Akajima

Waking up early, I started the journey to the remote Aka island. First was a shuttle from Kyoto to Osaka Kansai airport for a short 2.5 hour flight to Okinawa. Directly across from the Okinawa airport is the Naha city monorail, which I hopped to reach the ferry port.

A sweaty 15-minute walk carrying my bag later, I found the ferry terminal and was able to exchange my voucher for a ticket. The ferry ride was quick (50 minutes) and pleasantly air conditioned. With the temperature reading 36 C and feels like 46 C, I had a feeling that was the last time I'd be cool in a while.

I thought I'd have to walk to the hotel, a whole 5 minutes, but was pleasantly surprised when the Seasir Marine House and Dive School van was there to pick me up. I was less pleasantly surprised to find my old nemesis, the tatami mat, waiting for me...

Oh well. It's no worse than camping and I'm a Canadian dammit. Also, after hours on the shuttle, flight, train, ferry, and van commute, I was ready to crash anywhere.

After a rejuvenating nap, I headed out on foot to check out the island. I'm pretty sure that I burnt immediately despite my SPF 50. But the walk was well worth it!



As I mentioned in my A Little More on Akajima post, Aka is located in the Kerama island chain. It is connected by bridge to Geruma island and on to Fukaji island. It has a population of about 300 (which I think has to include tourists). And it is beautiful.

Having sweat through everything (TMI?), I headed back to my blissfully air-conditioned room to cool down before dinner.

When the island had cooled down to a chilly 32 frickin' degrees and the sun had set, I headed toward the bridge between islands to watch the stars, as per the helpful advice of Judy at the hotel. There were a handful of locals and visitors lying on the pedestrian path on the bridge, soaking in the starlight. I thought it fit to join them for some stargazing before returning to my mat pile.

First day of diving tomorrow!