Sweet Home Yokosuka

My nine days in Okinawa ended a week ago, but I have been swamped - both at work and at home - since getting back. My trip was work-related, although I did get a little bit of time over the weekend and after work on the weekdays to enjoy the sun and sea that seem to cover the island from all angles. Okinawa is a beautiful place, but I definitely preferred the trip we took down there in March over being there in July. July is hot and humid all over Japan, but Okinawa is like a sauna this time of year.

A coworker of mine, Ed, accompanied me on the trip down to Okinawa. We got down there on a Thursday evening and after work on Friday, decided to check out the "pub row" just outside the gate at Kadena AFB. We heard it was a fun place to hang out on the weekends, with energetic people, loud music, and good times. It was all of those things. Ed and I found a little dive called Al's Place along the strip. Al's Place is owned by an expat and had a pretty diverse crowd... several young soldiers, quite a few retired military folks, and a few local Okinawans in the mix, too. A pool table stood in the middle of the room, with a small stage area in the corner, complete with its own house band that played a bunch of covers from the 1970s and 1980s and a few originals every now and then. The bar was being tended by attractive young Okinawan women who spoke very good English - who pretty much were the only women in the entire bar, but it didn't make the place less entertaining at all.

My favorite item on the bar was a jar of awamori, which is a type of rice-based alcohol concoction made primarily in Okinawa and similar to sake. What made the awamori jar so unique was the 4-foot long habu (venomous pit viper) that was soaking in eternal rest along the bottom of the jar (similar to picture shown, which isn't one of mine, but it's a fairly representative replacement shot). Apparently, drinking a shot of "habu awamori" is a test of strength and the result is said to be similar to, well... let's just say that it's said to be a good replacement for Viagra.

Being in a festive mood, I decided to try a shot of the awamori. It actually tasted very smooth, like a high-quality tequila, but was fairly sweet on the taste buds. Personally, I didn't find it all that interesting, but was happy to find out that the Viagra-esque description of the drink was merely a rumor, at least in my case. So after the shot, I switched my order to Orion, the local Okinawan beer.

We ended up staying around Al's Place until it closed up around 2:00AM. Ed actually was holding his own in a pool tournament with some of the other guys at the bar until, during the last game, some belligerent guy tried to cheat and say that he tied Ed in the particular game they were playing, called "Three Ball". It was late and not many people were paying attention, but this guy was so hammered that he could barely stand, much less shoot a small white cue ball across a table at any three consecutive balls. The entire pot was only up to about 3,000 yen (or roughly $30) and Ed didn't feel like arguing, so he just told the guy that they could split the pot. But that wasn't good enough for the drunk guy, who wanted a tie-breaker round. Ed refused and eventually some of the other guys just recommended that they call it a wash, so everyone just took their own ante back. But for a little while there, I thought that guy was going to try to start something with Ed.

After leaving that place, we did a little bar hopping a some of the few places that were still open at that late hour. We eventually ended up at a place that reminded me of a breakfast diner, with two bartenders behind the bar - one Okinawan and one American. The American bartender started talking to us and we ended up getting into a conversation with a Japanese gentleman as well. After an hour or so, that place closed and the Japanese gentleman invited us all (Ed, the American bartender, and me) to another bar that was a Japanese-style place - basically, gaijin (foreigners) wouldn't normally be allowed in without being invited by a Japanese person.

It was a pretty awesome experience from there. Once we got inside that place, the owner came out to say hi to our new Japanese friend/host, who introduced us to the owner. Then, we were seated and the owner quickly went around the bar and came out again with our host's bottle of liquor. You see, over here, it's common for a "regular" to buy an entire bottle of liquor at a bar, then have his name posted on it. Then, on future visits, the customer can just drink out of his own bottle, which no one else gets access to unless it's offered by the owner. Anyway, I had long since quit drinking alcohol for the evening, so I politely asked for mizu (water), doing my best to prevent the host from being offended that I wasn't partaking from his offering. Eventually, we all started singing karaoke. Suddenly, random other people in the place started coming over and joined us, singing right along with us. It was an awesome time and I'm glad to have had the experience... though I was surprised when the American bartender finally got up to leave and I noticed through the open door that the sun had risen. At that point, I looked at my watch and realized it was after 7:00AM. Time to call it a night!

Needless to say, after getting back to base around 8:00AM, I didn't really do much for the rest of Saturday. But I did have a great time on Sunday. I ended up taking our rental car up the coast to the northernmost point on the island, a place called Hedo Point. Along the way, I stopped at Hiji Waterfall, which included a fun 2 kilometer hike along a stream in the middle of a sub-tropical forest. Once I reached the falls, I stopped for about two hours to cool my feet and legs off in the water and to take pictures of some of the other brave souls who came and went during my stop there.

During the following week, I was busy with work for the most part, but Ed and I did have a chance one afternoon before sunset to head up to Okuma Beach in the northern part of the island. That place was pretty amazing. I took a swim in the East China Sea off the coast of Okuma and can honestly say that I have never swam in clearer water. At one point, I was floating on my stomach and watching the colorful fish swim in and out of the coral at the bottom of the sea. I decided to try to put my legs down to reach the bottom... and I couldn't. So then I went under and realized that it must have been 10-12 feet deep at that point. I could see to the bottom with perfect visibility. Unbelievable.

Anyway, all of these pictures are mine, except the one of the habu snake in the awamori jar. The rest of my pictures from the trip are in the Gallery, dated 08/05/2006.