Chasing Summer –

September 10 & 12

Okiwana World

After flying in from China, I had missed the first day in Naha or Okiwana, Japan. Most people had toured around the city on day one, so my friend Paul asked if I wanted to go to the caves with him on day two. I decided, why not?

We caught a taxi cab, from the to the park which would cost about 5000 yen or 50 Canadian dollars. It was a little pricey. To get into the park with another 2000 yen.

Inside the park, the main draw was the cave system, which is a 0.8-kilometer section of caves from one end of the park to the other. You go down into the first section and then walk along a trail to seal it up, stalactites, and an underground water system.

I needed to keep my eyes open because there were some cave dwellers that we might have been able to see. Although I imagine that if you live in a cave, you aren’t going to go into the spotlight. We did see one fish swimming in the waters.

At the end of the walk, there was an escalator taking you out of the cave system.

The park is set up in such a way that you follow a trail going from site to site back to the entrance. So after the caves was a botanical orchard with fruit trees and, of course, a gift shop. This wasn’t the season for most of the fruit, but we did get to see some bananas.

From the orchard, we walked along towards a pottery painting section. Here, you could paint your own pottery or buy some pre-painted. There were a few more small gift shops and drink stops.

Leaving this area, we came to an old village set up with houses and traditional community spaces. In this area, we also saw a weaving shop and a gentleman fixing a musical instrument.

There was also a small museum here.

In the center of this park, there is a brewery. Here, they had four types of draft beers that had won gold medals in Japan. We sampled 1, and it was OK. My friend had tried the Passion Fruit one the previous day and said it was terrible. Otherwise, that would have been the one I got.

After leaving the brewery, there was another shop that had the snake in alcohol. Taste testing it, it was very cinnamon flavored.

Past this, there was a stage for drum shows and a snake show. When we arrived, it was time for the snake show, which involved a snake in a clear box with a drop-off attached to a tube of water leading to another clear box. Above the snake was a mongoose in a similar setup. As I don’t speak Japanese, I’m not sure what they said, but it was going to be a race between the Mongoose and the snake to see who could reach their other box first. Our position made it hard to tell, but it looked like a tie, except the snake did not want to stay there. It kept going back and forth in the water tube while the mongoose stayed in his clear box, waiting to leave.

It was bizarre. The last thing that this park included was an animal exhibit. There were a variety of turtles, tortoises, snakes, and a few other reptiles. This section needs a little bit more love, and the cages or holding areas need to be much larger.

After spending the morning walking around, we took a taxi back to the boat. Was it worth it? The 2000 entry, sure. The taxi ride there and back – not so much.

Ishigaki Island

Our final stop in Japan was a small southern island called Ishigaki Island. There is a population of about 400,000 people on this island, so it is not as crowded as many other Japanese places. The port was located on a man-made island outside the main city.

We only had one day here, so a few of us walked from the boat to the main shopping street in town, which took about 30 minutes.

The shopping area was quite short and did not take long to get through, so we walked to another farmer’s market. Here we were expecting more of a fish market kind of place, but it was rather a produce grocery store. We bought some bananas to try and then kept walking.

We went back to the shopping street and spent the last of my money on some craft beers, a T-shirt, and a magnet. From there, we began wandering back towards the ship.

Across the bridge connecting the man-made port island and the main island, there is a man-made beach. Paul and I decided to go for a quick dip in the water. There was a lifeguard on duty, lockers, showers, and a small snack bar. The waters were warm, but it was still nice to dip into.

That concluded our Japan portion of the voyage.