Leaving China!

I got the lunchtime plane to Okinawa, flying with China eastern, which was unfortunately an hour late, but no problem, I was in no rush.

When I landed in the tiny Okinawa airport it seemed lovely and sunny, and I got to the passport gate first. 

There was my first problem, I spoke only Chinese and English and they, of course, spoke Japanese, damn! It was like when I first came to China all over again.

The problem being I had to fill in a hotel for my stay, but I didn't know as Mina had helped me to find one, but with no public phone and no internet there wasn't a lot I could do about it, not really designed for backpacking travellers looking to drop into a hotel wherever they fancied! 

I had paid for my phone to work in Japan, in China on pay as you go a simple matter of topping up 40gbp and asking for it to be activated for a set amount of time, and then away you go, however reception was spotty and the airport a seeming black hole, damn! eventually I found a place in the doorway to the runway that got one bar and called mina and got the address, then on to customs. In customs in Okinawa there is no X-ray, for some reason, so the guy started asking me to empty my bag, no problem, he started asking what was in all the bags and when most of it seemed to be dirty clothes he looked a bit disappointed, I got chatting however about him and he had spent some time in San Francisco, and after a quick chat all was ok and I could go through, yay! 

I was met at the airport by Mina and she had a car, a big relief, and then whisked away to a lovely spa hotel with a one night special offer, it was beautiful with a balcony overlooking the sea, and so so polite, and clean, really lovely, and so different from China. Not that I dont like China, it just feels very different, despite being so close and having such strong historical links.

We dropped off the things and I grabbed a quick shower (and i was happy see japanese toilets are as crazy as I had hoped!) before heading out for some food, we went to American Village, which was, as the name suggests, full of americans! (okinawa is a huge US army base) and it was strange to see so much English Signage and English speaking people, even more than Shanghai!

After a walk around America Town I went to a Tepenyaki restaurant with steak, chicken and shrimp all cooked in front of the table while you watch, very interesting!