Okinawa tour for people who don't like Okinawa, unexpected Kouri Island

1

"Huh? Why? Why go to Okinawa? Why Okinawa? There are so many people and nothing to eat." I put down my work.

"I've been here for years, why don't you give me a challenge? It was fun to go to Amami Oshima last year." P.

"We don't play with water, what are we going to do?" I said.

"What's wrong? Don't want to go?" P.

"Think...think...okay." I.

Okinawa is a very special place and a very popular tourist hotspot. In the past, when I was still at work, my colleagues liked to go to Okinawa very much. As long as you mention traveling to Japan, you don’t have to ask, almost one in three answers to go to Okinawa.

But P and I don't know why, but we don't have much vision for Okinawa. Even though we have traveled to Japan so many times before we officially started our business in Japan, we have never considered going to Okinawa.

After coming to Japan for so many years, I always have to face this mysterious place.

2

first day

After disembarking at Naha Airport:

"Let's go? Buy lunch meat rice balls? Eat bad food when you get off the plane?" I.

"It's very famous." P.

"SXXT, being famous means waiting in line." I rolled my eyes to the back of my head.

"Try it. It's delicious." P.

Luncheon meat rice balls are literally and you can make them at home.

P stuffed the rice ball into my mouth: "Is it delicious?"

"Hmmmm, it's okay, bad food is almost like this, there are so many people, get in the car and eat again."

First of all, I went to お鱼センター (fish market), which is a cooperative group of fisheries, and had lunch. Usually, there should be relatively delicious seafood near the sea. If the fish market is concerned, it should not be too thunderous.

Go to the buffet-like way to choose the ingredients, there is a plate of seafood sashimi on it, you can just buy a rice, then get different sashimi, and finally check out. It's a little different from the general experience. I understand that people in the fish market can be cold sometimes, but the uncle who works in the store seems to have never seen us. After we choose the fish, the checkout is just handed over to another guy. , not impolite, it is just a "cold reception" (usually greeted, especially when there are not many customers), which is relatively rare in Japan.

Forget it, with the natural fragrance of musk, it is also possible that the food is delicious and does not require any good service.

The food is not bad, but the degree is about the level of sashimi you can buy in the nearby supermarket. Although Okinawa is surrounded by the sea, it is not a place with very developed fisheries, so there are not many famous or excellent brands of seafood, and the price is not cheap, The quality is also not very good. In the old days of Okinawa, the Ryukyu Kingdom was based on meat, which was different from ancient Japan, which did not eat meat.

To sum up, in terms of fish markets, if you go to other fish markets, you don’t have to eat seafood. You can choose to explore other places.

I went to a nearby place to experience the sun and the beach. The weather is pretty good, the blue sky and green water are there, the sky is vast, and the sea water is almost the same level as many beautiful coasts in Japan, such as Amami Oshima, Yakushima, and Shikoku. , Awaji Island, etc.

The buildings in Okinawa have one of their very special characteristics. It may be due to the relationship between typhoons and sea breezes, so there are fewer wooden buildings and more stone buildings. It looks a bit like China (after all, it was influenced by ancient Chinese architectural styles.) Very deep), most other places in Japan are traditional wooden houses.

3

One of my travel routines with P is to check-in immediately at three o’clock. This is our basic rule. After all, we are not young people, so when we can check-in, we will check-in and rest immediately.

On the first night, we chose the Hoshino Hotel in the city center. We will also have a special introduction to the Hoshino series later. If you are superstitious about the Hoshino brand or if someone around you always tells you how good and luxurious Hoshino is, you can take the time to read it. Look.

How can I say it, what kind of existence does Hoshino Resorts mean to us?

If we don't find a better hotel during the trip, we will stay in Hoshino. It's not that it's bad, it's just that he is relatively ordinary and operates in a group style. In many places, you will be surprised that his cost control is very good (not a compliment), However, some Hoshino hotels still have a good grasp of the balance between cost and experience.

The lobby of the hotel is good, the rooms are small, but the location is very convenient. There is not much difference between the rooms and the hotels with a slightly lower price than Hoshino (and there are).

Then we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. There were many people on the streets of Okinawa wearing Hawaiian shirts with Okinawa's special patterns. For us, it was a very special scenery, and it always felt like a southern country.

