Drive

I`ve had the pleasure of meeting some interesting people here in Okinawa. Many of them, like myself, are fellow travelers, each one with his own story. One told me that he rode his bicycle throughout half of Asia, probably just to prove that he can overcome his crooked leg. A girl told me she hitch-hiked the whole of Japan, just with a small bag on her back and a big smile on her face. Another 21 old youngster told me he had quit his job and now in search for meaning, and better english understanding.
All of them were a unique specimen of Japanese, trying to escape the strict conditions up there on the mainland.
After mingling with them for a while, I moved on to another hostel that was closer to the diving sites. Unfortunately, the weather got a little moody so all I could do was a one shore dive. At that time I was quite clueless as to what to do next - If diving wasn`t an option, what now?

So, I rented a car.
Yeah, some of you will say: dude, are you insane? they drive the wrong frikkin way!
They do indeed! and it takes some time getting used to it, but luckily I was granted an Automatic gear-shift, so I had less to think about along the way.

My reasoning was this - I wanted to go up north of the island, and assessed that the costs of buses and hostels would cost me just about the same as renting a car and sleeping in it for a couple of days. So, even for a cheapster like me, this was somewhat of a fair deal.
Even before hopping inside the car, I witnessed an intriguing sight - a group of construction workers doing their morning workout to the sounds of some awful music.　To see a bunch of middle aged workers stretching their muscles was quite entertaining.
A few minutes later, I was already inside my tiny Subaru, sitting on the right side and driving on the left side.
Now don`t think i was just driving without a basic schedule. Thanks to the marvels of the
Internet, i was able to organise a skeleton itinerary for the next two days. Day one was dedicated to the west coast, while the second day was to the east coast. Day one, which was more eventful, started off at the Butterfly garden at Motobu city. The garden, comprised out of a beautiful scenery and well kept gardens, held a special roofed garden which has hundreds of butterflies. Now since I am a fan of those beautiful tiny creatures, I stopped by to witness them for myself. It was pretty neat... not AMAZING, but fun.

Later on my schedule, was a visit to supposedly the worlds largest Aquarium at the Expo park in Motobu, holding a variety of fish, including some Whale-
sharks, dolphins, Mantas, Manatees and so on. To sum it all up, it was worth it. The huge Aquarium is definitely a sight worth seeing.
This is a Link to a video I made at the Aquarium:





After the Aquarium, my plan was to just head along north till it ends. The view of the ocean and the variety of bays I came across on one side, all mixed up with the lush tamed jungle on the other was quite gorgeous, even for a person like me who usually don't like nature and... stuff.

From time to time, unique gravestones of some Okinawan ancestors dotted the base of the mountainous road, and many seemingly unused roads criss-crossed the main road, leading most of the time to some isolated houses, perched on river banks and surrounded by an actual jungle. Living in a place like this must be... well, boring like hell.

The night soon fell upon the quite land, and I nestled my car at a tiny village with 4 houses, sitting peacefully on the bank of a silent river just at the mouth of the ocean. After eating my make shift dinner, I went to sleep by the beautiful river bank.

Morning came, and in no time I was already on my way to travel the east side of island. Now, I didn't need a map, since navigating is quite easy when you got only two main roads, but from time to time when i needed to get a clue of my whereabouts, especially inside the urban area, I would have entered one of the quick stops and just open up a map. The day wore on, mostly uneventful, except from a small detour here, a lunch stop over there, but mostly the view was passing along outside my windshield, and I visualised how much this place would look truly heaven like in the summer.

Finally I reached my starting point at Chatan, and I decided to take a tour at the commercial center near the American Kadena Base. Probably due to the weather, only a handful of people were dotting the area, some of them listening to a street band, the other just touring around.
In a certain corner, I witness a Christian Drums ceremony, conducted by an extremely religious fellow named Daniel.
He later on approached me and explained to me about their spiritual aspirations. It took some time for him to ask me of my religious background, and after being a little surprised of me being a jew, he hurriedly conducted (by my consent of course) a top of the mark ceremony of blessings upon my chosen jewish soul, all thanks to Jesus.
It was not long before that I met an Israeli, trying to sell Kebabs from inside a shabby looking truck with Israeli flags hanging atop of it, and an old `Machina` song crackling through the hidden speakers. His name was Ronen. He had told me his story, which was quite interesting, and very enlightening; He was recruited to working at a Basta about ten years ago, at the times when it was actually worth the risk. He told me that at those times they were unstoppable, and the money was flowing. He found himself staying in Japan for over than 10 years, with a wife (sort of), a job (sort of), a house (sort of) and a lot more things that were just sort of. While I was listening to his story, I heard this sort of a bell ringing inside my head, notifying me that I`ve reached, FINALLY, my first conclusion out of this world wide trip. It was simple - I, never, EVER, wanna be like him. I guess that throughout his story, I could pick up the Bullshit parts, and assess them for what they really were. the truth was that this guy was living at the age of 37 with an Okinawan roommate, while his separated wife was living on the mainland, and he Sells Kebabs out of a truck to make ends "meat".
I wished him　farewell,　and got back to my car, where I slept for the last time, while Ronens words echoing in my mind