Okinawaaaaaaaaa!!!!!

Okinawa Okinawa Okinawa Okinawa.....Okinawaaaaaaaaa!!!!!! Most beautiful place on earth. That's it! Forget any other plans....after this next year its Okinawa all the way baby! I had an amazing fun time checking out the Ryuku village, playing the Okinawan shamisen (yeah I got one) making bingata (its kinda like batik, using a glue resist and dye to make beautiful blended colors and designs) watching Ryuku glass being made (and buying some too!) visiting a cave that was dripping (the water causes these long icicle like stalagtite and stalagmite formations...which I was sure it dripped on me was going to turn me into a horned oni!) going to the world's biggest aquarium where they had not 1 but 2 whale sharks which you could view in a tank with a pane as big as a gymnasium wall, or sit in the little side arena and watch sea life swim over your head. Ate lunch by a waterfall in an open restaurant but wait this all happened on the main island!!!

So me and Dan gave Ayumi a few days of peace and went to the little island of Zamami for some camping. We of course spent some choice time out on the beach....I built a sandcastle and Dan got reallly burnt like a crispy fritter. We spent lots of time looking out into the crystal clear blue green water and wished we'd had a bit more money to go diving or snorkeling. Then while walking around the port that night we met a moustached Japanese fellow from Nagoya who said he was here on a sailboat and told us we could walk over and have a look. So we walked over and were invited onto the boat for beer and food and conversation. One lady had lived in Michigan for 6 years and spoke faster English than I do! They were awesome and taught me some Nagoya ben (dialect, or slang from their area). Then they invited us to go snorkeling over on the next island in the morning. So we did and they even provided the snorkels! There were all kinds of colorful fish swimming the reefs right under our feet! Took an underwater camera but only succesfully got pics of the sea cucumbers which are fuzzy and black and squishy like mochi!!( I touched one at the aquarium). Okay more Okinawa stories later!