For dinner, we chose to eat Ishigaki Beef Yakiniku. There are many special dishes in Okinawa, local dishes and special food, but they are not very flavorful. So I chose a famous roast meat shop with better quality. Speaking of which, the beef quality of roast meat shop is really good. The highlight is the extra thick beef tongue, which is 50 grams of the tip of Ishigaki beef tongue (don't imagine too specific. ), very few, the taste is very good, imagine yourself stacking six or seven pieces of Sendai beef tongue together and eating it together in your mouth, it feels almost like this. Other parts are also quite good, but the service is relatively formula. It is not bad, but there is no particularly good place. The young male waiter's service is very thoughtful, but there is nothing that impresses you very much, that is, the kind of restaurant SOP. All the dialogues required in the manual have been said, and everything that has been done has been done without any intention of doing anything wrong.

4

the next day

Had breakfast at the hotel, admit it, there was some cheating.

In the Hoshino Hotel in Otaru before, although the room was average, the breakfast was very good. We don't eat buffets, unless there is no choice, but the top-floor buffet restaurant is very elegantly decorated and has a lot of food choices, and we also have things in Hokkaido itself. I like to eat, so the evaluation is very high. Therefore, I also had wrong expectations for this breakfast in vain. It's not that it's unpalatable, but I just expect to eat the breakfast taken in the photos, and I will be 100% disappointed when I eat it, that's about it.

I went to "Wanza Mao" at noon. The name turned out to be a literal meaning. At first, I thought that the place names in Hokkaido were all Ainu languages, and then the homophonic Chinese characters were added. "Wanza Mao" means a grassland that can accommodate ten thousand people. .

When you go out along the walking trail in the grassland, you will soon see the endless blue sea and blue sky, and of course the famous Elephant Trunk Rock. Don't worry about finding a punch-in slot, just the place to queue up. Blowing the sea breeze, the walking trail is not long, without stopping, it can be completed in 20 minutes.

Just happened to meet a school tour group. There are many students, but they are very disciplined. In order to avoid hindering other tourists, there is a long line of people, young and old, and the scenic spot becomes lively.

The school trip in Japan is also really fun. A group of students can travel to different places, and encountering blue sky and white clouds is indeed a very precious memory, especially during the epidemic. I believe this kind of school trip is also after the epidemic has been reduced. , a long-lost event.

The next place is to kiss the dolphins. This time, it is a close encounter with dolphins. The most intimate part is actually riding a dolphin to swim, but this seems to be difficult for me who does not know how to swim, and I am afraid of large animals. It is also impossible for P, so we just chose to play with the dolphin and feed him.

The experience was very good. First, I encountered the long-lost good weather. According to the local staff, it has been raining for many days in a row, very heavy rain, and it just happened to be sunny today.

The dolphins look very big and cute up close. The skin feels a bit like plastic, a bit hard and slippery. They are very spiritual, a bit like a bark, very friendly, and very good at interacting with people.

Today, because there is only one group of guests (there are only two guests in the whole facility), the staff has plenty of time, just like introducing friends, each dolphin introduces us to us, "It's OO, the mother of OO next to him, and the son is this year. One year old. OO over there..."

It turns out that each dolphin is a little different, and their respective personalities and characteristics cannot be distinguished from their duties unless the breeder introduces them.

The breeder will teach you to interact with the dolphins. Are you envious of the breeders who command the dolphins when watching the dolphin show? You too have a chance today! Dolphins are very smart, they will say hello to you and make moves with you.

Since there are no other guests, we can monopolize the entire dolphin feed! Those fish were bigger than I imagined. I thought they were small fish, but they turned out to be about the same size as the fish that people eat, and there are several species.

5

It's three o'clock in the afternoon again. This time is the most suitable time to go to the hotel. Okinawa should be more leisurely but there are many tourists in our expectation. In order to avoid "many tourists", we chose a smaller scale but a higher price. , The quality is also relatively good boutique hotels, that is, do not choose those hundreds of rooms, like those in resorts, do not need to see many people.

P's famous quote, when I first heard it, I copied it down with a pen by my side:

"No matter how fun a place is, it won't be fun if there are too many people."

Usually our travel arrangements are to stay in a better hotel the next day. The principle is very simple. If you stay in a good hotel on the first day and stay in a normal hotel on the second day, your mood will become worse. If you live in an ordinary one (Hoshino Hotel, that is, you), and then live in a better one, the experience will be much better.

One suite THE GRAND is a hotel in Kouri Island.

It is a hotel with all five-star ratings in Google's score. Don't underestimate the Goolge score. There are so many Haters on the Internet, how strict the requirements of contemporary consumers are, and how easy it is to give a low score.

