Taking a bus from Naha to Nago to climb Mount Nago
This morning I got up too early as always, went and waited for it to be late enough to buy a coffee, and made a last minute change of plans. I had plans to go places nearby, that will probably now be tomorrow, as today I found a mountain to go to on Okinawa! Yes more boring pictures of view and paths up mountains, who is excited?
To get to this mountain I had to get to the second biggest city on Okinawa, Nago. This was a 2 hour bus ride and quite expensive at about $20... each way! Later in the day I got my return journey for only $10 as the driver gave me money back and told me in English that he wished more people would visit his home town of Nago, so that was nice.
Anyway, finding my bus was needlessly difficult in Naha. Theres a big modern bus terminal, and signs to ticket counters, all shut, signs to information offices, all shut, signs to collection points, temporary signage showing the wrong location etc. This caused me to miss a bus and I noted that lots of other people were walking around in endless circles looking perplexed. One little old lady managed to awaken a whale sized man from inside an office who very reluctantly slithered out and barked orders at various people in Japanese. This was no help to me, I eventually just stood on the corner where I knew the bus was coming from, waited for the one with my number, and then ran along the road after it until it stopped!
I hate buses.
Anyway, Nago itself, as you shall see, is not much of a city. The mountain is apparently behind the city castle ruins, all I could find were kids playground equipment and a scout camp, and then I could not find the trail head. No problem, I followed a track around the back of the mountain and found an excellent challenging path up to the summit, and then followed the easy path down through the scout camping grounds. This made my day more rewarding, so rewarding I bought a chocolate covered croissant and got chocolate all over my white from sunscreen face.
Perhaps thats why the driver on the return journey gave me my money back? He felt bad for me and my various facial disfigurements?
Near my hotel, a back hoe has climbed a pile of rubble. You dont really see this in Australia, but its very common all over Asia. They always look to me like they are about to topple over.
This sign is not where the bus left from, and its a crap photo, but its here because the bottom half is a giant e-ink screen. I had never seen such a thing before. Pressing the button to the right of it (hard to see here) caused it to refresh in a manner just like an Amazon Kindle, except its the size of an A2 piece of paper.
This is where I got off the bus. A pig to greet the pig man!
Before heading up the hill I checked out the beach. The sand looked crap but the water with the mountains in the background looked nice. The journey was a mix of nice green areas and very industrial areas. Much more industrial than I was expecting.
A view of the city of Nago, and my mountain behind it (I think). I notice my usage of brackets is back.
Its a covered street. But I would not call it a covered shopping street, since all the shops are shut. This was the case later in the day when I returned also.
These are photos of Japans version of the Danish style dolphin hunt! Just like in Denmark, boats surround pods of dolphins and force them into Nago bay where hungry locals stab them with spears until the sea turns red. Its a great festival the whole family can enjoy!
This is the nice path ascending to the castle ruins, somewhat ruined by the steel hand rail. Ruins ruined. I amuse myself.
From this angle, Nago looks like a sizeable metropolis, it is not.
The temple, as ever. There was no one around.
This path was a false start, it went up to a grave of some importance, probably the actual ruins, I then had to follow it back down again.
Nice mid level view from where I suspect the castle ruins are. Probably the best view of the day.
I still wanted to get up that mountain. Its not much of a mountain, but its a mountain, and I will take any mountain if thats the only mountain on offer.
After following an access track around the bottom for a few kilometres, I found a sign posted path up, complete with ropes! This was a very good challenging path, good to go up, probably not great to come down. The only issue was I had not brought my gloves with me, so my poor girly hands suffered on the rough ropes!
Behold, the view across Okinawa, you can see the ocean on the other side.
The abandoned city of Nago. Its easy to confuse the names Naha and Nago, at one point I started typing Naho.
Another small city and a dolphin murdering bay.
The best photo of me yet!!!!! The very humid weather is giving me an awesome afro hairstyle. I dont try to fight it.
The path down (now that I found it from the top) was very easy, with stairs most of the way. I was glad I accidentally found my alternative path.
It looked nice in the afternoon sun.
The final bit before emerging in the scout camp was a small ravine of moss covered rocks. At times I had to place one foot in front of the other to fit.
Despite the long expensive (but then partially refunded) bus ride, I was very glad I found myself a mountain in Nago.
The many cats and markets of Naha
Tonight I saw a lot of cats. Japan is full of cats. If you are a cat you should probably move to Japan.
Actually I saw lots of cats on the mountain earlier today as well, every now and then one would come out of the woods and follow me for a while, but I never got a clear photo.
This evening I also explored some of the shopping streets and discovered they are a labyrinthine rabbit warren of shops, markets, boutiques and cafes. Probably the most interesting shopping area I ever saw in Japan. I dont really understand now how it went for so far and off in so many directions without crossing a road. I studied the map at a few points and found I was facing in the opposite direction to that which I expected.
At one point I came out for air and to get a bearing and found there was a bit of a park on a hill, so up the stairs I went. You can see the view below, but what you cant see is the guy who was up there on his own (before I arrived) who was attempting to balance a ping pong ball on his nose while filming himself. Perhaps he was training to be a seal at the circus.
First I headed off into a side street, not a great photo but there were hundreds of little restaurants, often with people sitting on coke crates outside. This reminded me a lot of Taiwan.
Ivory is still available for purchase in Japan. The great Japanese elephant has been extinct for centuries.
Here we have a shop cat. His focus never shifts from the horizon. He's seen things......
I couldnt work out if this guy was selling stuff, or just proudly displaying his collection of empty bottles.
Strangely, much of the actual market stays open until 9pm, including fish and meat areas. I am used to these shutting early. Some stalls are shut but at least 50% are open.
I think I found the end of the market. There was every kind of street covering, bright and new down to dull and old as depicted here.
These are not fishing supplies, apparently its a store dedicated to trinkets to hang off jewelery. Weird.
Heres the photo I took in the park where the guy was making a movie about balancing a ping pong ball on his nose.
Park cat. He was also quite happy to pose for me, even the orange pre focus light thing didnt bother him.
Some of the shops are nicer than the usual tourist fare. None of them have a NO PHOTO attitude that I picked up on.
Here is another shop dedicated to jewelry, exclusively silver jewelry, which requires a Porsche.
An underground zoo. They have the usual things like owls and hedgehogs for you to torture, but they also claim to have an otter? Otters have terrifying sharp teeth!
My dinner tonight was delicious. It is wholemeal soba, advertised as 'brown soba with germ', lots of vegetables and allegedly, some local Okinawa pork. It was the best noodles I have had on this trip so far and very cheap.