Okinawa appears to be an island of two halves. One half has all of the beautiful historic sites, castle ruins, and exciting-looking restaurants. The other half is the half I'm in.
It was tipping it down this morning, so I took the opportunity to properly research things to do, rather than just heading out into the world and seeing what I came to. During my research, I found a lot about the old Ryushu kingdom, and how the island is dotted with sites relating to it, but whenever I looked them up on the map, they were all along the south-east coast of the island. My hotel, along with the other big resorts, are along the north-west coast. I'm at a pretty thin bit of the island, but it would still take over an hour to walk to the closest bit of the other coast, and then I'd have to find a bus to take me somewhere interesting. And that would be fine on the way out, but given my amazing sense of direction, I wouldn't love coming back tired. I haven't yet looked up how to say 'help, I'm lost' in Japanese, which may have been an oversight.
So, with no historical sites within easy travelling distance, I found an article on an area of natural beauty that was high on the list for tourists, and was only a little way down the coast from me! Happy day! With the rain petering out, I grabbed my bag and headed for the bus stop and Cape Manzamo.
The walk from the bus to the Cape was really lovely. Away from the main road and the tourist route, Okinawa became a beautiful island, full of flowers and thick greenery.
I spent a lot of time taking photos of the flowers, chasing butterflies with my camera, and generally being a proper bloody tourist, which was fun. Then I reached the Cape car park, where everything was corrugated iron, tarpaulin, and litter, and I wondered how bad this 'site of natural beauty' might turn out to be.
It turns out, it was exactly this bad.
Dreadful, isn't it? I know, I'm a martyr for putting up with it.
In all honesty, Cape Manzamo was beautiful. There's a flat area with a trail around the outside which gives you good views not only of the above elephant trunk formation, but also of the rest of the coast, and the aquamarine sea washing over the coral reefs below the cliff. The dark clouds gave everything a very moody and dramatic atmosphere as well, which was pretty cool. But, by the time I reached the end of the trail, it had decided to start trying to rain again, so I wandered around the gift shop quickly then turned for the road back to the bus stop.
Before I could reach it, though, I passed a sign about the Uduigama. I had no idea what it was, but according to a map, I could follow a big looping track around to it, and come out back down the road I was going to take. It was a bit of a no-brainer, really.
Within moments, I had left the noise of screaming children and revving cars behind, and was walking down a completely deserted, badly maintained road. There were occasionally cars parked at the sides, but there was no one but me. And there were no turnings or choices in my path, so I couldn't get lost! It was like an adventure, but with safety wheels.
About half way along, some thoughtful person had left a rest stop, with a table and benches, and most importantly, a little shelter. The rain was definitely picking up by this point, so I took advantage of the shelter to sit, have a drink, and try a little Okinawan sweet I'd picked up at the shop.
This is called beniimo. It's a sweet tart with the same sort of consistency as a bakewell tart, and it's made from a purple sweet potato. (The sweet potato seems to be a huge thing in Okinawa - there are cartoon sweet potatoes all over the place, and half the food seems to be made of them.) It's not overly sweet, but it was very nice. If I thought they'd travel well, I'd bring some home, but they won't, so... all the more for me!
After my rest stop, I explored the area a little - the cliffs are a grey, clinker-y looking limestone, which gave everything a very barren air, even with the greenery - then headed onwards once more (avoiding the group of guys getting changed between their cars - first people I'd seen for nearly half an hour, and it was almost buttock city again).
Everything sort of stopped very quickly. The road came up to a gate that was securely locked, and the few side tracks didn't look very serious. I popped down one of them quickly, and found...
...my destination! This is the Uduigama of legend (or at least of this story), and it is a small cave that used to host a theatrical production during the August festival. The steps into it were... precarious, to say the least, and being very aware that I was out there alone and am not the most graceful of people, I decided not to poke around. I'm pretty pleased I found it at all, to be honest. By the time I'd reached that bit of the track, I'd all but forgotten what I was down there for. There were certainly no signs.
With the road ahead barred, I had to turn back. It was absolutely raining by this point, but it was so hot that it didn't really matter, except for my camera. I managed to get a few more shots of the lovely flowers, but mostly I enjoyed the walk back, completely silent except for the drumming of the rain and the calling of the birds. Lovely.
One interesting thing I noticed during my walk were the tsunami warning signs that are dotted around the island.
These indicate how high that area is above sea level, and whether you need to evacuate to higher ground or not. The above is roughly the same level as my hotel, and says that, in the case of a tsunami warning, you have to get higher than 3m above sea level. I found a sign later (and higher) that was in blue, and said you may need to get higher in the case of a high level alert. They're pretty handy, but with very few roads heading inland (and therefore uphill), I'm not sure how you manage to get higher than you are. My plan, if it becomes necessary in the next day and a half, is to latch on to a hotel official and do what they tell me.
That's been about it for today. I've been drying out and exporing the hotel this afternoon - I've booked a glass bottomed boat ride tomorrow, which was difficult to do, mostly because I couldn't find the way to the extensive hotel beach where the booking desk is. Tourist area it might be, but signs in English they do not have. There's also an archaeological site down the road (theoretically) which I might try to find after the boat ride. More rain is forecast, but at 26°C even during the downpour, I don't think it'll slow me down any.