All five stars, not easy.

At the very least, the price/performance ratio must be balanced. No, if you are only satisfied, you will not leave a message at all. You must be moved to give five stars sincerely.

One of the reasons why P wants to go to Kouri Island is that she likes a Japanese program "Future Diary" very much. The Okinawa-born heroine "True Love" asked the Hokkaido-born male protagonist (forgot his name) to go to Okinawa to play, which is to go to Kouri Island. Heartstone Beach.

Along the way, you will pass the Kouri Island Bridge, so you can take a look.

One suite THE GRAND will open in July 2021. It is located at the highest position on Kouri Island. The view is very good. There are 22 rooms, of which there are three better rooms, called Premier ocean view. You can go directly from the room to the outside. Infinit pool.

This hotel is a great part of this trip to Okinawa.

The road to the hotel up the mountain is a bit steep, drive carefully, and the road is narrow, you have to look for it a little bit, and if you go at night, pay attention to the road conditions.

As soon as the car arrived, the staff at the gate ran up to greet us and took our car keys. There are valet parking services, and there are many hotels that enter the lobby as soon as you get out of the car. Hotels with many guests will not arrange them even if they are more advanced. There are too few guests and no extra staff. I don't know why, but the staff at the door has a bad feeling that you have to park your car and come back later, maybe it's my little device, eh? My name is Xiaoqi!

The hotel is comfortable and nice, the staff is well trained and polite. In order to allow guests to integrate into the environment, the hotel also lends out beach dresses for free, with many styles and good taste. P chose the most beautiful green and white dress that suits her best. By the sunset pool, her back makes people feel like watching Dior advertisements. (I wasn't forced to write this! Crying face.)

6

The weather was really good, so I played in the hotel's Infinity Pool for a while. If it was before the epidemic, it should have been full of people, but that day there were only two ladies in bikinis basking in the sun and taking pictures. At first I thought it was somewhere Tourists, but in the end it wasn't very far from conjecture.

The large swimming pool is outside the Premier ocean view room on the first floor. Outside the room is a small garden with a private bath. After opening the big window or opening the small door, you can directly go out to the swimming pool, which is very convenient. You can look at the swimming pool and the sea view behind the swimming pool while soaking in the bath, and have a triple-play of watching the water.

We were the room farthest from the lobby and the most accessible room, and the two ladies were by the pool near the lobby.

The two eldest sisters were in the middle of taking pictures without thinking, when suddenly, like a movie, a staff member brought two glasses of champagne.

There was a voice of conversation in the distance.

One of the women shouted in a loud voice, "ありがとう!"

We followed her line of sight.

An uncle's voice came from Room 1:

"どこからですか?"

The well-kept eldest sister raised her glass and replied, "Osaka."

I made eye contact with P and nodded.

The two eldest sisters were not very noisy, they kept taking pictures, and then drying them, and in the end, maybe it was too much, and they wrapped their bodies with towels like a shroud.

We also played in the water very rarely, because I am not very good at swimming and can not go into the water, but the swimming pool is so big, only us and the two eldest sisters, and it is very far apart, so it is an 80% private swimming pool, so You can go for a tour. I tried to stay in a hotel with a private swimming pool before, that is, I went to Amanohashidate Li Gong Xingyin to eat Majin crab in November, but it was too cold in November, so I didn't go into the water.

After that, I took a dip in the private bath outside the room in my room and then rested. After closing the large single-sided reflective window, unexpectedly, another young couple who I saw at check-in came. They were just in front of our room in the morning with something similar to the two eldest sisters, taking pictures, swimming, and pinching. We were so embarrassed to see that we were so embarrassed that we almost wanted to give them two glasses of champagne.

The swimming pool is very big, and there are only a few people coming and going, which is not too troublesome. There are not many guests, and there is enough space for everyone.

7

When it's time for dinner, the restaurant is a partnership between the hotel and La Bombance. La Bombance is located in West Azabu, so the quality is guaranteed. The restaurant is on the 2nd floor, and you can see the swimming pool below. Outside the swimming pool is the sea of Okinawa.

The part of the meal is also very delicate. I will not talk about such tricks as tableware and boxed flowers. What is more special is the menu. The names of the dishes on the menu are in the way of guessing, and each dish turns out to be a dish. Riddles, the waiter will ask you to guess what it is, and will also give you hints. Our Japanese is OK, but not as good as the Japanese, so we can make an estimate.

