AntiNEC

Okinawa 2004-2005

December 21, 2004 (Day 1)
Today marks the first day of the long journey. The furthest I have ever been has been to the Carribean (Dominican Republic). That was about a 6 hour plane trip. This trip is supposed to be much longer.
It began in Edmonton at 5AM. My friend drove me to the airport on his way to work. Took the flight to Vancouver, where a I had a wait of a few hours. Then got onboard the JAL jumbo jet. When I got my boarding pass, the lady who gave it to me told me 'You have a seat on the upper floor'. I just gave her a stupid look like 'huh'? A second floor on an airplane?? Yeah, that shows how many international flights I've been on. During the wait I hooked up to the airport's wireless internet (FREE wireless internet, Vancouver airport gets a thumbs up from me on that one).
Before boarding the plane, I was confronted by a bunch of police officers who inquired as to why I was going to Japan. They asked me about 20 questions, seeming incredulous to the fact that I was visiting my girlfriend's parents, and that she was already there, but she lives in Canada. The officer just couldn't figure it out. But I guess I answered the questions well enough, because they let me on.
The entire flight looked to be packet full, but very fortunately my row only had one other person, with the middle seat empty! The other guy was a fellow Canadian from Montreal who was on his way to Thailand, and we talked all through the flight. It really made the 10 hour flight seem like it was only a 9 hour flight :p
Got to Tokyo - wow, Tokyo! I had to take a bus from that airport (Narita) to the domestic airport (Haneda). I got my first glimpse of cars driving on the left side of the road as well as that oh-so Japanese way to purchasing good - the vending machine. I stared at a beverage vending machine for a good 10 minutes - seeing drinks that I had never seen before, seeing them in some crazy foreign currency. Then I took the bus over to Haneda and saw Tokyo traffic. Holy Moly. Super busy. There was this American couple in the seat ahead of me, and we drove by this huge ferris wheel. They were like 'Wow, Disney Land Japan!!' and were taking a bunch of pictures. Turns out as Nadu tells me that it was just some ferris wheel that there are a bunch of, not Disney Land. I hope that couple didnt find out, that would be sad.
At Haneda I had about a 2 hour wait. I got lost in the aiport trying to find out where to go through secruity. It was totally hidden, and I had to ask an official where to go - turns out I was standing about 10 feet away from it.
While waiting I tried to get on the internet again to tell Nadu that I was almost there. But the shitty wireless connection was too weak to get through. So instead I watched an episode of X Files that I had brought with me.
On the flight from Haneda to Naha I finally fell asleep for a bit. I'm a very fussy sleeper, I need it to be dark and quiet and have to been lying down. The airplane is usually none of those so during the whole trip I probably got about an hour of sleep.
Got to Naha at about 10PM, just had to get my luggage and I wouldn't have to see another freakin airport for another 17 days. But I waited and waited and waited, and everyone else got their luggage but me. I was like 'Oh no!' but waited another 5 minutes to be sure, and finally my suitcase came out, all alone.
Went through security and there was Nadu, waiting for me. She drove us back to her parent's place in her rental car where I said Hi to them (have already met them before when they visited Canada, so its not like it was a first time meeting), went next door where we were to sleep, and promptly passed out. Thus ends day 1.

