sakura season in naha, okinawa

the international airport in okinawa is at the south, in the city of naha. while doing my research, i found a few places that are most popular for sakura viewing. some of them are farther up north of the main land, perhaps a good 2 hour travel by car. it's very expensive to take cabs in japan by default, and navigating around okinawa is not easy by bus or train (timing-wise, and if you suck at directions like i do), so i've decided to keep our journey limited around naha area. lucky for me, there are enough parks in naha to satisfy my sakura-hunting needs. 

i picked an airbnb flat that is close to yogi park, as this is one of the popular places for sighting the beautiful blooms in downtown naha. from there, a few other parks of about 30 minutes driving distance or so are also popular. i've considered going to one or two other parks for this trip, but was of the mindset that it might not even be necessary.

yogi park was a good 10-minute walk from the flat. the airbnb host advised us to try and get there by 5pm, so we can spend a good hour before it gets dark. there was a small playground in the park, so of course i had to let lovro have his way, before i got mine.

when he finally got bored, i tried to get him excited about seeing the flowers, so he agreed to do a stroll along the park. mommy scheme executed! it was quite a big park, and there was a long stretch of canal and it was lined up with cherry blossom trees. and the flowers were in full bloom. it was perfect.

there were a few stray cats in the park, and lovro saw a pretty fluffy one and we followed it. it climbed up the tree and stayed still for a bit. i was so happy it did, i got some pretty awesome photos.

i read about the type of sakura that can be found in okinawa. this variety is called kanhizakura which is a darker shade than what is normally found across japan. they are normally fuchsia-ish in color, but i found that in my pictures they sometimes turned up to be just normal pink and i suppose it was due to the angle and lighting in which i snapped them. the picture below shows more of their actual colors, and somehow the kanhizakura, due to its shape, pass off as bougainvillea flowers from afar.

we had fun by taking snaps of harry, lovro's 'best friend', and even lovro tried to get his hands at photography. i must say, the photos he took below, were not bad for a three year old.

the next day I cancelled my plans of going to Yaese park for sakura viewing, because it was quite cumbersome to get to. At this point of the trip, we've been taking taxi daily and since this park was a bit further out of the downtown area, the cab fare was estimated to be around 50USD per way. so instead, we just explored the immediate surroundings and went to Heiwa-dori and Kokusai-dori area to browse souvenirs and buy snacks. our airbnb host's aunt lives in the same flat, so she volunteered to show us around. we managed, despite the language barrier, and had lunch together. when she bid farewell and headed to don quixote, lovro and i kept walking past the shops and ended up in another park: makishi park. and you guessed it, there were cherry blossom trees!

we sat down and shared an ice cream cone while lovro was watching the monorail come and go. 

then finally, he declared that we must ride the monorail!

it was not in the itinerary but i did research a little bit on areas that were accessible by train. so i've decided that we would go to onoyama athletic park because - playground.

at this point we've gotten used to this quality of playgrounds in okinawa and it was really awesome that these are just for free. in singapore and elsewhere that we've been to, playgrounds in public parks are never in this scale. 

as a bonus, there were cherry blossom trees again! not as much as the other parks though, but still beautiful.

the gorgeous sakura trees provide a very nice backdrop to the awesome playgrounds where the kids run around in delight. their laughter and shrieks of excitement drowned out any wandering thoughts i had about work and life and exhaustion from walking all day. as i looked at lovro i couldn't help but smile, knowing this was such a wonderful holiday for him. not just because of the playgrounds and the lovely blooms and the delicious japanese food. but mostly because he got mama all to himself, and mama was happy the whole time. 😊

araha beach park

after our brief but wondrous stint in ishigaki, it was time to head back and enjoy the mainland. okinawa is dubbed as japan's hawaii for its pristine beaches and tropical climate and so even though we were visiting in the winter, i wanted to squeeze in a beach day. there are a lot of beautiful beaches in okinawa, it was so hard to pick the best one to visit (given the circumstances). however, the moment i saw what was in araha beach, i knew it had to be it.

we had a somewhat rocky start when we arrived. i arranged for the hotel to pick us up from the airport at an extra charge, but it was already 30 minutes and nobody was there. there was wifi in the airport, luckily, so i was able to exchange messages with the hotel via booking.com. a few minutes later, i got a call from a booking.com agent but the conversation was difficult because she barely spoke english. in any case, i made it clear that we have already waited 30 minutes anyway, so might as well just wait a bit more until the driver arrives as we were assured that he was on his way. it took another 40 minutes before he showed up, and when he asked if i was cindy, all i could mutter was "oh thank god you're here." i was disappointed because the japanese people in the hotel industry i've known in my 3 previous visits all had exemplary customer service and were always on time. the man explained using a translator app that he was caught in a traffic jam and that he was truly sorry. 

