Okinawa

It has been a fortnight since I last posted, and things could hardly have changed more. My trip has evolved; from temples to tempura, bullet trains to bullet boats, kimonos to clownfish. And, most importantly, from rain to sunshine.

On the day of my last post I left Kyoto for Himeji. The castle is beautiful with much of the original complex still attached. As a five-storey, bright white wooden structure, it appears utterly unlike anything in Europe, but still contains some recognisable features like a moat and drawbridge. I spent a few hours exploring the grounds and, on recommendation, tried a green tea flavoured Häagen-Dazs ice cream. I've since had about twenty. In the evening I caught a shinkansen to Hiroshima. The oddest thing about the bullet train isn't the speed – which is barely perceptible from inside – but the fact that the trolley dolly has to ceremoniously face the aisle and bow every time she enters and exits. Poor woman; our train had about thirty carriages.

In Hiroshima I found an extremely posh hostel, where I got an en-suite room with double bed, satellite television and a coffee machine all for about twelve pounds. No Corby trouser press though. I spent a day in Hiroshima visiting the Peace Memorial Park. The museum gave an account of the events leading up to the dropping of the atomic bomb and the after-effects. There were very graphic images of some of the 140,000 victims, with severe burns and flesh dripping off their skin, but I found the most moving exhibits were the more symbolic representations of the event. The exhibit that most affected me was a watch recovered from a victim. There was hardly a scratch on it, but it was stopped forever at 8.15am on August 6th 1945. I was also very ashamed to see a letter from Churchill to Roosevelt suggesting that Japan be considered as the primary target.

After Hiroshima I left the main Japanese island of Honshū and caught a shinkansen to Kyūshū. I checked into a twenty-floor capsule hotel in Hakata with its own restaurant and sento. I saw a few sights, including the largest wooden Buddha in the world and a couple of half-decent art museums, and also spent an afternoon in the cinema (luckily films are subtitled not dubbed in Japan). While I was in Hakata my medication ran out, having failed to cure me, so I went to see a Dutch doctor. He prescribed another colossal pile of pills and sent me on my way.

The next day I caught a sleepless overnight train to Miyazaki where I changed for Shibushi. The tourist board in Hakata had told me that this tiny port town had ferries to Okinawa leaving every day. But at the port I was told that there are only ferries once a week and the most recent left that morning. So, thoroughly annoyed, I caught the three-hour train back to Miyazaki and stayed the night. I caught a bus first thing the following morning to Kagoshima – the port which actually does have regular ferries to the southern islands – and managed to get a place on a boat leaving that evening.

I had chosen the cheapest ticket and when I boarded I was shown to the sleeping quarters. It was a huge floor space completely covered in roll-mats laid end to end. The only other non-Japanese on the ferry were two American guys who had spent two weeks cycling down from Tokyo. I managed to sleep a little in the sitting position, as the mattress was five feet long and I didn't think the woman in front would be happy to sleep with my feet on her shoulders. I had planned to spend a night on Amami-Ōshima but when the call came at 5am I really couldn't be bothered. Instead I got off at the next island of Tokunoshima. The port boasted a tourist information but it had closed the previous year. Luckily, a man who owned a ryokan (inn) in the main town gave me a lift. I spent the day skirting the island on a bus and jumping off whenever the coastline looked interesting.

I also saw the largest butterfly ever. This thing could have carried off a puppy.

The next morning I was back on the boat and headed for Naha, Okinawa. The journey was ten hours and very dull, though I briefly chatted to a Japanese Liaison Officer who had been on exercise in Kagoshima. He told me a nice story about how he had built a radio from scratch when he was thirteen years old and managed to tune into the BBC World Service. The first sounds he heard were the chimes of Big Ben and since that moment he has been desperate to visit London. It was a moving and heartfelt story, but when I asked why he hadn't visited he just said that he "hadn't gotten round to it". Not that desperate then.

