After Osaka we caught a plane to Okinawa. My concept of Okinawa was idyllic beach community. Nope, we landed in a major city. After dropping our bags off at the hotel (we arrived before check-in) we went exploring and found a castle overlooking the city.
Later that day we went to American Village (there is a military base on the island after all), and yes – if you use Google Maps that’s the name of the town. Apparently fireworks, lights, and Christmas are very much America (also, everything either was in English, or had an English translation with it – though to be fair English is very prevalent, even on the mainland, and I rarely had to use the Google Lens feature on my phone to translate what was written only in Japanese).
The next day we went up to Hacksaw Ridge (if you’re not familar, check out the movie starring Andrew Garfield). It was completely overgrown except for where the castle ruins were. There’s a few placards about the war and what happened, but it’s not the main focus.
After the ridge we went to Sueyoshi park. We arrived shortly before sunset and waited until about an hour after sunset so as to watch fireflies (and yes we did see some, but they’re not very photogenic). The park was wonderful and is quite large.
One thing that amazes me is the ubiquitous vending machine in Japan. They’re *everywhere*. Even in the middle of deserted back streets you’ll see a random vending machine. Typically it’s coffee, water, and a few soft drinks, though an ice cream machine is also very popular.
We had saved our last day to be a beach day since the forecast had that as the only day without rain. Turns out we should have availed ourselves of the opportunity earlier in the week when the rain was forecast but didn’t show up. It rained the most and hardest our last day. We still went to the beach and was very surprised that it’s not a beach town (at least where we were). It was a very rural community that just happened to be on a beach. Since it was raining we went on a glass bottomed boat (and saw a sea turtle among the other sea life).
