American Village, Senaga Island, Zakimi & Nakijin Castle Ruins (Jan 2-5, 2022)
2nd day of New Year, we decided to take a bus to visit the American Village in Mihama. Actually, we had passed by it on Christmas Day, the day when we arrived Okinawa too, and the road to American Village was so crowded at the time. I guess it was a very popular place to visit during Christmas. Today, the American Village is still in the holiday-mood.
Indeed, there were several buildings, full of shops, restaurants and cafes. There were all so beautifully-decorated, and still full of Christmas mood. I almost thought it was still Christmas, so I was in Disneyland!
What I enjoyed the most, was the Sunset Beach. There is nothing better than sitting next to the sea and drinking coffee. Besides that, I had really good Tiramisu in an Italian restaurant! (Unfortunately, it was a rainy day… otherwise, the sea would have looked even prettier color!
This is my another hobby — taking photos of all these interesting Shisa that I can only find in Okinawa. Love them!!
Next morning, I went jogging in the morning. Although it was in the city, the scenery was still so different from Tokyo. I could see pigeons in the park, very clean sea and clouds, people fishing and boats parking in the harbor. I love the peacefulness of Okinawa.
We were a little tired of taking a bus, so we went to Umikaji Terrace Senagajima by bicycles. This is actually the 2nd time we visited Senaga Island. We visited there on Christmas Day, the day we arrived too, because it was so close to Naha Airport, but at that time we only had a quick lunch (Okinawa Soba) and left. This time, we took our time to relax there, so it was different. We even had a big lunch there!!
It was such a sunny day. The sky and the sea both looked perfect blue color. I wanted to stay there forever!!
Since we had a big lunch, we decided to have just ramen for dinner. However, the ramen restaurant that we went had very impressive decoration. Inside ceiling, wall, lamps were all made of red soup spoon!! Also, the black pork bone soup ramen tasted good!!
Since there are only buses to go outside of Naha city, we had been trying to rent a car or even scooters to visit other further places since new year, but all the car rental shops were closed for holidays. For those which were still open, they had no cars left. Apparently, it is so different to go around Okinawa without a car, many tourists choose to rent a car. Finally, we were able to rent a car, so we decided to visit as many places as possible on our last day before leaving (Jan. 4)!
First of all, we tried to visit Shurijo Castle because it is the most famous and biggest castle in Okinawa! However, it was burnt by fire accident a few years. Many places are still in construction, so we did not even pay entrance fee to get in… There was a big stone pole which had survived the fire. It is so sad to see such a valuable historical place destroyed by accident… (On our last day, we should enjoy Blue Seal ice-cream again, which is a local brand, only available in Okinawa!!)
It felt so great to leave the city again, especially on such as sunny day!! We passed by Kadena again. Kadena is famous for its huge US Air Force Base. There were endless of wire fences and pine trees on both sides of the road, they are all USAF boundaries… no wonder Okinawa people are so unhappy about it.
We had passed this area by bicycle just a week ago… It felt so different to see the same scenery, but this time in a car. To be honest, I rather be on a bike! I love to feel the wind and sun around me!
There is never traffic jam in Okinawa. Soon we arrived our first stop — Zakimi Castle Ruins. Actually, there was a museum at the entrance free to visit too, but unfortunately, it was their holiday. But anyway, I was so excited to visit another ruin.
What is so special about this ruin is, it has many curvy-shaped stone walls, one after the other, you have to pass many doors to go inside. Of course, at the innermost, there are only foundations left of what is supposed to be the castle, but you can still see how large area it is. The stone walls are so thick that we could stand on one of the stone walls, and look out to see layers and layers of curvy stone walls extended outside. It was quite a view.
On the way out, we saw a shop selling Zenzai, traditional Japanese dessert made of red bean and mochi, but unfortunately it was closed too…
Next, we finally visited the westernmost point of Okinawa —- Cape Zanpa!! There was a park and lighthouse there. The scenery from the Lighthouse was nice. Also, we passed by Zanpa Beach. It was again another amazingly quiet and beautiful white sand beach. I think, because it was winter, there were very few people, so peaceful there. We picked up some sand and rocks as souvenir…
We passed by the most popular dessert shop in Okinawa — Okashigoten, so I finally had the Zenzai that I was craving for. By the way, Okashigoten is most famous for their sweet potato pie, so I took picture with this big sweet potato pie at their entrance!!
