It’s the beginning of golden week in Japan which means one week of no work and the time when lots of Japanese tourists visit Okinawa. Most all Japanese companies give Golden Week off so for a lot of people in Japan it is a time for vacation. That means super high ticket prices. During past Golden Weeks I traveled around the Tokyo area and took car trips with the people in my building. See (past golden weeks). For this year’s GW, now that I am in Okinawa and I have no car to get around, I have been using my bicycle to explore. During one of my rides I happened to come across a festival for Children’s Day in Japan and decided to check it out.

It is very traditional to fly koi flags for the holiday and this festival had a lot of them.

Kids got free rides on a banana boat.

There were kids in the band. btw, these 2 kids were excellent.

and kids performing a hip-hop dance show.

I think I could use a nice hause plant too.

It seems that summer in Okinawa comes a lot earlier than Tokyo. The first fireworks show was in April here. Usually they take place around July in Tokyo. I was also impressed with the size of the show. It was a full hour with lots and lots of fireworks. Yet, it was nowhere near as crowded as shows in Tokyo can get. I was a little dissapointed though, but becuase not many of the girls here were dressed up in Japanese yukata. There was also all the standard Japanese festival food stands everywhere.

Shuri Castle was the royal castle of the Kingdom of Okinawa for a long time. It has been burnt down and rebuilt many times and most recently during WWII. It has only recently (1992) been restored to its somewhat original glory.
After visiting the castle we decided to explore further south by car. We ended up getting lost and driving in circles, but we still had fun. It seems that south of Naha is surprisingly mostly rural area.

On the last day with my friend in Okinawa we drove down to Naha to visit Shuri Castle and Shikinaen park. The park was a typical Japanese style garden, but still had its Okinawan uniqueness.

This is okinawan style bubble tea. I imagined it was like eating the bubbles in bubble bath, but tastier.

A short trip north is a famous touristy place called “Manzamo” that has a nice view and unique rock cliff. The day was windy. I sat and took my time enjoying the view as wave after wave of bus tourists came, took a picture, and was pushed off to the next place or probably gift shops.

The next day my friend and I went to “Ryukyu Mura” which is like a theme park based on the old style of living in Okinawa. There were a bunch of old fashioned houses with old people who resided in each house speaking in the Okinawan native language and teaching you about some aspect of the old life.

The first thing I did was to feed my guide to the goat.

The water buffalo walks in circles to grind up the sugar cane and get the juice out. Then they make black sugar out of it to sell in the gift shop.

There was also a show with dancers and singing and so on.

Awamori!

Not far from the aquarium are the ruins of Nakijin castle. We got there as the sun was setting, so we had to explore fairly quickly, but there was no other people there at that time so it was quiet and beautiful.

Scroll left and right!

My friend from Tokyo came to visit, and the first place we went to was the Aquarium. Since Ken is in Korea, I was able to steal his car and let my friend drive us around, so it was kinda good timing in that sence. Good thing I bought a season pass when I first went there. It has now paid itself off. Anyway, my friend and I drove to many places looking at all different sights… of which posts will come soon.