as we arrived in the hotel, the staff were very apologetic and have declared that they would waive the airport transfer fee because of the delay. fantastic! anyway the moods have already swung to the brighter side before we even reached the hotel as lovro and i had a good view of the beach and also - what we came for - the pirate ship in araha beach park.

we took the least possible time settling in because someone was already excited to head out. 

then off to the ship we went! lovro had a blast exploring his ship as he declared that he is captain lovro 😃 when he had enough of it, he switched over to the playground where there were more kids playing.

we had a lovely stroll along the beach too, but the sun was getting too intense and i could feel my face getting crisp. why i didn't put on sunblock on the sunniest day of our trip, i had no idea.

lovro was finally tired, and he took a quick nap so i missed viewing the sunset. i asked the staff about the best way to get to the mihama american village. not that i was missing american food at all, but it seems a good place to go for entertainment and night lights to amuse lovro. tatsuto, the hotel receptionist, told me that i can just tell him what time would like to go and that he'd drive us there! perfect! even more so because lovro demanded pizza for dinner, so tatsuto looked up where the pizza place is and dropped us right there. 

after dinner we walked around and spent some time at club SEGA because, arcade games. it was 100jpy per game for most of the games, so it wasn't exactly cheap. i told lovro he could only use 600jpy so he had to pick wisely. we played racing games mostly, but when he saw the fish plush toy and wanted to UFO-catch it, i had to say no. 

he wanted that fish. weirdo.

we continued to walk around and went inside the dragon palace arcade. this was somewhat more suitable for his age as there were more toddler rides. i let him pick two, and he chose the F-16 jet and pikachu.

when he was getting bored (mostly because i was saying no to everything haha) i suggested ice cream. blue seal ice-cream is all over okinawa so we had to try it! tatsuto, who promised to pick us up, arrived shortly after we got our ice cream. he said he parked the car, so we could stay longer if we wanted. so i bought him ice cream too, and we chat for a while, mostly using a translator app, but it worked!

the next morning we came back to the park for a final round of playing before we checked out. i found the beach photos to be nicer in the morning. 

when we got hungry i asked where we could walk to and get a good japanese lunch. kiki, another staff of araha beach arapana resort, offered to drive us to a nice but cheap restaurant. he also collected us from there. then, while discussing the best way for us to go from there to urasoe dai (south of chatan-cho where we were, more than half an hour drive out), he offered to drive us again! awww!

it was valentine's day and i know that in japanese culture, the ladies are the ones who give chocolates to guys as a sign of love, courtesy or social obligation. i thought it would be a nice gesture to give them chocolates for making sure we had a good stay and not have to worry about getting around! so i went to the nearest convenience store; they had a shelf full of valentine's day chocolates and got a couple of boxes. when lovro handed the gifts to them, they were so delighted. tatsuto said, "we hope you come back in a month!" they have this celebration called white day, which is exactly a month from valentine's day, when it is the guys' turn to return the favor and give gifts. i definitely won't be back next month, but if i ever would come back, i'd make sure that next time it will be on a summer. 

exemplary service at araha resort arapana, c/o tatsuto and kiki

yaeyama islands: ishigaki, iriomote, yubu

i love japan. it's one of the countries that i'd go back in a heartbeat to. it was no surprise that when one day i was browsing through cheap fares in budget airlines (scoot and jetstar) and found a very rare opportunity to fly to okinawa for a mere $350sgd (roundtrip, all-in +15 kg bag) that i immediately booked it.

to make the deal even sweeter, i just found out after booking the flights that the week lovro and i would visit okinawa is the height of the sakura season. how lucky are we?!

and if you've been reading this blog for a while now, you might have known that i have a vocation of trying to complete the travel bucket list of floris, and in one of the yaeyama islands in okinawa prefecture, he wanted to visit iriomote. iriomote is the largest of the yaeyama islands and is basically a big, dense jungle and the river system is lined up with mangrove forest. there are waterfalls and coral reef and is just a perfect destination for nature lovers. to get there, we had to fly from naha to ishigaki then take a ferry.

