Somewhere, somehow the stars aligned and I have a few days off... IN A ROW. What does one do when you have that much time off? Everything and anything you possibly can! Yesterday started with 3 amazing dives on the west coast of Okinawa. Toliet Bowl, Maeda Point and Zanpa. These are great dive sites and highly recommended. At Toliet Bowl we saw the largest Green Moray Eel I have ever seen in my entire life. I kid you not that sucker was the size of a small horse! Maeda Point is pretty crowded with hoards of divers, mostly Japanese, who are being carried along through the water by their BCD. This is quite possibly the saddest thing I've ever seen. The instructors grab ahold of the "divers" BCD and swim them along while the diver hangs in the water like a limp noodle (they look dead). I heard rumors of this practice but when I actually saw it in action, I laughed out loud-underwater, thus swallowing large amounts of sea water. Anyway, despite the crowds of limp divers, there is a pretty cool cave ("The Grotto" )you can surface in and look around. Now Zanpa, that's where things get deep and fairly interesting. I was hoping to wrestle shark, alas that was not to be. We did however catch a fairly large Moray Eel fully exposed (naked, as I like to put it) and swimming near our exit point.
Next, Okinawa World also known as Gyokusendo Kingdom Village Park (or Cave, according to the street signs). Okinawa world houses one of Japan's largest underground caverns, traditional eisa dance performances and one of the best snake museums/shows I have seen. I use the term "best" loosely as those who know me best know how deathly afraid of snakes I am. I really had to put on my game face before entering. 3 panic attacks and 2 very quickly posed photographs later I emerged claiming I am now over my fear (ha yeah right!). Really it was pretty cool and although the snake show was in Japanese we learned about Habu vs cobra attack radius and that a Mongoose can beat a sea snake in a water race.
The Cave
Words cannot describe how freaked out I was right here, the look on my face might.
After surviving the jaws of the habu, there was a stop for refueling our energy tanks (lunch). We found a nice cafe out in the middle of nowhere where they are apparently well known for their burgers (so says the magazine they are featured in) yet which we could not order because they "were out". One question, how can you possibly be out of the food that makes you famous? No matter, the food we ate was delicious and the 2 kittens continually assaulting us throughout the meal was entertaining. After lunch Shuri-jo (Shuri Castle) and Shikina En, former residences of the royal families. Beautiful paths and restored ruins (sadly all were destroyed in the Battle for Okinawa).
Shikina En
Shuri Castle
Your life sure is boring out there.
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