Speaking of Christmas, Deanna and I recently celebrated, but in a very nontraditional fashion. Instead of going home and spending time with friends and family (and snow), we took a trip to Okinawa, Japan. Now don't get me wrong, we both would have rather gone home to spend time with friends and family, but we didn't have enough time off to make a trip of that significance. So we stayed closer and went to Japan.
This was our second trip to Japan. The first time was to get new visas. We changed which campus of Youngdo we were working at and so we needed new visas. Korea being crazy about immigration, we had to leave the country to get new visas, and the closest Korean consulate was in Fukuoka, Japan. So that was our first trip.
This trip was more enjoyable, for a couple of reasons. First, the location was much better. Fukuoka was okay, but there didn't seem to be a lot to do there. Second, the language. When we went to Fukuoka, we knew a grand total of zero words of Japanese. Not hello. Not goodbye. Not thank you. Not yes.
With a lot of those words, we had actually heard them before, but never thought about it enough to put it into practice. This time, we knew all of those and they were very helpful. We were very amused at the word for "yes," which is "hai." But you don't just say it like you say "hi" to your friend. You have to say it like you're karate chopping your friend. "HAI!" At least, that's how they all seemed to say it.
The trip itself was pretty good, but it was an exercise in being content with our circumstances, even if they weren't what we wanted. Our plan for the trip was as follows:
Friday: Fly to Naha, Okinawa. Spend the night in Naha.
Saturday: Take a ferry to Zamami island, part of the Kerama islands.
Sunday-Monday: Enjoy Zamami island--the sights, the beaches, the relaxation.
Tuesday: Take ferry back to Naha. Spend the night in Naha again.
Wednesday: Fly to Seoul.
Zamami was supposed to be this absolutely beautiful place and we were excited to get out of the city for a while and have some good relaxation time. However, on Saturday (Christmas day), the weather wasn't so good. In fact, it was bad enough for them to cancel the ferries. Apparently, they cancel the ferries when the waves reach a height of 4 meters (about 13 feet), so it's probably good that they didn't go. However, this meant a (slightly cold) rainy Christmas that started off with one big disappointment. Combine that with the fact that we really wanted to be home, and it was pretty hard to take.
But we did, and we actually found some things to do in Naha and kind of enjoyed ourselves. We found a castle that had been the home of the Ryukyu government back in the day (before Okinawa was part of Japan). Here's a picture of the gate.
We stayed at a hotel that night (the hostel we were in the night before sucked--noisy, dirty, no privacy, etc.). It was nice because they had computers for rent, so we were able to Skype our families on Christmas. That helped alleviate some of the sadness of being away.
Sunday, the ferries were canceled again. The weather was still bad and the waves were still big. We spent most of the day relaxing, drinking coffee, and doing puzzles (sudoku, word finds, Deanna's brain training book, etc.). It wasn't a bad day, but still not exactly what we had envisioned for the trip. We stayed at the hotel again.
Monday, the weather had finally improved enough for us to take the ferry. The waves were still pretty big, so I was definitely feeling seasick by the time we got there. When we got there, though, we were blown away. The only town on the island was a small village, and the rest was nature and ad couple of farms. There was a road that ran the perimeter of the island. We walked most of the road in a matter of a few hours and only saw a couple cars and a moped. It was such a refreshing change of pace after living in Korea where you can't go anywhere any time without seeing approximately a 4,230 people.
The scenery on the island was incredible. You could see other islands around, jutting up into the sky. They were green, the sand on their beaches was white, and the water was turquoise.
I've seen some beautiful places in my life, but this just might have the #1 spot on that list now.
It seemed like every corner we turned brought us to some new, beautiful vista. It was incredible.
Unfortunately, because of the ferries being canceled, this meant we had just over 24 hours on Zamami. I would have enjoyed spending a lot more time there, but we loved the time we had. We went back to Naha on Tuesday and stayed at the dirty, noisy, no-privacy hostel again (we had already paid them for two nights), and then flew out early Wednesday morning. When we landed at Incheon (Seoul's airport), the ground was covered with a decently thick layer of snow. We sighed and lamented the fact that Seoul does not have a tropical climate. But oh well, we like it well enough here.
Thanks for taking the time to read all of this. We miss you all!
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