Okinawa 2006

I don't really know where to start my blog on my Okinawa trip. Hence the delayed post. Also, people (you know who you are!) have YET to send me photos!! I only have a tiny amount!

Okinawa was simply wonderful. Tropical beach getaways must be taken at least once a year, I think.

I went Sep. 29 - Oct. 1 with SEVEN other girls. With four gaijin girls and four Japanese girls, there was no arguing that it was going to be a trip full of shenanigans.

WHAT AN AWESOME TRIP. I have never laughed SO HARD in my life. And we didn't even drink that much!

Bad behaviour included:

• Leaving our hotel rooms in our yukata robes when there were CLEAR explanations in five different languages on the hotel rules card stating that we were NOT to do that;
• Leaving the actual HOTEL in said yukata robes;
• Heading to the beach at 11PM in above robes;
• Dumping yukata on beach and running butt naked into the ocean (yes, all eight of us!);
• Causing a huuuuge mess of empty plates and glasses at every restaurant we went to;
• Plans to push over helpless lil 'ol Okinawan grannies in order to procure their cool hats;
• Peeing in the ocean -- you all know who you are!
• Obnoxious behaviour at every restaurant we went to;
• Sheer disregard for proper chopstick use;
• Shameless consumption of free samples at souvenir stores;
• Shameless flirting with snorkelling instructor and/or bus driver and/or dude driving ute -- again, you all know who you are!

Highlights include snorkelling in a wicked cave.. there were so many amazing fishies. My new favourite fish is the parrot fish, with its wee flappy fins and iridescent colouring. There were also these dart-like fish swimming near the surface in a huge school that freaked us out. We thought they were going to stab us. Turns out that once they grow up to a METER, if they get frightened they have been known to spear STRAIGHT THROUGH people.

EEK.

The reef was a bit dirty, and I found the floaty bits of gross trash quite depressing. It's a shame stuff like that makes its way into the ocean.

Anyway, here's a link to the photo set of my Okinawan photos. If you're a Flickr "friend" of mine, you'll be able to see the photos with people in 'em..