spring break = time for a beach holiday.
after a bustling late morning to arrive at KIX in time for (read as: way earlier than strictly necessary) check-in, I arrived in the afternoon/early evening at the naha airport! the moment i left the airport, though i realized jeans & a light jacket were not the appropriate wardrobe for 25 degree okinawa weather and hurried to my hostel down the monorail line to change into some shorts instead. the only trouble with that plan was that the hostel manager had “stepped out for 30 mins” shortly before i arrived and after waiting around in the reception area for half an hour, i realized he probably wasn’t going to be making much of a punctual return and heading out to meet up with my two friends also visiting the island for spring break for dinner.
okinawa’s food was Prime. there’s a stir-fry dish that’s particularly iconic to the region called チャンプル (champuru) that i tried for that first dinner. the restaurant we went to used tofu, bean sprouts, egg, and a few other veggies. it was sweet and flavourful and Hella Yum, i definitely recommend trying it (maybe at a few different restaurants for different takes on the dish) if you’re ever in the area.
after dinner and some chatting, i decided to try my luck with checking in again. this time, the manager was there, but i was caught in an unexpected downpour on my walk home, so by the time i got in and settled, i was pretty soggy and decided to call it a semi early night so i could wake up and start the day fresh the next morning.
day two started bright and early with a trip to 国際どり(international street) and the one of the nearby alleyway markets. i stopped and snacked a lot throughout the morning while walking around, there were stands selling fruits and vegetables and baked goods every two feet and everything was d e l i s h. i genuinely don’t think i’ve ever tasted pineapple as delicious in my entire life.
there was one older woman selling mochi in one of the markets and i ended up going back to her stand each day i was there (and buying more to bring home on the plane). her mochi was softer & chewier than anything you can find pre-packaged in stores and had an ideal mochi-to-red-bean ratio. just thinking about it is making me hungry again.
i also tried one of the iconic purple sweet potatos okinawa is known for and, m a n, i can see why. it tasted more like a dessert than a veggie, even though it had literally only been lightly baked in the skin. the flavour was so rich and sweet i’m still rattled over it. (i also tried several sweet potato tarts over the course of the trip and those were even more yum)
after my marketplace wandering, i decided it was high time i hit up the beach, so i arranged to meet up with shannon & kerrin there and headed down to the water.
on the way i stopped at a vending machine that had ‘american cream soda’ in it so i figured i had to try it. it was a little sweeter than what you’d normally find in canada, but still very cream soda-y. it was a funny little taste of home and refreshing in the heat.
when i finally made it to the beach, my friend’s were still a ways away, so i decided i’d hold off on getting in the water and try to round up some of the 星砂(star sand) okinawa’s beaches are famous for to take home. as i was sifting through a handful of sand, looking for the little star-shaped grains, a little girl (around 5 or 6) approached me and asked (in japanese) what i was doing.
i didn’t know the japanese word for sand at the time, so trying to explain that i was trying to find was a little funny and i ended up just telling her “this looks like a star, i’m looking for it.”, but that seemed to be clear enough for her. she plonked down next to me and started filling up her crocs with the sand so she could sift through it too. her older sister, a friend, and their mothers came over not long after and i had a pretty long conversation (in a mix of japanese and english) with them about the sand, my trip to okinawa, where i was studying in osaka (they teased me a bit over how i’d be learning osaka dialect there), and some things about canada. the adults were both very proficient in english and two of the girls were started to learn at school so they asked to try to practice speaking with me which was pretty cute. by this point, all three of the girls were rounding up big scoops of sand to take with them and sort through later and chatting away freely. apparently, because of my hair, i looked like 魔法少女 (a magical girl), so they thought the star sand suited me. eventually it was time for them to move on so we said our goodbyes and they headed off to enjoy the rest of their vacation.
then kerrin and shannon arrived and we spent the afternoon lounging and swimming and making plans for the following day.
it was a really nice, relaxing day - the weather was amazing and the water was warm - and i ate lots of tasty okinawan foods. dinner that night was also delicious (i had fried tuna & local vegetables). needless to say, though, after all the walking and swimming and sun, i was out like a light that night.
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