Day 67: Zamami Island (Okinawa) – Yaese (Okinawa)

The original plan for today was to explore around Zamami Island again and then catch the ferry back to Kagoshima in the evening.  One (small) hiccup.  The ferry to Kagoshima left at 8AM, not 8PM.  We realised this yesterday, and since there was no way that we could be back in time for the ferry, it meant that we had an extra two days in Okinawa (since the ferry runs every other day).  Not a bad thing, but money was already extremely tight.

We woke to clearish skies and warm temperatures, so we went for an early swim at the nearby Ama beach.  The tide was in this morning, so the shallow water yesterday was even shallower.  We floated around for a while, thinking how lucky we were with the weather.  Today was even nicer than yesterday, though still far from perfect.  The clouds were still stalking on the horizon.

We packed, checked out and got a lift into town where we hired a scooter to explore town, but not before we ate some breakfast.  As we were coming back from our early morning swim, a man gave us ¥2000 worth of vouchers that could be used at any of the businesses in town (which I later found out we were meant to be given when we bought our ferry ticket, but because we were so rushed he didn’t have time), so we used it on a nice breakfast.  I ordered what I believed to be ‘Okinawa-style hotdogs’ and Risa ordered a big bowl of taco rice.  My hotdogs turned out to be plain battered dogs, not sure what made them Okinawan…  Anyway, they were nice enough, but I think the local cats wanted it more than I did, and had I not been so hungry I probably would have shared something with them.  Luckily Risa wasn’t able to finish her breakfast…

Fed, we went and got on our scooter.  Limited by the times that our ferry departed, we raced around the perimeter of the island as fast as we could, visiting all the view platforms in succession.  It was embarrassing how fast (and sporty) I thought the 100cc scooter was, but after being on the ‘cub I think anything would feel fast.

There were platforms on all corners of Zamami, each with a different outlook.  Sometimes beautiful sandy beaches, sometimes aggressive rocky coasts.  Each time we arrived at a view platform, we still couldn’t believe how lucky we were today, and how amazing the weather was.  I couldn’t imagine better conditions, and for once neither of us had a single complaint about the weather!

We even returned to the beach where I proposed to take a ‘memorial photo’ with flower rings that Risa created.

The lady at the scooter hire shop doubted that we’d be able to see the entire island in two hours (which may have been her trying to upsell a third hour of rental, though we were limited by the ferry departure schedule), but we did it.  Just.

We were happy, we’d seen what we wanted to see in Okinawa.  We’d been snorkelling and seen amazing coral fish.  We’d seen amazing white beaches, blue skies and bluer seas and even seen some beautiful houses.  So, we left Zamami with no regrets, a great memory to be forever attached to our engagement.

The ferry back seemed faster than the ferry there, though it could be that we were exhausted.  On the way we passed several ‘uninhabited islands’, including this oneAnd fed.

We arrived back on the main Okinawa island about 4PM, I had to sort out a problem that I had with my iPhone (it went flat overnight, and wouldn’t turn back on…), and once that was sorted (she factory reset it, erasing all my music) we went into Kokusai Dori again, to do more tourist things while we waited to meet with our friend, who saved us by letting us stay with her after we screwed up the ferry time table.

We wondered around for a while (even managing to try one of the new McDonald German sausage Chicken Burgers), looking at all the tourist fare.  Lots of overpriced Hawaiian shirts and jars of sake with snakes in (habu-shu).

Together with our friend, we headed to dinner at a favourite foreigner bar of hers, Eager Beaver.  As well as having a large assortment of foreign beers, the bar also had food that we’d (I’d) been craving including meat pies and poutine (which is something I’d never tried prior to tonight).

We played a few games of Jenga, some Fussbal and a quick game of darts then called it a night and headed back to our friends house in Yaese, where she treated us to another quick episode of Dexter before bed!