That would be the Japanese islands that we’ve seen. According to Cannon’s Japanese Culture class at school, there are over 3,000 islands as a part of Japan and today we visited 3 just off the coast of Okinawa. The sun came out so we decided to take advantage and drive to the island of Ikei on the east side of Okinawa. There’s not a whole lot there, in fact basically one resort (Big Time Resort, which didn’t look like it was having a big time) and some farm fields, but I thought it would be neat to see so we picked up our friend, Dr. Tom, and another visiting doc from Hawaii and headed out to see what it was about. The island is just a short bridge ride from Okinawa, actually three bridges one to the island of Henza, then Miyagi and then another to Ikei. The water around here is so awesome, dotted with time-weathered rocks jutting out from the shallow azure water. It never ceases to amaze me.
Ikei had a beautiful beach peppered with tidal pools which included sea anemones, urchins, poisonous cone shells and other sea oddities. At one point Cannon points to the sky and calls out “paratroopers!” Except, when they came closer, what we thought were paratroopers were actually men hanging from parachutes with what amounts to giant fans strapped to their backs! They really looked like fun, but we had no idea how to sign up for our turn!
From the beach, we stopped at a roadside café for a cup of coffee atop a rooftop dining area with a breathtaking view of the surrounding water. The property would have been worth millions in the States, but here the structure was fairly rudimentary and definitely not a high dollar dining spot.
Finally, we passed the castle ruins of Katsuren, a World Heritage site of a castle believed to be the oldest in Okinawa. It was a steep climb to the top on some fairly treacherous steps, but the view from the top was incredible.
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