Okinawa Small Delights

Naha City and beyond

[ View from the Miebashi Monorail Station ]

Norah and I arrived in Okinawa yesterday and settled into our downtown hotel for a few days before we head out to Miyakojima Island. Naha is a larger city than I anticipated with skyscrapers and busy streets. When we arrived the city was bathed in the late afternoon sun of the golden hour when everything shimmers in a pastel glow.

After a good sleep in our “compact room on a high floor” we got up early this morning, ate breakfast, and took a taxi to ABC car rental to pick up a car to drive up the coast. Our outing for the day today was to visit the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Motobu. 

[ Small ships anchored along the coast ]

We drove quite a way through urban sprawl along the coast before the view opened up to volcanic hills and the most beautiful cerulean sea. We passed inlets of ombré blues and greens and several resorts, sandwiched between humble towns, before reaching what Norah described as a thumb of land that housed the aquarium at its tip.

[ Norah and the deep blue sea ]

The aquarium was vast, with many buildings and lots of information about sea life in this part of the world. I was most interested in the exhibit on the many species of coral found in the coral reefs of the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean surrounding Okinawa. 

[ Norah and a giant ray ]

On the way back to Naha we stopped at 21 Seikinomori Beach, a small local beach, so that I could put my feet in the water. There were lots of families picnicking under the trees along the water’s edge and two young men were playing the sanshin and singing. There were pieces of coral washed up on the shore - I felt kind of distraught to see this but I think that this is a part of the life cycle of the coral. Not sure - need to find out more.

[ Pieces of coral and lovely shells ]