Final day in Okinawa.
Today is our last day here, and we’ve been lucky so far in that we’ve had two days with interesting things to do, which have also provided Laurence with some good down time for resting. This morning we took it easy, and around 10:30 decided to head to the Onna no Eki Nakayukui Market. We took a local bus for the maybe 10 minute journey, but missed our stop because, as has often been the case, the online directions were not quite right and the marketplace was not “steps away” from the bus stop as the directions erroneously said. But we only slightly missed it, walking back about half a mile to find the marketplace, which was tucked into a small area away from the main road, although not far.
The weather, like yesterday, was cooler than it has been and the sky pretty overcast, with a slight sprinkling of rain, which later cleared up. The weather was actually nice and cool, and definitely in the “right” temperature range, even though a little cooler.
We passed a small shrine of our way to the market, but interestingly, unlike mainland Japan where shrines asnd temple are ubiquitous, this is the first shrine we’ve seen in the area.
The Onna no Eki Nakayukui Market, a mix of eateries, small stores, and a small supermarket/grocery store, definitely seems to be for locals, and we were the only none-domestic faces in the lively and crowded market. These places, not new to us at this point, are nevertheless fun places to visit, with lots of interesting things to look at, and lots of interesting things to eat. It was a nice way to spend an hour or so, and Laurence tried a few different types of food, all of which were good.
The Onna Cultural Museum was close by, and we decided to stop by. Again, it’s really for domestic visitors, and almost all of the signage and information is in Japanese, but we figured it out. It’s a small museum that shows the history, artifacts, and working culture of the area. It was certainly interesting, although small, and a worthwhile place to spend some time.
We walked back into town, and it turned out to be just a little over a mile, and a pleasant walk through the local neighborhood, just south of the Moon Beach area, where we’re staying.
Even though, starting at Moon Beach and heading north, this is a resort area with multiple large and upscale resort hotels scattered in the area and along the beach road, most of the buildings, even in the Moon Beach and nearby Tiger Beach areas, and along the coast, are far from the sort of buildings and look you might expect from a resort area. The stretch we were walking as we headed back into town had many similar buildings to those found near where we’re staying, but were more rundown, although not terribly so, residential and commercial buildings, surrounded by beautiful and lush scenery.
A look at the history of the area shows that it started to get developed soon after the U.S. administration of Okinawa ended in 1972, with buildings probably built in the mid 70s, which is probably true of our hotel as well, which has the same architectural style and appearance as many of these buildings.
Along the way, we saw many small sculptural ornaments of Shisa, mythical lion-dog creatures, in front of homes and restaurants, which protect homes and businesses from evil spirits and misfortune. They come in pairs, and just like the statues and carvings we’ve seen at temples and shrines on the mainland, one has its mouth open while the other has its mouth closed. Known as A-un, these represent the beginning and the end of all things, birth and death, and the cycle of existence. The open mouth forms the sound “a,” representing birth/beginnings, while the closed mouth forms the sound “un” or “um,” representing death/endings.
We enjoyed our casual walk back to town, and wound up back at the hotel maybe around 2 (I wasn’t keeping track), then spent close to an hour on the Hong Kong Airlines website, trying to make sense of it and check in for our afternoon flight tomorrow. It’s about the least helpful and instructive, most complex, and poorest airline check-in I’ve seen. That’s why it took so long, and even after we finally did succeed, we were only able to check in for the first half of our trip, as far as Hong Kong. It’s likely that we’ll have to show our Vietnam visas and passports at the airport before being able to leave Hong Kong for Vietnam, but there’s no explanation about that anywhere on the site. Anyway, we are all booked in for our first flight, from Okinawa to Hong Kong, even though we’ll be sitting separately for our 2 hour hour flight.
Now that airline check in (or at least, as far as we could take it) that was out of the way, I decided to strike out for Cape Manzamo, a scenic point about 5 miles north of Moon Beach, and caught the local bus. This time, I managed to get off at the right stop, and had about a half mile walk to the large, very nice, and very modern and spacious Cape Manzano visitor center.
The center has a number of souvenir stores and restaurants, as well as observation decks, and a lovely paved path that leads around the Cape itself, with beautiful views of the ocean and cliff side, including what I now know is the famous elephant trunk structure of the rocks, with the waves of the East China Sea crashing into it. Like the crowded visitor center itself, there were many visitors walking the path, just like me, taking photographs and enjoying themselves as they took in the views.
It would’ve been nice to spend another hour here and watch the sunset, but I thought I’d better head back to catch my return bus, and especially because they are few and far between at this time of day. In fact, I was hoping I hadn’t missed the last bus (and I was already wondering whether I’d have to walk back to Moon Beach). I hadn’t, and I could see from the timetable posted on the stop that a bus was due in maybe 25 minutes, but I felt a whole lot better when two locals showed to wait for the bus.
Walking back toward Manzamo, away from the Cape, I noticed this area is a little more upscale and well maintained (although could still use a fresh coat of paint) than homes and businesses in Onna village, with some very nice homes and gardens.
I got back to the hotel around around 7, and then we went out for dinner at a small place at which Laurence had eaten a couple days ago (there a lot of these small places in the area, and they all look good), and enjoyed some good local food. I ate the local soba, a type of noodle, with tempura. Delish.
Then back to the hotel, a later night for Laurence than usual, and we watched a little of the Galaxy Quest movie on my computer (I can’t believe Laurence had never seen it), but stopped half way through, with an hour to go, to be continued another day, and we went to bed.
Tomorrow we head back to Okinawa Naha airport, and from there fly to Hanoi, stopping over in Hong Kong for 4½ hours. Too bad we can’t visit the city.