To my wonder my friend replied with a far gaze.
“If you want to know it, see it. I’ll take you.”
He once used to work in one of the isolated islands of Okinawa, and wanted to take me there. So comes my third trip to Okinawa.
I didn’t know what made his eyes twinkle so much with confidence and admiration, and I had no idea how his Okinawa was different from mine, but I was somehow attracted to his words and confidence.
I was born and raised in the countryside of Shikoku, an island which is also a chunk of four prefectures. My house was right by the sea so naturally I learned to play in the water since I was little and I loved doing so. When my friend said he would take me to Okinawa, it has been quite a while since my last visit and plus because it was about a year since I came out to this gigalopolis Tokyo and I was getting sick of this place, it might have been the right time to go back to some ocean.
But let me say just one thing.
The excitement that stirred inside myself then was fate. I was bound to set foot again on the soil of Okinawa.
And so the next month, May, we flew to Okinawa.
Because we took an unbelievably cheap tour ticket to Okinawa – 3 nights 4 days, with accommodation for one night, rent-a-car plus round-trip plane ticket all for 30,000 yen – we had to stay at this designated hotel on the main island, disabling us from staying on the isolated island on the second day.
The first day of the trip was an ordinary sightseeing course with the car we rented. We sped from Naha to the northern shores, but we couldn’t close our eyes from the cobalt blue water on our way, so we stopped the car, took off our clothes and dived into the beautiful water.
May is season-wise right before the rainy season so there weren’t many people swimming then, but the air was hot enough for us to really have fun in the ocean so we had a blast as though the place was a private beach.
Suddenly my friend asked me, “Did you bring your fins?” and I was like, “No.” Then he dashed to the car and brought a pair saying excitedly, “You have to have them. It’ll be so much different.”
So I wore them right away and put on my snorkel and paddled into the water again.
Whoooom!
I can’t describe the excitement then. I was like, I am swimming!! Every kick gave me a strong push deeper into the water and it felt sooo good. I couldn’t believe I could swim without fins before.
When I came out from the water and trampled the sandy shore, my friend gave me a wide grin.
“Told you.”
Thanks buddy. I went to get my own immediately.
So now, I with a new toy am about to continue my exploration to an isolated island.
…to be continued.
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