Serve the last dish.

Waitress: "Come on, guess what."

"え..."

"Let me give you a hint, put the two words together... 5:30... ご. じ. は. ん..."

I looked at the smile behind her mask and thought, "Why are you so persistent? Can't you eat if you can't guess?"

I put a photo of the menu. If you are interested, you can leave a message and guess.

Having said that, but on the whole it feels ワクワク, it's very fun, I don't say too much about the food, like most food reviews, if you write about the smallpox dragon and phoenix, people who watch it can't feel it, so take a look The pictures are good, if you have the opportunity, you must try it out for yourself.

In my personal judgment, "it is a dish of good quality, using local high-quality ingredients, and rich in traditional Okinawan characteristics." For example, the combination of sea grapes and some noodles uses both special ingredients and summer flavors. Plain noodles, the taste also echoes each other, which is very distinctive.

8

There was another surprise when I returned to the hotel room after the meal. This is a relatively rare surprise, because there are not many hotels or inns that will come in and clean up when the guests are eating, especially in the current epidemic situation.

After entering, I found that all the lights in the room were turned off, and a small lamp was lit in the corridor. When I looked up, the ceiling of the room was full of stars. It turned out to be a projector for us to arrange the stars, very thoughtful. It just happened that night because of the rain and the full moon, we canceled the plan to take a starry sky photo.

After the lights were turned on, the starry sky projector still played the sound of the waves, which was also very flavorful (but it was a bit noisy after listening to it for a long time...), the room was already arranged, and there was chocolate on the bed, which was also a place that surprised the guests. . Also, Jacuzzi has refilled the water so you can enjoy it right away when you get back.

In fact, being a guest is very simple. The service that is more than what you expect is the place to be touched, so it is sad to say that, when you go to many different places and have a lot of experience, you can be pleasantly surprised. There are fewer and fewer opportunities to be touched (crying face).

The next day, when I left the hotel, the chances of them impressing me in the future were reduced!

The car pulled back and parked in front of the gate. We got in the car as usual. There were two water bottles and mints in the car!

Eating mints and leaving in tears.

ah? "Future Diary" that Heartstone Beach? Do you have any other popular attractions introduced in travel books/websites?

On the third day, the weather was a little rainy, so I didn't go (stand hands).

Before boarding the plane, I had a little time (actually a lot of time), and went to the Okinawa Miami Aquarium. The Kuroshio Sea and the big whale shark are worth seeing. If there are children, the entire Ocean Expo Park is enough to play all day. .

9

Fly back to Tokyo in the evening.

It seems that the shopping part is not mentioned at all, because we really did not go to a shopping place. The famous shopping street should only pass by when driving. If you like shopping, you can also visit it. A little bit of tourists have recovered, but I think it's only about one tenth of what it was before the epidemic.

For us, Okinawa is about as expected, it is very hot, there are many beaches, there are many resorts, it is a very popular place for foreign tourists, it is also a tourist center, and it has natural beauty, but it is more commercial development, and then I think foreigners like Okinawa about as much as Japanese people like Hawaii.

Okinawa was originally an independent kingdom called Ryukyu. The Ryukyu Kingdom itself was a country between Japan and China, and maritime trade was prosperous, especially because both China and Japan adopted a policy of closing the country at that time, and Ryukyu was subject to both Japan and China. Cultural influence, traces of cultural remnants of the two places can also be seen on many buildings.

Later, Ryukyu became a vassal independent state of Japan, and gradually became a part of Japan. After the World War, the administrative power fell into the hands of the United States, and finally returned to Japan. Therefore, Okinawa finally brought together the cultures from all over the country and became the least Japanese place in Japan. Like Southeast Asia, it has the history and culture of China and Japan, and many American troops and their families live there.

Speaking of these historical issues, I thought of Seediq Bale, Scarlo, and Golden Kamui, the aborigines, who gradually became Japanese, and there are many stories in them.

This ending is very good, because the next one is Hokkaido, Shiraoicho ウポポイ (ethnic symbiosis space) and the National Ainu Ethnic Museum, please pay attention.

at the airport.

"Have you ordered that?" I said.

"Ordered." P.

"A little rush, can you make it in time?" I said.

"Hmm. Bad food is usually done quickly." P.

When I got it, I couldn't wait to shove the luncheon meat rice ball into my mouth.

For article photos, please see IG : https://www.instagram.com/jplatebloomer/