It was tipping it down this morning, so I took the opportunity to properly research things to do, rather than just heading out into the world and seeing what I came to. During my research, I found a lot about the old Ryushu kingdom, and how the island is dotted with sites relating to it, but whenever I looked them up on the map, they were all along the south-east coast of the island. My hotel, along with the other big resorts, are along the north-west coast. I'm at a pretty thin bit of the island, but it would still take over an hour to walk to the closest bit of the other coast, and then I'd have to find a bus to take me somewhere interesting. And that would be fine on the way out, but given my amazing sense of direction, I wouldn't love coming back tired. I haven't yet looked up how to say 'help, I'm lost' in Japanese, which may have been an oversight.
So, with no historical sites within easy travelling distance, I found an article on an area of natural beauty that was high on the list for tourists, and was only a little way down the coast from me! Happy day! With the rain petering out, I grabbed my bag and headed for the bus stop and Cape Manzamo.
The walk from the bus to the Cape was really lovely. Away from the main road and the tourist route, Okinawa became a beautiful island, full of flowers and thick greenery.
The road to Cape Manzamo.
I spent a lot of time taking photos of the flowers, chasing butterflies with my camera, and generally being a proper bloody tourist, which was fun. Then I reached the Cape car park, where everything was corrugated iron, tarpaulin, and litter, and I wondered how bad this 'site of natural beauty' might turn out to be.
It turns out, it was exactly this bad.
Elephant trunk formation.
Dreadful, isn't it? I know, I'm a martyr for putting up with it.
In all honesty, Cape Manzamo was beautiful. There's a flat area with a trail around the outside which gives you good views not only of the above elephant trunk formation, but also of the rest of the coast, and the aquamarine sea washing over the coral reefs below the cliff. The dark clouds gave everything a very moody and dramatic atmosphere as well, which was pretty cool. But, by the time I reached the end of the trail, it had decided to start trying to rain again, so I wandered around the gift shop quickly then turned for the road back to the bus stop.
Before I could reach it, though, I passed a sign about the Uduigama. I had no idea what it was, but according to a map, I could follow a big looping track around to it, and come out back down the road I was going to take. It was a bit of a no-brainer, really.
My new path.
Within moments, I had left the noise of screaming children and revving cars behind, and was walking down a completely deserted, badly maintained road. There were occasionally cars parked at the sides, but there was no one but me. And there were no turnings or choices in my path, so I couldn't get lost! It was like an adventure, but with safety wheels.
About half way along, some thoughtful person had left a rest stop, with a table and benches, and most importantly, a little shelter. The rain was definitely picking up by this point, so I took advantage of the shelter to sit, have a drink, and try a little Okinawan sweet I'd picked up at the shop.
Squashed after being in my bag, but you get the idea.
This is called beniimo. It's a sweet tart with the same sort of consistency as a bakewell tart, and it's made from a purple sweet potato. (The sweet potato seems to be a huge thing in Okinawa - there are cartoon sweet potatoes all over the place, and half the food seems to be made of them.) It's not overly sweet, but it was very nice. If I thought they'd travel well, I'd bring some home, but they won't, so... all the more for me!
After my rest stop, I explored the area a little - the cliffs are a grey, clinker-y looking limestone, which gave everything a very barren air, even with the greenery - then headed onwards once more (avoiding the group of guys getting changed between their cars - first people I'd seen for nearly half an hour, and it was almost buttock city again).
Everything sort of stopped very quickly. The road came up to a gate that was securely locked, and the few side tracks didn't look very serious. I popped down one of them quickly, and found...
The Uduigama!
...my destination! This is the Uduigama of legend (or at least of this story), and it is a small cave that used to host a theatrical production during the August festival. The steps into it were... precarious, to say the least, and being very aware that I was out there alone and am not the most graceful of people, I decided not to poke around. I'm pretty pleased I found it at all, to be honest. By the time I'd reached that bit of the track, I'd all but forgotten what I was down there for. There were certainly no signs.
With the road ahead barred, I had to turn back. It was absolutely raining by this point, but it was so hot that it didn't really matter, except for my camera. I managed to get a few more shots of the lovely flowers, but mostly I enjoyed the walk back, completely silent except for the drumming of the rain and the calling of the birds. Lovely.
One interesting thing I noticed during my walk were the tsunami warning signs that are dotted around the island.
Tsunami warning sign.
These indicate how high that area is above sea level, and whether you need to evacuate to higher ground or not. The above is roughly the same level as my hotel, and says that, in the case of a tsunami warning, you have to get higher than 3m above sea level. I found a sign later (and higher) that was in blue, and said you may need to get higher in the case of a high level alert. They're pretty handy, but with very few roads heading inland (and therefore uphill), I'm not sure how you manage to get higher than you are. My plan, if it becomes necessary in the next day and a half, is to latch on to a hotel official and do what they tell me.
That's been about it for today. I've been drying out and exporing the hotel this afternoon - I've booked a glass bottomed boat ride tomorrow, which was difficult to do, mostly because I couldn't find the way to the extensive hotel beach where the booking desk is. Tourist area it might be, but signs in English they do not have. There's also an archaeological site down the road (theoretically) which I might try to find after the boat ride. More rain is forecast, but at 26°C even during the downpour, I don't think it'll slow me down any.
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