courtesy of wikipedia

after a lot of planning, i decided that we would fly to ishigaki on the same day we arrive in okinawa (naha), and keep the afternoon open since the little one would be tired. it was a cheap flight, so the timing wasn't exactly the best. we flew out of singapore around 2am and reached naha at 8. another domestic flight and a bus to town later, we reached around 3pm. we were so hungry and had to eat first before going back to the guesthouse to rest. 

i knew that if i didn't wake him up, he'd have a very long nap and not have a good overnight sleep, so i had to. he was so upset, i almost had to drag him outside and into the cab. i assured him though that he'd have fun at the playground, and when we got there, he was immediately convinced. we were lucky that the taxi driver had a mobile app with a voice translation from japanese to english, and we made a deal for him to come pick us back up at 6pm before it gets dark because he said there won't be any taxi passing by there. 

we only got there at 5, so it meant only an hour of fun. it was very dark and gloomy, and pretty chill at 15 degrees, but lovro was undeterred. he was very happy! 

the children's plaza is a large play area for kids in banna park, but the nature park itself is huge. if we had enough time in ishigaki, it would have been worth allotting half a day at least to explore the park itself. there are viewing platforms that offer an aerial view of ishigaki when you go up the mountains and there are lots of trees and flowers that make for a nice landscape for jogging or strolling.

children's plaza at Banna Park

the uncle taxi driver arrived promptly at 6 and as we walked back towards the cab, i made a slight detour as i spotted a cherry blossom tree. our first sakura sighting!

i then asked him to take us to this restaurant in downtown where i made a reservation. ishigaki cattle maru is a yakiniku restaurant serving A4/A5 grade ishigaki beef and is quite a popular albeit pricey place to be. but since we're only in ishigaki for 2 nights, and the odds of me coming back there is not likely, i had to have this wagyu. it was so good! even lovro, who normally doesn't eat beef, enjoyed it. 

we settled in early after a long day, as we had to wake up early for the day trip to iriomote. we got to the port ritoh terminal on time, waited a bit for someone who speaks english to attend to us, and got on the ferry that was to depart in 10 minutes. my little boy wanted to sit by himself like a big boy :( 

when we reached we had to change into a smaller boat for the nakayama river cruise. initially i reached out to a trip planner who could arrange for a more immersed day trip or overnight trip in iriomote but it is a bit costly and i'm afraid lovro might not be up for it, especially after being quite tired the day prior. so we had to settle with just a river cruise. if i had to do it without him, i probably would have opted for a jungle trek or kayak to the waterfalls. in any case, i didn't regret bringing lovro with me though we didn't explore this island much. 

after this cruise, we took a bus around mihara and got off an area where the water buffaloes await. yubu island is separated by shallow waters from main iriomote island so we had to ride in the cart as the water buffaloes pull it gently. for a more touristy touch, the drivers would take out their sanshin (okinawan musical instrument made of 3 strings) and serenade us tourists with folk music for a few minutes. it was pretty cheesy.

when we got to yubu island, we were supposed to spend 40 minutes around the botanical gardens. but it really wasn't 40 minutes, based on the call time, it was really just 20. after toilet break and a quick look around the store, there was barely any time left. we tried to go around the said garden but found nothing interesting. it's a shame this was added to the itinerary, it was really not special.

we took the ferry back and had lunch, then it was time for a quick nap again. i woke him up again so we can squeeze in one more activity before our flight out the next morning: a visit to yaima-mura, a replica of a typical yaeyama island village designed for visitors to have a taste of its culture. but there was only one thing here that i knew lovro would be interested to see: the squirrel monkeys. and i was right, he did not want to leave the monkeys. he kept saying they're soooo cute!

just before the park was about to close, the staff then served the squirrel monkeys their dinner: apples, oranges and bread. lovro had a ball watching them all huddled in their dinner tray.

same as the day prior, we had arranged for the cab driver who dropped us off to come and pick us back again. this time lovro wanted to take a nap while i walk around and push his stroller instead of coming back to the guesthouse. so i just went around looking at souvenir shops and picked up something to keep me company. 

then lovro woke up in time for dinner. it was still happy hour and beer was only 100jpy per mug. i got two, and we had some meat on stick for dinner. 

the next morning we made our way to the airport and had to say goodbye to our short but sweet stay in ishigaki. it would have been nice to stay longer, but sometimes you don't really need to be around too long to experience the heart of the island.