And Off to Kerama...

Hi Kain, thank you very much for your kind comment. I am honored for such comment. I’ll do my best to keep brightening up everybody’s days!!

So we are now in my fourth day of my short short vacation. It was also my last day of Okinawa probably for a while, sadly. I got up an hour earlier than the previous days and stared at my mobile internet connection to check up with the latest news on the boat to Kerama Islands. But the information displayed didn’t seem like it was going to be renewed forever.

Me, suspecting that the boat company wasn’t sure if they wanted to let the boats cross the water or not, grabbed my friends and rushed to the port. If they’re trying to decide that moment, I was so ready to make an appeal that this many people are so eagerly wanting to take the boat to the far away islands.

By the time we got to the port, the deserted port the day before was now flooded with people to the smallest corner. For a moment I thought, “hey, all these people have the same thing on their minds as I do” but then I found this note proudly announcing that the first jet boat had been cancelled but the first ferry was ready to go. No more of those for kanjis, yay!

I was sooooo ready to go to Kerama!! I stuck to the very end of the line to get tickets with a wide smile on my face. I didn’t know what I wanted to do first – swimming at Nishibama would be nice, but then I also wanted to have a try at Hizushi Beach where I had never been – and as I was building up my imagination my turn came. I was so happy I almost shouted out “three round tickets to Akashima!” but this person at the ticket counter replied in a rather cold tone, “You can’t really swim on Akashima today, are you sure you want to go there?”
Yeah right, go figure, it’s ok, it’s ok. No swimming, right. Well, were there turtles on Hizushi Beach?


... uh, what!? NO SWIMMING!?!?!??!?
Does that mean I’m not allowed to swim on either of the beaches? What am I supposed to do then!?
If there is the almighty god somewhere up there, why does he have to do this to me?

Still, I did want to go see the island. It was far better than leaving Okinawa without having a glance at the island I once loved so much. My mind went blank for a split second, but I replied “Yes, we’re still going.”

For about an hour and a half while we waited for the ferry to leave, we bought Okinawa Pork Egg at the nearby convenience store for breakfast. It’s kind of natural, but here in Okinawa you can get Okinawa cuisine even in convenience stores that you can’t get elsewhere. It’s like paradise!

Because we were eating out at the park right next to the ferry dock, we could jump on the ferry as soon as it was ready and were able to get good seats easily.
Like I have written in my previous entries, all the possible transportation means were stopped for several days due to the typhoon so those who live away from Okinawa main island had to wait for the transportation to recover and those like us who wanted to travel over to the isolated islands couldn’t go either. There were a bunch of people getting on the boat – so many that once you sit down it was almost impossible to get up again.

And the boat starts to move...!!

Okay, I was going to finish this today but I guess I’d have to extend it to tomorrow. Um, I’ll try wrapping the whole thing up tomorrow, but sorry if it goes on to the following day.