The third day was the best!! We woke up and the sun was shining! It was such a good start to the day. We had breakfast and I hung out on the beach and took pictures for a while before we left….what a wonderful way to wake up! When we were planning to go to Okinawa, we’d been given 4 choices for Day 3: take a ride in a glass bottom boat (along with other things…I forgot), canoe to a uninhabited island (Iriomote) & hang out there, go to a small island (Taketomi) and take a ride on a water buffal0 drawn cart, or go to the city and go shopping. I chose the trip to Taketomi. Of the 250/300 students, about 90 decided to go on the glass boat as well as 90 with my group…and around 50 or 60 for each of the other trips.
The girls at breakfast.
I miss Japanese food SO MUCH. Just the everyday foods. Like salad with goma/sesame dressing. The 100% cassis & grape juice and blueberry yogurt balls my host dad bought me everytime he bought groceries. Homemade everything. Awesome Japanese-Italian food. Delicious sweets. Amazing fresh fruit. Ahhhh, I need to be back!! ):
Quite possibly my favorite picture of myself, ever....taken with self timer.
Taketomi is a very small (population: around 300) island. It’s very traditional….no paved roads and they don’t even allow you to throw away garbage!! They have a Ryukyu neighborhood, with traditional red clay roof and shisa(guardian figures) on the roof. There’s many holy sites, but you’re not allowed to enter them. We took a very bumpy 10 minute ferry ride from Ishigaki port to Taketomi, then boarded yet again MORE buses. Since it was raining, we went to a museum about Taketomi. It was very small but very nice, with movies and cool exhibits. I bought a water bottle from a vending machine, and it was “natural coral reef water.” Once I got about halfway done with the water, I realized it tasted weird. Well, you could actually see little pieces of dirt/coral/etc floating in the bottom of the water! It was so strange!!
Once it stopped raining, we got on the buses again and went to the place for the water buffalo rides. It’s a huge tourist attraction in Taketomi…it’s simply a water buffalo pulling a cart around town, on the beach, etc. The entire ride took only 10-15 minutes, but it was a lot of fun. It was a gorgeous way to see the island, and fun to do something very touristy. Our water buffalo’s name was Yai, she was a 3 year old girl. And so cute!! And our bus “driver” even sang a song for us!
After that, we loaded back onto buses and drove to the beach. This beach is called 星砂の浜 or Star Sand Beach. The sand is actually made from the shells of tiny tiny crustaceans. How weird is that! And it’s star shaped…seriously!! There’s also random cats roaming around, they’re very tame and friendly and will just lay there and let you pet them. I get the feeling that they’re quite spoiled…nothing wrong with that!! The beach was so gorgeous…I was in awe.
We went back to the village and had lunch. Since I’m vegetarian, I couldn’t eat many of the bentos/boxed lunches that were offered…so my teacher told me not to order. Instead of ordering food, paying a lot of money and then waiting for it to be cooked, my homeroom teacher offered to split her bento with me. After we ate, we still had around 30 minutes before we had to meet, so we decided to take a walk. We walked to another beach, about 10 minutes away, spent a few minutes there and then walked back. She explained a few things about the island to me, I think it was the 3rd time she’d chaperoned a trip to Okinawa.
After everyone was done eating and back from lunch, we loaded back onto buses and went to back to Ishigaki port. I had ice cream (Blue Seal….so delicious!), and ended up eating three kinds! My favorite was the caramel and sea salt… it was so delicious!! I wasn’t courageous enough to try flavors like goya (bitter gourd/cucumber) or purple sweet potato. Maybe next time!! They gave us time to walk around and shop…I walked around by myself and didn’t buy anything, as I had run out of money(seriously!! no more cash for me!). I wish I would have taken pictures…but I will next time. I WILL be going back to Okinawa, including Ishigaki and Taketomi. I love it so much!!
We went back to the hotel and had dinner, and then they gave us the rest of the night to do whatever we wanted!! For the majority of us, that meant hanging out on the beach and playing in the ocean. It was November, so no one went swimming (I think it’s somewhat of an unspoken n0-no to go swimming after October in Japan?) but we just enjoyed the beach and ocean. The girls in my class decided to drag me into a water fight…so everyone was soaked!! We took showers and hung out in the room for a while. Every room had a balcony, so you could just step outside and see the ocean. It was gorgeous! We were on the 6th floor, so we had a fantastic view. My roommates kept locking me outside on the balcony, it was so funny! Whenever I was outside, people would constantly be screaming my name or saying hi. I love the kids from my school, they’re awesome. I miss them so much!!
I went down to the pool and hung out with some girls. There were lots of us, maybe 20? And they decided to play a game and try to throw people into the pool. I started helping (haha!) and before I knew it…I was getting pushed into the pool!! With all of my clothes on! It was ridiculous, haha, but so much fun. Eventually it turned into a game of “push everyone into the pool.” We did get everyone in there eventually, but it took a little effort sometimes! We were all chasing each other around on the grass, getting 2 or 3 people together to try to push someone in…haha, it was such a great night. Eventually we had about 100 of our classmates/teachers out on balconies watching us and cheering for us, and the school photographer came and took pictures. When it was time for us to go inside, one of our teachers came out, and we threw him in! It was hilarious, he’s so awesome and he didn’t even care…even though he was in a suit! That night is one of my favorite memories from the trip.
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