Hi! My friends in lalalocker, I’m Tina Kuo. It’s my first article in lalalocker. Let’s start from this trip in Okinawa.
910 was my class when I studied in junior high school. After graduating for 8 years, we still cherish our friendship. Last year, we took a trip to Penghu. This year, Make A Big Plan. 11 people with 11 pieces of ticket. Let’s go to the shinny OKINAWA!
First, I’ll introduce my trip in brief and the schedule:
- FOOD: The price level is similar to main land of Japan, and I usually spend JPY 700-1500 for lunch and dinner. It’s a normal budget for a student.
- CLOETHES: The weather here is nice and comfortable. Not so humid but not so dry. An umbrella with you is a good choice. It can block the sun and sometimes block the rain in the afternoon.
- LIVING: We found a vacation rental at Nakijin. About JPY 6000 a day for a person. We own the whole three floors. It’s a cheap rental in Japan. Someone who love shopping can choose a place nearby southern because Kokusai Dori and Ashibina Outlet are both in the south of Okinawa. More natural scenes are in the northern. I stayed in north-middle.
- TRANSPORTATION: We rented the cars in ORIX Rent-A-Car. It’s a famous brand in Japan. A Van and a normal size Hybrid electric vehicle cost about JPY 100,000. Gas is more expensive than that in Taiwan. The pass fee on the highway is in the range of JPY 500-1000.
- ENTERTAINMENT: Shopping at southern. The nature at northern.
- TOTAL BUDGET: In the 5 days, I spent about JPY 60,000. Living is JYP 24,000. Ticket of plane is JPY 30,000. Transportation is about JPY 14,000. The price on transportation is the highest one. Students preparing about USD 1,300-1,500 can enjoy a cozy time here.
Thanks to our 910 boys. They made this schedule:
DAY 1 Peach Air Taoyuan International Airport(TPE)06:25 > Naha Airport (OKA)09:05 → Take a shuttle bus to ORIX and get our rental cars → Tondou Ryukyu Shinmen → Culture kingdom Gyokusendo → Ojima island → Cookiya(all-you-can-eat hot pot) → Kokusai Dori → vacation rental
DAY 2 Kouri Island → Uni don → Ocean Expo Park → Buy the ingredients of BBQ in A-coop
DAY 3 Cape Hedo → Fureai Syokudo Nantoya → Dai Sekirinzan Park → AEON Outlet
DAY 4 Scuba diving at Okinawa Blue Cave → Tedakosoba Home-made Noodle → Urasoe Daikoen Park Long Slide → Depot Isalnd → A&W all American food
DAY 5 SANS SOUCI, restaurant for internet celebrity → Umikaji Terrace → Ashibina Outlet → Return the cars → Peach Air Naha Airport (OKA)21:25 > Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)22:05
| Day 0 |
According to our routine, we always sleep over at Terrance’s home, including this time. He is the one who lift the mattress.
Actually, I didn’t sleep this night. Ho-hum…so tired. That being said, we’re all excited.
| Day 1 |
Terrance’s dad organized a car for us by his credit card. Let’s go!
Oh yeah! Did you guys notice this adorable donation box at Taoyuan International Airport? What a genius design it is! When you insert coins into the slot, coins will ring the mushrooms. I mean bells. It makes donating an interesting thing. I always ring the bells before my trip.
We arrived to Naha Airport.
I was so hungry. We didn’t eat anything at Taoyuan Airport or we wouldn’t catch the plane on time. Hence, I excitedly dashed to LAWSON which has the most amount of convenience store branches in Japan.
My first little meal, teriyaki pork sandwich with eggs JPY 298(including tax).
Taking the shuttle bus to pick up our rental cars, it was further than I had thought. It took us 20-30 mins there.
I took a snapshot of Yui-Rail which is the MRT of Okinawa. Unfortunately, it is a pity that we didn’t take it in this trip.
The first impression of Okinawa is its radiant sun and blue sky, which is a rare scenery for people like me living in Taipei for years.
We arrived at ORIX.
Two hard drivers were Terrance and Xin. People who want to travel by car in Japan should apply for Japanese Translation Driver’s License(for Taiwanese) but not International Driving Permit.
My first meal, Tondou Ryukyu Shinmen. Well… even a ramen stand beside the road is better than a famous ramen store in Taiwan. That being said, Tondou Ryukyu Shinmen is famous, not just a food stand.
You can see chef cooking directly in the store.
It’s the menu.
Many stores in Japan adopt vending machine as the way to pay.
Food tickets for 11 people. Hand it over to waiters. They’ll tear it and get you back the right one for checking when the meal comes.
There were light tea and seasoning on the table.
Moreover, they provide spicy bean sprouts for free. I don’t like the flavor of bean sprout but this dish was good that you should try it.
It came my meal. Otokaji topping egg JPY 820. The flavor of bean sprouts inside were too strong, so I sent it to foodie Mao. Noodle was good to me because I love it with a little bit hard texture, and the soup was rich. Nevertheless, Japanese ramen is too salty to Taiwanese. I couldn’t have it more than a bowl.
Tsukemen was worse than mine. The texture of noodle was too hard.
Fried dumplings were delicious. The taste was what we were familiar with.
They ordered uncooked garlic here. You could make mashed garlic with tool yourself. Remember don’t have too much garlic, or the meal will become too salty and you’ll have a stinky mouth.
The next station is Culture kingdom Gyokusendo.
There were some kind of sets of the ticket. I didn’t want to watch the venomous snake show, so I bought the second set.
Entrance. They would shot a picture of you for free, but don’t be too expected. I couldn’t realize if they wanted to make a picture with ghost filter or not. The picture we got seemed so weird, and the size was small. Nonetheless, you can pay more money to get a large size one.
Scene inside the cave.
It was cool and comfortable here. Sometimes you would feel the water drop falling down on your head top.
It must have exited for ages so can make it like a column.
It came beautiful with the spot light.
It took you 30 mins to look around, then you’ll arrive at Ryukyu Kingdom Village after going up the stair.
For the starters, we came to the tropical fruit exhibition zone. Get out, Cheng!
Big Pineapple！
Open the box, you’ll smell vanilla, or ice cream?
Fruit shop actually was a rest stop.
Blue Seal is famous for its ice cream. JPY 350/per cone.
Shisa Sheet Mask was sold in the rest stop. Shisa is a mascot of Okinawa. It also exits in Kinmen in Taiwan.
There were tons of porcelain wares sold in the shop nearby. All of them in the picture were Shisa.
DIY studio for pottery.
Lapis DIY studio.
Hey look! It was “Heaven Road ”! I think it’s only in Asian countries. According to traditional Chinese medicine science, Heaven Road is good to human body, which can massage one’s acupuncture point. But… Xin seemed going through a hard time.
There were some well-decorated shop along the street in Ryukyu Kingdom Village. I think girls can spend two hours shopping here.
It was the Eisa dance show. They perform regularly every day. Shooting was banned, so I could only shoot far away. I thought this was suitable for kids, so I didn’t stay here to the end.
Guess what it was?
It’s snake alcohol!
In Wanhua in Taiwan, it is also a famous cuisine, but I dare not try.
At the end of here, There was a large souvenir shop. From my experience, things here usually have higher price.
It’s the whole story of my first day here. We visited a lots of tourist attraction this day. The following would be adorable Ojima Island, which is also called Cat Island, and there were so many lazy cats lay beside road. Moreover, you shouldn’t miss Kokusai Dori where I took out the supreme cash cannon to go shopping. Don’t go away, we’ll be right back.