OKINAWA HERE WE COME
14.01.2025
We were all up early today as we had roughly a 2 hour drive to Fukuoka Airport to catch our flight to Okinawa. We did our last minute checks on luggage, to make sure we had everything we needed packed away, then put the bags in Youko’s car. We only had a light breakfast and then hit the Sanyo Tollway with Nana driving.
It’s amazing that Nana hit 125-130kph and probably averaged 120kph for the whole journey. Sitting next to Nana I was amazed not with her driving but the total lack of criticism from Youko about going too fast. When I’m driving I get the Japanese mumblings coming from the back then Mami me I should slow down a bit. Talk about favouritism!!!
With Nana auditioning for the F1 circuit, we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We boarded our flight on schedule but did not move a centimetre for 30 minutes due the busy air traffic. When we finally took off it was a bit of a shock on lift off. The nose of the plane was at the steepest angle I’ve ever seen take off. The only reason for this is probably because the runways are surrounded by mountains, some of which are very high. I was a lot more comfortable when the plane eventually was flying at an angle closer to horizontal.
The trip itself was good and I think we made up most of the time we lost sitting on the tarmac. Baggage turned up on the carousel within minutes of us arriving there, then we were picked up by a courtesy car and taken to get our hire car. The temperature is 23 degrees here compared to 10 in Shunan. Very pleasant and we will enjoy a little break from the cold.
Our hire car turned out to be a Honda Freed which is a small people mover. We all fitted in comfortably, along with our luggage and headed off to the hotel we will be staying at for the next two nights. Mami booked a hotel with 2 bedrooms and a generous kitchen, living area. Perfect for a small family. Best of all, it has a beautiful ocean view. Looking forward to getting up to this every morning.
None of us had a proper lunch so by the time we checked in at the hotel, the Edamatsu family was starving. Nana quickly googled and we headed to an Okinawan Izakaya, a type of informal Japanese pub or tavern where people gather to enjoy drinks along with a variety of small, flavourful dishes.
The menu at an izakaya typically includes a wide range of foods. Although only Yoshi was drinking beer, the rest of us felt comfortable about having soft drinks. Drinks aside, we all enjoyed our meals.
We ordered sushi, gyoza and crumbed fish, as well as local dishes like bitter gourd champuru, seaweed tempura, and squid ink fried rice. As I always do, I tried everything, but some of the local dishes weren’t to my liking.
We stopped to see the beautiful sunset, and got some really good shots of a fisherman at sunset and Yoshi at sunset. As the sun went down, we made our way back to our hotel. As usual we played some games and are now more than ready for bed. It has been a long day and I think a good night’s sleep will be appreciated by all of us.