we’re having to find things to do in the area that we might not normally do, but are still worthwhile and interesting, and that’s what we did today. And we did indeed have an enjoyable day.
The day started out with light rain and accompanying cooler weather, which soon turned into a fairly steady downstream that lasted several hours. I had my trusty collapsible umbrella and Laurence had a lightweight rain coat (I have one also, but the umbrella did just fine). From what I can tell, we’ll be needing those raincoats and umbrellas (Laurence doesn’t have one, but I urged him to spring for the 6 or 7 dollars they cost) in Vietnam, where we’ll be partly in the rainy season, where it’s likely to shower/rain daily, at least in some parts of the country as we travel from north to south. At this point, although still a possibility things will again worsen, Laurence is now thinking he’ll make the entire trip. Fingers crossed. .
We headed to the bus stop, which we figured out yesterday, and about a five minute walk from the hotel, and took the airport shuttle, which does more than just serve as an airport shuttle and provides local transport between beach towns in the area, including going to the Churaumi Aquarium on the Motobu Peninsula, about 26 miles north of Onna, but taking almost 2 hours by bus. and costs about $11 each way.
Laurence was feeling pretty good this morning, but still wanting and needing to take it easy. We caught the 8 am bus, and once on board the rain starting coming down more heavily, and kept raining for the duration of the bus journey and was coming down steadily by the time we reached Ocean Expo Park, where the aquarium is located. Had we succeeded in renting a car, we would have driven this route, as we had planned to drive around the whole island, but we at least got to see this stretch as we headed north and along the west coast.
The Aquarium is the largest in Japan, and one of the largest in the world, and is quite the place. Actually, the entire park it’s located in seemed like a place worth exploring, except it was pouring.
The first exhibit is the huge coral reef tank. I wish I could say this is what I saw when I went snorkeling yesterday… but I didn’t. My experience was a very tame version of this, and I didn’t see the coral reef. I probably would have done had I swum out further, but a man’s gotta know his limits.
The aquarium was a very worthwhile visit, and pretty crowded, perhaps because it’s a rainy day and being inside is the place to be. It certainly worked out well for us. It’s in a huge building and very well laid out, with some gigantic tanks filled with many fish of all types, sizes, and colors, and many really nice exhibits and smaller tanks and displays, and happily with information in English as well as Japanese.
Once we left the aquarium and re-entered the surrounding park, which was built in 1975 for the Okinawa International Ocean Exposition, it was happily no longer raining and had warmed up. We visited the sea turtles and the manatee tank, before heading off to see the 1 pm Dolphin show.
Then we explored the park, enjoying its tropical ocean views, and headed toward the traditional Okinawan Village exhibit and the lovely Omoro botanical gardens, bordering the village.
As we entered the traditional village, we first saw a traditional wooden house, featuring tatami mat flooring and sliding paper doors (shoji), opening to a garden view, providing a connection between indoor and outdoor spaces.
Then we walked over to the village proper, showing homes where priestesses lived and the more rudimentary and thatched homes of the villagers.
Needless to say, the Omoro botanical gardens were beautiful, again overlooking the ocean, with classic lily ponds, thick and lush tropical vegetation, and serene paths.
Then we figured it was time to get out, perhaps ahead of departing visitors, as we thought there might be long lines for the bus, and we headed for the park exit. There were several other park exhibits we would like to have seen, including a cultural museum and planetarium, but figured we might not have enough time.
Turns out we would have had plenty of time, as we figured we’d missed the 3 pm bus (it’s an almost two hour journey back to Onna), as not only did we get to the bus stop just as the bus arrived, but there wasn’t a particularly long line to get on. We probably could have caught the 3:30 or 4 pm bus.
There’s an odd irony here. The last time Laurence and I traveled together was to the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. On the final day, shortly before Jim Hendrix’ performance, we decided to leave as it would no doubt be difficult to catch a ferry off the island with massive numbers of people also trying to catch the ferry. Just as we missed the remaining exhibitions today that we could actually have seen, we missed Jimi, who I figured would be playing in London as he was in the area, except he died 18 days later. We missed his final performance. MIssed opportunities.
No problem catching the return bus, heading south back to Onna and Moon Beach along the coast, with some nice sights along the way.
We had a really nice day, and arrived back in Moon Beach around 5, and headed back to the Penison Moon Villa. Laurence was feeling good, but a little fatigued and definitely wanted to take it easy. Me too.
We hung out in our room for a while, and after eating some dinner Laurence hit the sack around 8. I wrote and read a little, and then took a nighttime walk onto Moon Beach, a two minute from here, and then through town, before returning to our room, where I watched some stuff on my laptop before getting tired enough to fall asleep myself. A good day.
