Okinawa: Laid-Back Japan for Tourists
Day 31, Grand Asia 2018
Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018, Naha, Okinawa, Japan:
After a month of near-perfect weather, the tide is turning and affecting our itinerary. While I was in the city of Naha on Okinawa, Capt. Eversen announced that our stop tomorrow in Ishigaki, Japan, is canceled due to unfavorable weather conditions.
Ishigaki is a popular beach holiday island for the Japanese, part of the Ryukyu chain that also includes Okinawa. It is a tender port, meaning that we anchor instead of dock and take the ship’s tenders (which do double duty as lifeboats) to shore. It doesn’t take much in the way of rough seas to make the tendering process difficult. The remnants of super typhoon Yutu (aka Rosita in the Philippines) are heading toward China, bringing us cloudy and rainy weather. Just close enough to spoil a day at unspoiled beaches.
Instead, we left Okinawa in the early evening today as scheduled and will arrive in the following port, Keelung, Taiwan, at 1 p.m. tomorrow, a half-day earlier than scheduled. This will give us an overnight in this port city an hour from Taipei. The shore excursion team is busy today trying to book some afternoon tour opportunities for our early arrival.
Meanwhile, Okinawa provided a different view of Japan. Even the main street in the city seemed more like a tourist destination, with blocks of cheap souvenir shops offering T-shirts, flip-flops, magnets and mugs. There was no shuttle service, so most of us not on tours took off on the 25-minute walk to the main street. By 1 p.m., I had overachieved my 10,000-step goal.
After pausing to sketch the main street with its crowded sidewalks and palm trees, I found the folk arts and crafts center, which had beautiful silk weavings, artwork, glass and ceramics for sale at prices above my budget. Thank goodness I can shop for my new grandnephew, who will eventually grow into the T-shirt I bought him. Tours took passengers to a castle, a system of caves and a memorial to the deaths and devastation of World War II.
Perhaps because this island was governed by the United States after the war until it was returned to Japan in 1972, and perhaps because of the U.S. military base here, English is noticeably more prevalent than on the other major Japanese islands. Still, most tourists seem to be young Japanese visitors – never far from their smartphones.
Back on the ship, as if our housekeeping staff did not have enough to do, they had decorated the indoor pool area with dozens and dozens of towel animals – the Amsterdam Zoo. The weather is warmer, so I spent a pleasant few hours on my balcony finishing Eric Ripert’s memoir, 32 Yolks: From My Mother’s Table to Working the Line.
Of course, we couldn’t let Halloween pass without celebrating. The evening included a pumpkin-carving contest and a Monster Mash party. Most passengers, like me, made modest if any attempts to dress up. I wore an orange shirt with black pants and sweater. Joyce donned a witch-hat headband to go with her orange shirt and black pants. One table at dinner caused a stir when they all showed up in full costumes.
I’ve watched too many movies of passengers “boarding” lifeboats . . . so set us straight. Do you board on ship and get lowered…? I don’t want to be picturing you hanging onto a dangling vessel 200 feet above rolling seas.
When we tender ashore, the crew drops the boats and brings them to a platform lowered to water level by the ship. They then help each of us step onto the boats. I believe in an emergency evacuation we would load the boats from Deck 3 and then they would be lowered. Scary, but as i’ve heard when sailing, you should step UP to a lifeboat (in other words, don’t abandon the boat until its going down).