Day 10 - Hakone to Okinawa: Into the Tropics
Took our time packing and checked out of the hotel at 11am. We’ve been keeping an eye on the weather forecast as there’s a typhoon heading towards Okinawa! Just our luck. Some sort of warm front is keeping it at bay a few hundred miles away south but Kerry reckons it will gain strength.
Short Shinkensen (Bullet train) to Shinagawa via Yokohama. Journey’s view was quite dull as we got used to the built-up suburbs of Tokyo with concrete buildings and overhead cables. Shinagawa station returned us to the rush of Tokyo atmosphere but at least we avoided Tokyo station, the Yamonote Line and the uncomfortable Mono-rail to Haneda airport. After more souvenir shopping we went through to wait for our flight. The added bonus to make us smile was the livery of our ANA plane. The 747 was kitted out in Pokemon colours and characters. Even inside, the crew were wearing similar aprons and the headrests were decorated. As usual the take-off and landing was televised to the passengers. Coming down was quite painful with intense pressure to my sinuses and head.
Okinawa was as expected hot. We headed for the information desk and asked for the hotel bus. The Japanese guy said all hotel coaches had stopped for the night and would re-start tomorrow at 11am with a ‘glad to help you’ smile. So what we do now you pillock! Another information desk said we could use the public bus number 120. Bus took over an hour and a half going through Naha, the island capital and was surprisingly big about the size of Coventry. However it was horrendously busy with too much traffic and made the M25 look like a quiet country land. Majority of journey was going past rows of Pachinko places, car lots and fast food restaurants all with blazing neon lights brighter than Blackpool.
Eventually we reached the Moonbeach Hotel to check into a nice air-conditioned room with a great view of the beach. Reception staff hardly spoke English and all signs in the hotel were in Japanese. We were starving after our long journey and according to the hotel there was a Chinese restaurant open – No. Other places suit our palette so went to the BBQ eatery. Again the language broke down and ordered a buffet eventually understanding we would have to cook it ourselves. Meat and some stir-fry arrived with drinks. A few minutes later more vegetables arrived then just as we sized up what we had more food arrived and the table was overflowing. A few worried looks and whispering from the staff as we wondered what the f*uck to do next. The heat of the hot pan in the middle of our table plus the heat of the night made it a sweat fest but at least we had something to eat. Though a couple of corrections from the staff on how to cook the banquet.
Strolled onto the beach as it was so warm to enjoy the pure white sand. Bit sharp due to it being made up of broken coral and as the tide washed in, more coral came in making walking a bit risky under bare foot. Ventured back into the hotel complex and noticed an indoor fish pool the size of a swimming pool full of tropical fish. There is the corner about 40-50cm wide, 70-80 in length was a brown sea turtle swimming into the wall within touching distance. Looked like it was very bored or wanted to find some darkness under the bright hotel lights.
TV had the AFN (American Forces Network) with schedule of US shows. Local news was embarrassingly bad with the typhoon expecting panic buying at the shops. Hopefully this is just a very over-cautious thing especially with the New Orleans saga!
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Short Shinkensen (Bullet train) to Shinagawa via Yokohama. Journey’s view was quite dull as we got used to the built-up suburbs of Tokyo with concrete buildings and overhead cables. Shinagawa station returned us to the rush of Tokyo atmosphere but at least we avoided Tokyo station, the Yamonote Line and the uncomfortable Mono-rail to Haneda airport. After more souvenir shopping we went through to wait for our flight. The added bonus to make us smile was the livery of our ANA plane. The 747 was kitted out in Pokemon colours and characters. Even inside, the crew were wearing similar aprons and the headrests were decorated. As usual the take-off and landing was televised to the passengers. Coming down was quite painful with intense pressure to my sinuses and head.
Okinawa was as expected hot. We headed for the information desk and asked for the hotel bus. The Japanese guy said all hotel coaches had stopped for the night and would re-start tomorrow at 11am with a ‘glad to help you’ smile. So what we do now you pillock! Another information desk said we could use the public bus number 120. Bus took over an hour and a half going through Naha, the island capital and was surprisingly big about the size of Coventry. However it was horrendously busy with too much traffic and made the M25 look like a quiet country land. Majority of journey was going past rows of Pachinko places, car lots and fast food restaurants all with blazing neon lights brighter than Blackpool.
Eventually we reached the Moonbeach Hotel to check into a nice air-conditioned room with a great view of the beach. Reception staff hardly spoke English and all signs in the hotel were in Japanese. We were starving after our long journey and according to the hotel there was a Chinese restaurant open – No. Other places suit our palette so went to the BBQ eatery. Again the language broke down and ordered a buffet eventually understanding we would have to cook it ourselves. Meat and some stir-fry arrived with drinks. A few minutes later more vegetables arrived then just as we sized up what we had more food arrived and the table was overflowing. A few worried looks and whispering from the staff as we wondered what the f*uck to do next. The heat of the hot pan in the middle of our table plus the heat of the night made it a sweat fest but at least we had something to eat. Though a couple of corrections from the staff on how to cook the banquet.
Strolled onto the beach as it was so warm to enjoy the pure white sand. Bit sharp due to it being made up of broken coral and as the tide washed in, more coral came in making walking a bit risky under bare foot. Ventured back into the hotel complex and noticed an indoor fish pool the size of a swimming pool full of tropical fish. There is the corner about 40-50cm wide, 70-80 in length was a brown sea turtle swimming into the wall within touching distance. Looked like it was very bored or wanted to find some darkness under the bright hotel lights.
TV had the AFN (American Forces Network) with schedule of US shows. Local news was embarrassingly bad with the typhoon expecting panic buying at the shops. Hopefully this is just a very over-cautious thing especially with the New Orleans saga!
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