Fascinating Archipelago: Okinawa: Island hopping in subtropical Japan

The anticipation increases on the footpath from the parking lot to the sea. The roar of the surf increases, the air tastes of salt. A stone staircase leads down to the beach, where your feet sink into the sand and a strange rock formation catches your eye.

Waves lap the formations in the water, called heart rocks because of their shape, but which could just as easily be mistaken for giant mushrooms sprouting from the sea.

Fantasies or not, the rugged double rock here in the north of the island of Kouri is a highlight in the Okinawa archipelago.

Plant splendor and World Heritage

The southernmost prefecture of Japan is a great unknown to Europeans. Far away from megacities like Tokyo, tangerines and mangoes grow, bougainvilleas and hibiscus shine, the wind rustles through mangroves and sugar cane fields.

The climate here is subtropical; the average annual temperature is around 23 degrees Celsius. Okinawa lies between the Pacific Ocean and the East China Sea, roughly on the same latitude as Hawaii and Mexico. 1.4 million inhabitants spread over 160 islands.

Once upon a time, Okinawa was independent for almost half a millennium: as the Ryukyu Kingdom (1429-1879), which traded briskly with other countries in East and Southeast Asia. The evidence of history is a World Heritage Site, including the Shuri-jo Castle with its stone ramparts and the Shikina-en Royal Garden in Naha.

The garden is a place for romantics. It’s like stepping into a painting: filled with a secluded lake, stone bridges, a wooden palace and an enchanted forest of Gajumaru trees.

Naha is the gateway to the archipelago and the airport is a hub. The city in the south of the main island bundles comfort hotels, the Naminoue beach overlooked by the Shinto shrine, shopping zones, the Makishi market.

Warm welcome without many words

It goes to the north of the main island. In Nago we stop at Hidekazu Akimura’s tiny distillery. His passion is awamori, a rice liquor, the typical spirit in Okinawa. The finest varieties mature for years in bulbous clay jars.

The liquor is made from Thai long grain rice. “We tried Japanese rice, but the other one works better,” says Akimura. He fills each bottle individually, glues the labels on by hand and says: “I haven’t had a day off for fifteen years, there’s a lot to do.”

A few kilometers further, in Ogimi, Morio Taira and his wife Etuko take in overnight guests and feed them generously. A homestay like this is an opportunity to immerse yourself in Japanese hospitality and customs.

The room is cozy, instead of the expected sleeping pad on the floor, there is even a real bed. As is so often the case in Japan, there are separate slippers for using the toilet.

In the evenings you sit at the kitchen table with tofu, fried little fish and sweet potato donuts. In the morning, the elderly man warms up coffee in the microwave; he bought a plastic bottle with prepared coffee for the guest. The couple hardly speaks English, but words are not needed for a warm welcome.

At the southernmost end of Japan

The Okinawa Archipelago offers far more than just the main island. Island hopping is partly done in a rental car over land and modern island bridges, and otherwise by ferries or plane.

Ishigaki can be reached in about an hour by air. The southernmost city in Japan is around 400 kilometers southwest of the main island of Okinawa Honto. From here it is only 200 kilometers to Taiwan. Ferries to Taketomi and Iriomote depart from Ishigaki.

Taketomi scores with beaches and an open-air museum of traditional architecture of stone walls and tile-roofed houses. On Iriomote, the path to the Kura Waterfall passes under tangled aerial roots. Meanwhile, a tour boat rocks through the mangrove forest on the shore.

Stable in the typhoon

Mangroves also grow on the next group of islands, Miyako, a well-known snorkeling spot with coral and sea turtles. The shrimp fisherman Takahiro Yoshihama works here. At low tide he starts small expeditions on foot.

“Mangroves are firmly anchored with their roots, they don’t even tip over in a typhoon,” says Yoshihama. The mud smacks under the rubber boots that the 45-year-old puts out for his guests.

Along the way, he checks cage traps baited with fish heads. Yoshihama is missing a fingertip on one hand. She fell victim to crab claws.

Numbers with banana paper

Shrimp fisherman Yoshihama used to be an aircraft engineer. And he is not alone in his career change: sugar cane and banana farmer Katsuya Matsumoto (49) used to be a researcher in the auto industry – the man is the next surprising encounter on the islands.

In many places on Miyako, sugar cane grows all the way to the roadside. Matsumoto makes syrup from it, holds culinary workshops and has found his freedom in harmony with nature.

With Matsumoto you learn that a banana tree is not only used for fruit production. “In Japan we use banana paper every day.” What does he mean by that? Big guesswork, then he solves. It’s the fibers. “It’s used to make banknotes.”

Okinawa

(dpa)

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