23 June, 2006

The Timeless Island

Whoa! Brazil is definitely the champion! I’ve got nothing to complain about regarding the JPN-BRA match. I even feel refreshed when the opponent is just too strong.
Until the last match Japan only had one goal which wasn’t exactly a shot-like-shot of Nakamura’s, but Tamada’s shot against the Brazilians was surely a beautiful one.
This is only the third time for Japan to come to the World Cup stages. We’re still newbies right?

What matters more is France. It’s last match in the first stage, against Togo starts late tonight. France was the champion of World Cup 1998, and has good players like Zidane and Henry! What is the problem if the fact that France still struggling through first stage isn’t a problem!?

God I can’t sleep tonight. I simply cannot close my eyes tonight.
Next Monday when I come back to this blog, will I be smiling or crying…? It’s all up to the French!


Okay, let’s get back to my little story of Okinawa.
I, with a new item, am heading to the isolated island of Okinawa.

Okinawa contains several isolated islands. The largest one is Ishigaki Island located further south from main island Okinawa, and is actually big enough to hold an airport of its own. Ishigaki has peripheral small isolated islands. When you hear of an “isolated islands tour” it’s most likely a cruise around these islands.

The island we headed for was not one of the Ishigaki islands. We took a jet boat from Naha Port for about an hour to the Kerama Islands.

Soon after we left the port on the jet boat, we were surrounded by the stunning beauty of the sea blue. The sea around main island Okinawa too is pretty enough, but the island holds a fair sized population, has some factories and boats come and go so the corals are actually dying around in the area. So even though it’s pretty there, the prettiness isn’t as breathtaking as the sea that was surrounding us.

This was the first thing that shocked me.

I grew up near an sea which was quite clear but the water around Okinawa main island was clearer. I guess that before I realized I was assuming that this was the clearest sea. The water away from the main island was like pure and clear jelly, and I could hardly believe it was the sea. It was that beautiful.

By then my eyes had forgotten to blink being so drawn into the awe of the sea, and of course I had completely forgotten to turn on the 8mm video recorder I brought in my heavy luggage.

I forgot to tell you that I have a passion in filming, especially using 8mm cameras. I like its unique touch and taste that no others have, so I bring it with me on whatever trips that I feel to be important or memorable. Maybe I’ll talk about it on another occasion.

The boat sped to a little island called Akashima in the Kerama Islands. My friend didn’t work on this island but on another neighboring island Zamamito, but he wanted me to see the sea of Akashima so that’s how we decided to stay here for the night.

We were welcomed at the port by the daughter of the little B&B we decided to stay. After leaving our luggage at the B&B and greeting the innkeepers we headed straight to the sea. The daughter chuckled at our over excitement and handed us some Sata Andagi (deep-fried doughnuts) saying, “It’s especially good after coming out from the sea.”

The blue spread right in front of the B&B but we had to make a short trip to get to the main beach, so even though it was a tiny island the B&B owner took us on the back of his pick-up truck to the beach. This too was the first time for me to sit in the back of a truck so I was already pretty fascinated by the “wild” experience, plus because there was no ceiling above me it felt really free.

This is getting long again (well I don’t even know how long this is going to go on) so I’ll stop here, but are any of you actually enjoying my Okinawa story? At least I thought it’d be better reporting the weather of Tokyo which is more or less the same everyday :P

I don’t know if I’ll keep on going, but I suppose there’ll be a blank cuz I would probably be writing about France in World Cup.
Have a great weekend guys!

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