Okinawa, Japan - April 14th

Naha, the capital of Okinawa, is a pedestrian-friendly city with good public transportation. We walked downtown and took the monorail to Shuri Castle. This is the royal palace of the kings who ruled Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands for 400 years before losing sovereignty to Japan. The Ryukyu or Japanese Outer Islands stretch in a line from the south of Japan to Taiwan with Okinawa in the middle:

Ryu means “dragon” in Japanese and a stylized dragon is the symbol of Okinawa:

As we walked, we saw many houses with a talisman Ryukyu dragon above the front door:

And you can take “dragon yoga” classes in the local gyms:

 The entrance to Shuri castle

The Ryukyu Royal Palace 

 The Ryukyu Throne

The view of Naha from the castle walls 

After the castle we walked the main shopping street downtown. We saw thousands of Ryukyu dragon sculptures for sale and the image was also emblazoned on T-shirts. Though we were born in the year of the dragon, we didn’t buy any.

We did stop at the Fukushu-en Chinese Gardens, built in 1992 to celebrate historic links between Okinawa and China. The Ryukyu Kingdom had a close relationship with the Ming Dynasty and Chinese traders came to live in Okinawa.

In closing, Joani selected this calling card for a seafood restaurant mounted on the building façade:

It has been an intense six weeks from our first stop in India through this last stop in Japan. Now the pace eases as we start island hopping through the Philippines, Borneo and Indonesia to Australia; and then through New Zealand, French Polynesia, and the Hawaiian Islands to the west coast of the Americas. Many more days at sea.

Next stop: Manila on April 17th, with Joani sightseeing and shopping, while Bob visits Corregidor.