December 23 (Day 2)
Damn time change, now I've lost a day. Ah well. Nadu and I went for a walk so she could show me around Naha. I think we only travelled for about 6 blocks and my brain was overloaded. So many new and crazy things! Little cars driving like maniacs with no regard for pedestrians was a strange sight to me. Also, I couldn't believe how many apartments there were. I believe the ratio of apartments to houses could be expressed with this formula: Apartments (100%) - houses (0%). I swear we didnt see one house. But then I later learned that the houses kind of look like the apartments to me, so maybe I did see some.
Another thing I noticed was their drainage system. Every single street and alley had a drain beneath these little cement blocks. In Edmonton we get very little rain, so we don't really need that much drainage. But I guess in Okinawa they get tons, so it is needed. Just another different thing for me.
Also we went to a clothing store to get me fitted for a suit. We were going to Nadu's cousin's wedding the next day (or day after, I can't remember) and I needed to wear something other than t-shirt and shorts. We tried on some clothes and the difference between the Japanese body and the Canadian body were apparent right away. The sleeves for the coat were soooo short, but the length of the coat was too long. I guess Japanese people have a long torso, but short arms and legs. So they had to get me one of their longest pairs of pants to fit, and were gonna tailor the hell out of the coat to fit. But then I was like 'why do I need a coat? Im never gonna wear it again and it costs lots of money (her parents were paying!)'. So we decided to ditch the coat and just get pants and a shirt. Well, the lady trying to sell us the stuff didn't like that much. So she 'talks' to her manager and tells us that we can get the suit and pants for 50% off! What the hell? She was pretty much begging us to take it, I bet if we stayed long we could have had the coat and pants for a couple dollars (or Yen, whatever). But since I couldn't speak Japanese she couldn't beg me, but had to beg Nadu's parents. And I told them not to worry about a coat, so they weren't about to argue with Nadu as the translator. So we just got pants and a shirt and tie and got outta there right away.
Ok, so this stuff isn't that different from Canada? Fine, here is the #1 thing that I noticed. SMOKING IS ALLOWED IN PUBLIC PLACES!!!!! What was up with that? At the clothing store there was this dork who was smoking his face off in the store. Of all places doesn't it make sense not to let people smoke in a clothing store?? The smoke is gonna get into the clothes and smell like crap. But I thought that maybe it wasn't that common, perhaps I wouldnt have to deal with that anymore in Japan. Boy was I wrong.

Jef

This is an interesting fast food restaurant. Nadu tells me it is a spin off of A&W and is only in Okinawa. They serve some burgers that are somewhat like what we have in Canada, but there were some interesting items, like:

-Melon soda. It's just a melon flavored soft drink, but it's pretty good. We have slurpies that taste like it, but no actual drink like it.
-Ice cream. At a fast food place? Kind of strange. But it was pretty good, had good flavors like Mango, and a few very Okinawan ones like Sweet Potato.
-Goya (ゴーヤー) burger. It has the Okinawan vegatable Goya in it.

And the grand finale:

-Spam burger. It has spam mixed in with eggs on the burger. Crazy.

jef

首里城 (Shuri Castle) and 中城城跡(Nakagusuku Castle)

Me, Nadu, and her parents went to two historical sites one day. I enjoy learning about history, so this was something I wanted to do while in Okinawa.

Shuri Castle was where the kings of Okinawa lived when the Okinawan islands were the Ryukyu kingdom, before Japan engulfed the islands. At the site there is the main castle (pictured below), the courtyard, and the tomb. I thought the tomb was really neat, even though we didn't get to see much of it. People are only allowed to see the outside of it. Inside is where the kings and their families were buried.
The castle was destroyed during WWII, so what is there now is not the original building. It was recreated in 1991.

shuri

Nakagusuku Castle is in ruins, but still very interesting. It is situated on a very narrow part of the island, so when you stand on a high area you can see the Pacific ocean to the East and the South China Sea to the West.
This castle was built around 1500AD, which means it has been around longer than Canada or the US.

naka

Renaissance Hotel

On our anniversary Nadu and I went to the northern part of the island to a really nice hotel. I think it was the nicest hotel I have ever been to. The two best parts were the view and the food. First the food:
We got 2 free meals, a supper and breakfast. The supper was one of the most amazing meals I have ever had. The waitress brought us food 3 times. I can't remember the order, but I think first there was sashimi, jellyfish, and this tofu that tasted like fire (or more likely 泡盛).
Next came a bowl with seafood including shrimp, udon, and mushrooms. The cool thing about that was that the bowl had a flame under it which cooked it while we ate the other food. I thought that was really cool.
For dessert we had this really great pineapple too. I also had an Orion beer. I wanted to bring it home to add to my beer bottle collection, so Nadu asked the waitress if we could take it with us. Well, not only did she let us keep it, she took the bottle to the kitchen, washed it out for us, and found a bottle cap to put on it! Now thats gotta be the best service in the world!

hotelfood