My bucket list comprises of a few things. Seeing a whale in the wild has been one of it. We realized last year that, it is possible to see whales in Okinawa, Japan. However, whale watching was only possible around February to March as that’s when the whales migrate to warmer waters to give birth to its calf. Having learned this, we planned our trip as we may not get such opportunity again. We flew to Okinawa on March 15, 2013 and stayed at separate dorms. We did this to get new experience and also to save money. The dorm was really comfortable and we only went there to sleep.
The next morning, we headed to the port first thing in the morning and boarded a boat. After some time, the boat halted at some place and that’s when we saw it. An adult humpback whale and its calf! It was so huge. The curious mammal swam towards the boat a few times flapping its tail. We were fortunate enough and snapped as much pictures as we could. I remember calling Satya’s name a few times out of astonishment. Towards the end, the boat was swaying so much I ended up having killer headaches. Luckily, by then we were already heading back to shore. Later that night, we walked along the city, grabbed our dinner and headed back to the dorm to sleep.
Okinawa is totally different from the places that I have stayed in Japan. It has only one railway system and Naha city tends to be polluted from the vast amount of automobiles.
The next morning, we took a bus and traveled for almost one hour and half to Manza beach. It was one of the most beautiful beaches that I have seen, with white sand and crystal clear water. The water was a little cold for me but yet we dunked ourselves in the water. I saw sea cucumbers and sea urchin for the first time. Satya told me to look at the sea cucumber a little closer but I was too terrified to even swim near it. It was serene and we were tranquilized by just looking at this beautiful beach.
We couldn’t get enough of the beach, so we headed back to the beach again the next day. We took the bus as early as 5.30 am. This time we went to Cape Maeda. This was an interesting trip because we checked out of our rooms and we traveled while carrying our backpacks. It was a little difficult for me as our bags were heavy but we were in such an adventurous mode we preceded anyway. To get to the cape, we were required to hike through a 2.6 km trail. Hiking through the trail brought back my childhood memories and I toughened up and followed Satya along without a single complaint. Interestingly, it started to rain and became heavier as we moved on. We managed to find two broken umbrellas along our ways which protected us from the downpour. I smiled as I walked with a broken umbrella, heavy bag and damp clothes. For some unknown reasons, I enjoyed our little adventure being away from the hustle and bustle of our hectic life. However, we couldn’t get a clear view of the corals and the beach because of the rain. But yet, we enjoyed our little walk.
We then took our bus and headed straight to the airport. We reached Osaka at 10.40 pm and the last train to our place was at 10.48 pm. We ran as fast as we could once we disembarked the plane and managed to get the train tickets at 10.46 pm. However, as we rushed to the platform, we missed the train. The next available train to home is only next day. So we took several trains to get near home as much as possible and finally we reached a place at 12.15 am, 11km away from home. We opted to walk as we were still excited about our hike that morning. We had covered one third of our route when we realized that we were both too tired to continue. Besides, the heavy backpack was killing our back. We managed to find a taxi and reached home.
We went back to our respective work, when I jokingly mentioned to Satya that I was Samwise Gamgee throughout the whole trip whom was an obedient traveler, carrying the heavy load accompanying a noble friend. I felt so much better once I thought about our trip to Cape Maeda as a walk to Mordor. I have never been so enlightened and will definitely treasure our special adventure forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment