Back in February, when a notification on my mobile phone alerted me about a budget airline's promotional fare to Okinawa, Japan's southernmost prefecture, I immediately checked it out. For a round trip in June, it's only about 4,500 baht. With a big grin on my face, I said to myself: "Okie Dokie."
A few days later my sister booked her tickets so she could join me. Her tickets cost about 6,000 baht but were still cheap. Since Okinawa doesn't have an extensive railway network as other parts of Japan, our plan was to explore the main island, which lends its name to the prefecture, with a rental car.
The months quickly passed, and finally, we took our awaited flight from Don Mueang to Naha, Okinawa's capital.
On the first day, we used Naha's monorail to get to the shopping district along the famous Kokusai street and Shuri Castle. Our rental car had been booked for the other days when we would travel out of town. In the city where parking is not easy to find and expensive, a car can be a burden.
Visiting Shuri Castle was a highlight for me. From reading about the history of Ayutthaya, I have long heard about the Ryukyu Kingdom, a major player in the region's maritime trade. The Shuri Castle was the centre of the Ryukyu Kingdom which officially became a part of Japan, the Okinawa Prefecture, in the late 19th century. As a Thai, I find it amazing to see remnants of a faraway kingdom in the Pacific Ocean that centuries ago had good relations with Siam.
Apart from historical records, another good proof of such relations is awamori, Okinawa's famous distilled liquor. It is believed that awamori shares its root with the Thai lao khao. Even these days, the Okinawan spirit is made with Thai rice. Too bad I don't drink so I can't tell how different the two alcoholic beverages taste.
With the rental car, my sister and I travelled north along the west coast of Okinawa. We dropped by major sites such as Cape Manzamo and the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium and other nearby places such as Cape Bise and the ruins of Nakijin Castle that, like the restored Shuri Castle, was part of a collection of historical sites related to the Ryukyu Kingdom designated by Unesco as a World Heritage Site. On the way back to Naha, we drove along the east coast.
During our road trip we found that although Okinawa boasts many brilliant beaches, not all of them are easily accessible. Many are either hogged by big hotels (like in Thailand) or simply fenced off. On the east coast, we found on Google Maps what seemed like a nice public beach but it turned out to be a highly restricted area.
Thanks to the rental car we were able to save some more money because we could easily visit supermarkets where food is cheaper than restaurants and the ubiquitous minimarts. For example a grilled Japanese eel -- the whole fish and it's big! -- cost us only ¥770 (about 230 baht). Our hotels had kitchens for free use so simple cooking or reheating food was not a problem.
Driving in Okinawa or in other parts of Japan, as you can probably easily imagine, is much safer than in Thailand. Our road trip in Okinawa, therefore, was fun and trouble-free. The prefecture still has many more islands that we did not have enough time to visit. Maybe the next time cheap tickets are available, we will.
