New country, new adaptations! It was a completely change again. Leaving Taiwan after three months to be thrown in at the deep end. Hard take off and no soft landing! We were ready to take the challenge. A new chapter in our journey begins. Welcome to Japan – Nihon he yokoso! First stop Southern Okinawa - Naha. The CS we were supposed to stay at 4 days, stood us up two hours before boarding. It meant a lot of re-organisation: booking a hostel and no smooth adaptation in Japan. Those situations are really strenuous and in Japan really expensive! In 4 days, we spent 200€. As in Taipei, we decided to camp. So we packed our backpacks the day after our arrival and headed off a campsite near the beach. All what we wanted: beach and camping to rest. Buses connexions were not good, it took us the all day to reach Nashiro beach. Once there, the owner of the campsite told us it was closed although it is supposed to be open all year round. One thing we promised ourselves to do in Japan was hitch hiking! We checked how to travel in low cost and one of the way is to hitch hike. Let´s try! We were not willing to wait one hour for the bus to go back to the nearest village. It was dead easy! Two guys from Tokyo on holidays in Okinawa took us back to Naha. We squeezed our big bags and ourselves at the back of the car and in 30 minutes we were back in Naha! It was worth it. We practiced our Japanese, what we learned before coming! It was a short but intensive experience! It gave us the motivation to continue for the rest of our journey. We were back to square one! It was 5pm and we still did not have a stay for the evening. We did not have Internet, no Sim card and night was approaching. We had to keep cool and not to lose our nerves, even we were exceeded and exhausted. The smartest solution was to find a convenience store (such as Lawson, Family Mart or Coco) to get free Internet to be connected and book a hostel for at least the next two nights. It was when we had our third contact with locals. The first one was the day before at the hostel. A lady (musician) and a man (a doctor) tried to cheer us up with Japanese green tea and local drinks :), the second one was in the car and now the third one at the convenience store. People in Okinawa are very friendly interested too to know more about us! A lady asked us where we were from and saw that we were busy, she just left and wished us a happy journey in Japan. Sometimes in convenience store, (called conveni in Japanese) there is a place to seat. A man who sat next to us, started the conversation with Önder about Japan involved in the Vietnam war. By the way, Okinawa was given back to Japan in 1972 and was under US occupation since September 1945. Okinawa is known for the Pacific Battle where 250000 Japanese died and 15000 US soldiers. Meanwhile we booked a hostel and we were heading off to the place. It is when we were lost with our offline maps, that Mr Katsube san asked us: “Where are you going”, “To Naha Grand Hotel”, “I know the place, I bring you there”. This was the beginning of our odissy in Okinawa and Japan!! Mr Katsube is originally from Hiroshima, lives in Naha since 2009, he is now retired. He enjoys reading and walking. He walks every day about 90 minutes! He travelled abroad for his job and undertook on his own a three months journey in the US and Europe. After checking we thought he would take us to a local restaurant but it was a very expensive one what we did not know. Mr Katsube ordered plenty of food (Okinawan specialities) and drinks (hot Awamori). This evening, We tried for the first time: “shabu shabu” – Japanese hot pot – expensive!!! It was so delicious and to thank him for his help and the nice time together, we wanted to invite him what he strongly refused. We were embarrassed and astonished. The last but not the least he walked us back to the hostel although he lived 5 minutes away from the restaurant. That day we sealed a friendship. We met again two days after and we spent a whole day together visiting Naha´s castle and eating in a real local restaurant! We decided to camp but this time before going anywhere we wanted to call the campsite to know whether it was open, the prices and if there was any check in and check out time!. Mr. Katsube helped us! It was a precious help as many places no one can speak English and the website is only in Japanese. 4 Days in Naha, What an adventure!
We made up our mind to go camping in the North of the island: Nakijin Son. We were exited as we wanted to try our luck (again) with hitch hiking. We selected a strategical point to go to Nago. We gave us about 1 hour time. Clock was ticking. Cars were passing by, most of them only with the driver. People were amused and smiled at us but no one stopped. Until Takka stopped 40 minutes later. T: “Where are you going?” CD: “Nago and you?” T: “It is ok, I drive you there.” CD: “Oh really!?” It was Sunday, he had a day off and had time. On the way we also did some sightseeing and he thought of doing some food shopping before reaching the campsite. Takka hold even our basket!! Once at the campsite he helped us to pitch the tent! We spent the whole day together. To thank him for his generosity, we invited him for an Okinawan Soba (noodles) but we had to “fight” because he wanted to pay!
0 Comments
|
What s next?
Archives
September 2018
Categories
All
|