The ferry landed at 7.45pm and I headed straight for Naha Youth Hostel. No room. It was the same story at the next two places I tried and so, resigned to my fate, I set up my sleeping bag on a wall by the river. This seemed a good idea for a couple of hours, then it started to tip it down, so I found a sheltered doorway and set up there. It was only when a couple of cyclists stopped to examine me that I realised what I must look like. Despite my tramp-like appearance, I didn't manage to sleep due to unrelenting mosquito attacks. I spent the night wandering around and occasionally trying to kip somewhere (at one stage I just lay down in the middle of a pavement) but never managed more than ten minutes at a time. It was thoroughly miserable. I found the hostel again and waited for it to open at 7am so I could reserve a bed for that night. That was fine but I couldn't check-in until 4pm so I went to see a few sights. I went to the fish market, which had some tropical tasters, then walked a couple of miles to Shuri castle. I rode the monorail (my first unless you count Alton Towers) to a beach on the other side of town and fell asleep by the sea. Later, back at the hostel, I met a couple of Austrians and went for a quick drink before bed. The main alcohol here is awamori, which is similar to sake but much stronger...some older varieties are as high as 120 proof.

The hostel room included a meal so in the morning I ordered a classic 'continental breakfast' (sausage, egg, dressed salad, very salty chips, brioche and green tea) and then headed for Tomari Wharf. I planned to spend the day on nearby Zamami island, home of Furuzamami beach – supposedly the most beautiful in Japan. It was really nice, and I had a clear 200m stretch to myself. I spent all morning and afternoon just lying on the sand and occasionally swimming in the crystal clear sea, with coral and tropical fish clearly visible below me. It was only when I returned to Okinawa in the evening that I realised how ludicrously sunburnt I was. Every time I turned over in my sleep the pain woke me up.

On Friday I slept in very late, then jumped on a bus to the Memorial Peace Park at the south of the island. I changed at Itoman but, as the next bus wasn't for an hour and a half, I went to get some lunch. I seriously think it is the strangest place I have ever been; some kind of isolated community for people with mental illnesses. In a supermarket a woman clouted me on the back, muttered a few words (I'm not even sure it was Japanese) then just stared intensely into my eyes. When I tried to politely move on she blocked my way, never losing eye-contact. I managed to do my shop and make it to the checkout, but she was shadowing me all the way. The checkout lady was already laughing at a nearby cabbage as I approached. Once outside I managed to make a break for it, and found a wall to eat my lunch. However, people kept stopping and merrily chatting to me in Japanese. A group of men with Down's Syndrome sat down either side of me on the wall and began to have a conversation across me, as though I wasn't even there. I went back to the bus terminal but a man told me that the bus for the Peace Park was cancelled, so I just headed back to Naha. Productive day.

On Saturday I went SCUBA diving. I was up at 6am to catch a bus to Chatan, thirty minutes north of Naha. Instructor Chad took me to the port to meet divemaster Otis and we set off on a speedboat bound the Kerama islands. The boat was ridiculously quick, and consequently extremely bumpy, and I just managed to keep my breakfast down. Mind you, a Sausage McMuffin probably wasn't the best preparation. We dropped anchor off the coast of Tokashiki for the first dive. I spent ten minutes practicing snorkelling then got into the dive suit. We descended via the anchor rope to about sixty feet and Chad began to direct me, showing me some interesting fish and coral. It was beautiful but short lived – this dive was more about learning technique and gaining confidence. Otis took the boat to another spot just off Zamami (the spot of my sunburn fiasco) and we prepared for the second dive. This time Chad and I went down with five other Americans and a couple of Japanese girls. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The water was so clear and everything was so colourful. We were right on the seabed, about 80 feet down, and we saw poisonous sea snakes, starfish, parrotfish, clown anemone fish (Nemo), Moorish Idol (Gill) and much much more. Otis took an etch-a-sketch underwater so he could write down everything we were seeing. The dive lasted half an hour, but I could happily have stayed hours longer (the oxygen tank may have disagreed with me). I spent a few hours afterwards seriously contemplating whether to take the four-day diving certification course, but due to the cost I reluctantly decided against it. It is definitely something I'll consider in the future though.

Yesterday I visited some underground bunkers, where hundreds of Okinawan committed mass-suicide. This was during the "Typhoon of Steel", one of the bloodiest battles of World War Two, in which 200,000 civilians (half the population of Okinawa) along with 66,000 Japanese soldiers and 72,000 Americans were killed. In the evening I went to a brilliant buffet restaurant. As raw fish and beef are delicacies in Japan I didn't hesitate to pile them on my plate, along with raw pork and raw chicken. It was only after I polished them off that I noticed people cooking their meat on the barbecues provided. I was wondering what those things were...

Tomorrow I head back to Kagoshima. Oh and I feel fine now, thanks for asking.

Joe x