A couple of practicalities, before we get going. Okinawa is now part of Japan, along with the rest of the "Southwest Islands" or "Nansei-shoto". Exploring the whole archipelago would take a really long time, and we had only 11 days, the latter few involving work. But Okinawa and a couple of nearby smaller islands make a good start.

You can fly to Naha, Okinawa's main city, from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, as well as mainland Japan.

December/January is a great time to visit. It's not too hot and not too cold -- perfect weather for walking, in fact. Everyone recommends having your own wheels, but you can do a lot of the basics by means of public transport. (Buying an Okinawa IC card makes using the buses and monorail much easier.)

In terms of places to stay, look out for the Mr Kinjo brand (the home page is in Japanese, but you can catch them on all the usual hotel booking sites). They're compact and a little impersonal, and you don't get "serviced" every day. But they pack into your tiny complex a fantastically useful amount of equipment (like a washing machine, fridge freezer, microwave, etc).

OK, that out of the way, what was great about Okinawa (not counting food, which is here)?







1.
Being back in Japan... yet not quite in Japan

It feels like Japan. There are those awe-inspiring toilets, those ubiquitous vending machines, and those amazing breakfast rice bowls with tuna and wasabi, egg, natto, and yam... There are those public-transport announcements that sound as though they are being made by a concerned and oh-so-refined nanny. There is that incredible origami that makes sure your nori does come into contact with your convenience-store onigiri until precisely the time you want it to. There is that combination of orderliness and courtesy and consideration, and that overwhelming feeling of being in a place where people have THOUGHT about stuff.

But Okinawa is also very different. This was a separate little kingdom for many centuries, trading over a vast area that encompassed Palembang, Java, and Pattani, as well as Northeast Asia. Its position as a tributary of China, alongside Japan and Korea, consolidated its independent status. Until 1609, that is, when regional power shifts encouraged the Satsuma invasion, which split the polity into a northern section under direct rule, and a southern section where the fiction of independence was carefully preserved so that Japan could surreptitiously trade with China.

In 1879, consonant with its modernization attempts, under which which ambiguous loyalties and fuzzy borders could no longer be tolerated, Japan formally annexed the Ryukyu Kingdom. Poverty became a recurrent theme. Then came the cataclysm of World War II, when the islanders found themselves at the sharp end of a doomed attempt at homeland defence, and despite fighting bravely were often suspected of being spies. The Americans governed Okinawa (none too liberally) until 1972, when the islands were formally handed back to Japan. But the US bases, very controversially, are still here. You can't help but feel this little place has had an even tougher history than most small sets of islands...



2.
Spending ages in The Okinawa Prefectural Museum

This excellent Naha institution (which has an arts section, too, although we did not have time to visit it) will tell you all this history, with lots of artefacts and documents to back it up. It's a great museum, with a very satisfying emphasis on mobility and cultural exchange. Ryukyu was "a bridge between many nations" in its desire to trade and exchange ideas. When the winds of history shifted, however, the kingdom's people experienced a different form of cosmopolitanism, and Okinawans -- fleeing "cycad hell", so called because that was all there was to eat -- ended up in Hawai'i, Latin America, the Philippines, and Micronesia.





3.
Exploring Shuri-jo

This is another testimony to the mixture of cultures and consequent uniqueness of the Ryukyu Kingdom. Like almost everything else, the original castle was destroyed in World War II, but the restored version still gives the visitor a good idea of the "proud and dignified center" of the Ryukyu Kingdom.















4.
Feeling monumentally sobered by Okinawa's Second World War history

There are a number of sites near Naga that commemorate the "typhoon of steel" -- the Battle of Okinawa that killed at least a quarter of the population, and wounded many more. A walk through the Peace Memorial Museum and environs takes you past row upon row of the names of the fallen, past obelisk after obelisk whose calm seaside location contrasts so poignantly with the violent deaths they commemorate, and through an exhibition that tells harrowing stories of courage and suicide (the latter still a controversial topic). The Himeyuri Peace Museum tells the story of a group of young people from two girls' schools -- some of them still children -- who were pressed into service as medical orderlies during the last, bleak months of the war. Of the 240 staff and students mobilized, 136 lost their lives. We also visited the Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters, where a differently cited but always substantial number of forces committed suicide, having recognized that the military situation was now desperate. The horror and pathos in these exhibitions are hard to render in words. May we never, never, never do this again. May anyone who contemplates doing it again be FORCED to visit such sites first...



















5.
Roaming Naha's pottery district

Unfortunately, we didn't catch the museum, as it was closed over the period we were there, but this is a very atmospheric area to wander round. And an appropriate place for a bukubuku cha.









6.
Riding the monorail

The main reason we came, of course...







7.
Doing the island thing in the Keramas: Zamami...

Though not without its share of harrowing World War II stories, Zamami is today wonderfully calm and scenic. When we decided to include the Keramas in the itinerary, I have to confess I had Maldive-type islands in my imagination. In fact they are much chunkier (both in breadth and height), and Zamami offers several days' decent walking even if you do nothing else. We took the ferry (two hours) from Naha's Tomari port, and stayed at Joyjoy. This is a simple but homely and comfortable place, and the Japanese breakfasts are awesome (if you look European, be sure to clarify that's what you want, or they will assume you want the Western option).

















8.
... and Aka

Aka lies just a 15-minute boat ride from Zamami, and therefore makes a nice day-trip. You might even see some of the famous deer, which have neat white bottoms and an extraordinarily boingy gait. If you have limited time, don't shlep out to the Kushibaru lookout at the very end of the island. The views are nice when you get there, but the path leads unremittingly through walls of pampas grass, stunted pine, and cycads. It's better, half-way along, to divert up to Takibaru lookout. After a quick uphill burst, you get views over the whole island and beyond. Then there's a little beach on the way back that is perfect for your lunchtime buns. And you'll still have enough time to cross the bridge to Geruma Island, walk to the end, and set foot on the next bridge, before catching the late afternoon ferry home.











9.
Exploring Nago and environs

We took the long-distance ferry to Motobu (the one that carries on all the way to Kagoshima). This was kind of fun, even if you don't see that much of the island. From Motobu port we caught a bus into Nago. This is a low-key town, to say the least, and on a Sunday morning, with nothing open till 11 am, and five hours to fill before you can check in, it does not appear at its best. But its very ordinariness grows on you, and it's far from unphotogenic. You can also take the bus to sights around the Motobu peninsula. The theme parks are popular with many, but we chose to head for Nakijin Castle, with its first, first, very-first sakura of the year, and the picturesque village of Bise, with its avenues of fukugi trees.























10.
Befriending the shiisaa

These are the dog/lion guardian figures that are absolutely ubiquitous here. Other parts of Northeast Asia also have paired guardian animals, of course. But as the above link explains, Okinawa's are uniquely Ryukyu. And supremely lovable.