Next, we tried to visit the western part of Okinawa that we had skipped during our cycling trip. There is another beautiful island on western part of Okinawa called Sesoko Island. It is also accessible by bridge, so we tried to go there by car this time, and we also wanted to visit the Sesoko Beach on the island.
The bridge was actually quite short, comparing to other islands and other bridges that we had gone before. Especially this time we went by car, we passed the bridge in a minute. However, the Sesoko Beach was another hidden heaven!! The water was so transparent. In fact, it was Sunset time, so the sea and the beach looked even more amazing color. Also, there were many Sea Glasses on the beach, so we tried to look for them as souvenir.
Sea Glasses are actually just broken pieces of glass bottles etc., mostly in transparent, blue, green or brown color. After being hit by the waves again and again, they lose their corners and become round and smooth like stones. They are so colorful and pretty that many people like to collect them to make jewelry or decoration… This was the 1st time I ever seen so many sea glasses on the beach. Maybe because this beach was so hidden. It was really like a piece of heaven there.
It was already getting dark, so we hurried to our last destination of the day — Nakijin Castle Ruins. This is another big and beautiful ruin. It is different from other ruins that we had seen. It has not only stone walls, but also a garden. There were 2 ways to go inside, the old way was walking up the hill among the rocks, the new way was walking up the latter-built stone stairs. Either way, you can see the elegant garden, with many old trees and flowers, that you can almost imagine how the place used to look like. The garden was a perfect place to visit during Sunset time. At the end, we saw a little temple. Actually, there were much more ruins in front, but they were still in construction and blocked…
After that, we drove back to Naha city… The evening and night view of Okinawa and Naha looked so different from Tokyo. There were so few cars, so few traffic, we could still see a lot of nature on the way. I thought, I love to live in Okinawa someday…
At night, we walked over to Kokusaidori for dinner. It is the main street and the most popular tourist district in Naha city of Okinawa. Many restaurants open until late, but the indoor district was mostly closed due to New Year holidays… We passed by a guesthouse that looked nice, but our apartment was much more convenient for family. Finally, we picked a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner.
It finally came to our last day in Okinawa!! Since we were leaving by the evening flight, we tried to make the most out of our last day. In the morning, I took a walk to the nearby Makishi Public Market, to see if I could find some foods to bring home. However, the market is relocating, so only a temporary, much smaller market was there. Also, due to New Year holidays, only a few shops were open. It is a little lonely… Still, I managed to buy some local dessert (mochi in leaf, called “Kassa Moochie“) home. They were handmade freshly, so tasted really good!!
On the last day, we cycled to the Former Navy Underground Headquarters on the way to Naha Airport. The Entrance was on top of the hill, surrounded by a quiet beautiful garden. However, what I was about to see, left a strong memory in my mind.
There were a lot of photos demonstrating the time when Okinawa was occupied by US military force. It was a very difficult situation that US was so much stronger than Japanese military force, Okinawa people really did not stand a chance.
It was said that about 3,000 Japanese navy soldiers spent five months day and night digging by hand, to make this Underground Headquarter. This Headquarter is about 20m deep, 300m long, very well built and maintained. There were even suicide marks by grenades, letters left on the wall by the commander, etc. when Japan surrendered.
When we were there, some young USAF people were also visiting inside the tunnels. They were laughing and joking. I guess, they did not feel the sadness behind. After all, they were the winning team. However, we were so sad when we were visiting this place. The drawings showing inside was really well drawn, to show us how it was like. Anyway, it is an important history of Okinawa.
Finally, we rode to Naha Airport for our flight. It was only 30 min or less riding to the Airport, but along the way, we continued to see USAF base with fences, pine trees all the way. It was so different from other Airports that we rode to in the past. We even saw military planes/helicopters flying above us sometimes.
Total Distance we rode: 431km
Although Okinawa is not big, just 400-500km around, but there are so many interesting places to visit. It is surrounded by uncountable beautiful white sand beaches with transparent seawater. We had visited several small islands connected by bridges, but we could not visit all of them. Also, there are so many ruins in Okinawa. Each of them are unique and their own history. Again, we wish that we could visit all of them. Okinawa has very unique language, culture and history, which is totally different from other parts of Japan. I would love to come here again someday…