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May 9

Ride to Imbu Beach / Tak

After going to the post office, and finally being able to take out some money (whew!), I returned and packed, deciding to head out. I left the guest house, and stopped at a small Soba shop to get some local grub. The Soba in Okinawa is different from the main land, in that it is usually eaten in a soup made from pork base. I had San Mai Niku Soba, which has some yummy fatty pork chunks along with the Soba noddles. Another more famous order is the Soki Soba, which has little rib pieces.

After the scrumptious lunch, I started my bike trip up the coast. I was heading for either Mission Beach or Imbu Beach up the coast. Both were 700 yen per night to camp, and about halfway up the island.

I took Route 58 up the coast, and I have to say my first impression was that this road sucks! Lots of crappy sidewalks with very busy traffic in the road, so I was able to ride the bike there. Lots of trucks, though, and if Japan has any laws concerning vehicle emissions, apparently Okinawa is exempt. Every little truck and car was spewing a black smog (only very slight exaggeration).

When the 58 got to the coast, and past our good ol' U.S. of A. Army Base at Okinawa City (about 20km/13miles north of Naha), the road suddenly became very nice. Beautiful views, the traffic eased up, and the weather was nice and clear - if not a bit on the hot and humid.

Eventually got to Mission Beach, where I met a jogger named Claude. Originally from Germany, he lived in Tokyo about 19 years, married a Japanese-Okinawan woman, and now lives down here. His advice was to continue on to Imbu, and, if I had time, to see the north side of the island. He said that the north part of the island was alot more reminicent of what Okinawa probably used to look like, and that there was a road he and his wife took which goes from the west coast over to the east coast that went through the forest of the island. He said they even found a coffee house there in the middle of nowhere. He highly recommended it, although said it may be somewhat hard to find. He also said that a hotel up the coast was the location of the recent G8 summit (although this was alot less interesting to me).

I first stopped at a Sushi restaurant, where although the woman was nice and gave me free Saba (Mackerel - my favortie), I must say the sushi in Okinawa was not very impressive. Stick with their pork dishes. I continued on to Imbu Beach, reaching it late in the afternoon, and found noone working there at the front gate. Inside I found one other camper, a Japanese biker. His name was Tak, and we got along great.

He had a brilliant idea of bringing candles. Using a plastic bottle cut in half and full of sand, as a candle holder and flame protector, we stayed up until 10pm. This doesn't seem to late, but considering the sun goes down around 7:30pm or so, it feels like it. We even went out on the pier and reeled in one of the "glass-bottom boats" that are advertised for this beach, and went for a little boat riding at night (although all the fish were sleeping, so we didn't see anything of interest).