Tamagusukujo Castle (Dec 30, 2021)
The next day, we continued to ride along the eastern coast of Okinawa mainland. Also, we would visit the Easternmost and the Southernmost of Okinawa, and another ruin!!!
First of all, we are heading the Cape Chinen Park. Cape Chinen is the most eastern spot of Okinawa mainland. We passed by “Cape Chinen Ocean Center”. Unfortunately, it was closed because of the sea population from the undersea volcano recently. It is difficult to see from my photos, but some parts of the sea has strange color. They are pumice etc. particles floating on the sea, because of the volcano explosion. Many fishing boats could not even go out because of that…
However, we found some rest area with Souvenir shops & some Exhibition explaining about the eastern side of Okinawa. There are actually a few more small islands nearby (they are behind the beautiful flowers!!) but they are not connected by bridges, so you can only see them from afar. Almost nobody live there… The Exhibition also shows that there are at least 9 famous ruins in Okinawa! I want to visit as many as possible!
There was even a Sata Andigi shop, selling freshly-fried and many different favored Sata Andigi!! It is actually just sweet fried dough, but somehow it is special snack in Okinawa, so popular, so simple but tasty — my favorite!! You can see the below link for more explanation.
I finally arrived Cape Chinen Park — the Easternmost spot of Okinawa. It is actually just a park overseeing the surrounding sea. Interesting shape though.
I insisted to visit a ruin on the way, so we did. For that, we had to ride extra distance, uphill along the mountain. It was long cycling road uphill, almost no cars and no people. Castles are usually on higher altitude, so that it can oversee the town… On the way, we passed by some interesting landmark, explaing about a local love story (but I forgot the details…).
This ruin is called “Tamagusuku Gusuku“. There were nobody there, and of course no entrance fee, but the landscape and structures were just amazing. It was like a hidden palace. They maintain it very well. There were beautiful trees and plants around, wooden stairs built to access the top entrance. From the top entrance, we could see the extensive golf course nearby. I love this place.
After visiting this ruin, we took a short-cut, a super-steep narrow road down the mountain straight to the seaside. It was a little scary but exciting. Then, without know, we actually at lunch in another island — Ou Island. The island was very small, at the south of Okinawa mainland, just one small bridge (20m long?) away from the mainland, but there was a local restaurant there famous for tempura. Also, we thought we could eat some good seafood, so we went there.
Indeed, there was very tasty Squid Ink soup, Sashimi (raw fish) , Okinawa Soba and others. We enjoyed a big lunch and left the island (without knowing that it was an island!).
Next, we tried to go to the Southernmost of Okinawa — Cape Arasaki. We passed by many sugar cane fields. We also passed by Okinawa Peace Prayer Park, but we didn’t go in.
At last, we followed Google map, and found Cape Arasaki. It looked like we missed the Park, but went to a different place. It is a fishing spot, but it was much more beautiful and natural than the park. It was very difficult to access by our bikes, gravel roads full of rocks, grass and sometimes muddy, but when we got there. It was the most amazing place that we have visited in Okinawa. It was a high cliff with deep sea and angry waves around. The areas was rocky, with strange plants and interesting landscape. It was really worth-going. (What I only found out now is, Cape Arasaki has such as sad war history behind… Please read from below.)
On the way back, we saw sunset from the fields, passed by some farms full of cows. It was fun riding on gravel roads, and I love sugar cane fields!!
After that, it was only a short ride under where we stayed tonight. It was again a Self-check-in hostel(?), actually modified from a mansion, so it was just like a small apartment inside, with washer, dryer, microwave, tiny kitchen and bathroom, very modern & comfortable. We were so excited that we could finally wash all our clothes!!
At night, we walked around to look for restaurants. This town is called “Itoman”, only 10km south from Naha Airport and 20km south from Naha city. All the restaurants we found were again, either fully-booked or closed early. Finally, we begged one restaurant to let us in, but we must finish eating by 8PM, because they had reservations afterwards.
We were lucky. This restaurant was cheap and tasted good. I particularly love their fried mushions.
Today we only rode 62km, but we actually woke from east, via south, back to west part of Okinawa. Also, we visited so many interesting places!! Tomorrow, we’ll be back to Naha. That will complete our “Around Okinawa” cycling trip!! Yeah!!
Since Google Map does not show Cycling Mode in this area, it is shown by Walking mode.