So, to start with, Saturday...
Woke up stiff and sore from previous night's BJJ, one of the ankle locks had stuffed up my right leg slightly, but no matter! It was a day for adventure and piddling injuries would not sway me from my course! So, breakfast eaten, Hisano gave me and James a lift to the port.
We met with Cody, Mike and Rodney at the port and boarded our adventure vessel!
From here it was but a short, bumpy hop to Tokashiki Island! (It's pronounced Tok-as-ki, by the way, sort of like how we way Leicester)
Look at it, looks at that hill. The whole place is basically a mass of hills and beaches. The view from above is this
Yeah, we took a private jet back to Okinawa, this was the view. Nice, huh? See that island off the coast? Well the beach to the right of it is Aharen beach, the beach we went to.
So, anyway, we get a little bus thing to the beach and along the way we figure out that James' original idea for travel on island may not have been too wise. See, looking at maps of the island, the distance between the port and Aharen beach isn't all that, so he put forward the idea that we all bring bikes and cycle the distance, or maybe just rent bikes there. Now, as the crow flies it is not a long distance, maybe three miles at most. But the roads are windy, which increases the distance; another cause for concern is the reason the roads are windy: that bloody hills! Honestly, the island makes Okinawa look flat. Here's a hill:
See that? That's a small one. It would have taken us a long, long time to cycle up those steep, steep hills (not too long to cycle down mind), and in that heat and with that sun... it would have been messy. Thankfully we ignored James' idea and got the bus.
So, here's the beach:
And again:
Yeah, that's right. Amazing. See that island sort of in the middle? We snorkled out to it. We did three different snorkling expeditions over the day; one quick one once we arrived, a loooong one out to that middle island later on and a shorter one after lunch. The water was ridiculous. Cool, crisp, clear in the right places and brimming with fish and coral. We lathered ourselves in sun cream and it had no effect, we all got burnt to hell and back. But it was worth it, something like two and a half hours of snorkelling and swimming and such. We had lunch at a little shack like restaurant which supplied filling pork curry. Everyone drank beers all day and generally chilled. It was great. And then, alas, it was time to get home. This involved us packing up and finding a place for a shower.
500 Yen this place cost us! But the water was warm and he did supply shampoo. As it slowly dawned on us how burnt we actually were the realisation of the coming pain sunk in. But, ah well, it was a good chance to compare sun burn and see who came off worst. Certainly, Rodney came of least burnt as he had the foresight to wear a T-shirt.
After the shower as we were doing a quick kit check it suddenly struck me that I needed to go to the toilet. Now the toilet was tiny:
So tiny in fact that I needed to open the cubicle door to wipe my bum! And after this point I realised that it was broken! Thankfully the bus had arrived for pick up and we scarped post haste!
Ferry terminal was nice and we chilled and monged and took funny pictures:
And then the ferry came and we returned to Okinawa for beer and football and darts at the Canadian bar we found, The Eager Beaver.
How Canadian is that, huh?
We ate well (I had a pork cutlet steak... well, two steaks and some chips), drank well and, alas, the day took it's toll and we hit it on the head early.
This was not a bad thing as me and James got back in at around 9.30 in time for more food: Manbu and his family were visiting and the table hot plate was out and so was the steak, so we had more steak, YAY!
And then sleep!
Woke up this morning ravenous and devoured two massive bowls of cereal for breakfast. The guys turned up for training and we set to it at about 10.30.
We did a warm up circuit of tyre sledgehammers, pull ups, heavy bag work and tanren and then hit the Bear circuit.
Here's our times and what we did:
James: 1:02, .52, .47, .44, .45
Me: 1:06, .50, .39, .38, .41
Shun: 1:37, 1:16 (hard night last night)
Mike: 1:13, 1:35, 4 reps final set
Rodney: 1:04, 3 reps final set
So, me and James managed five sets and I was doing active recovery by pounding away on the heavy bag! Working on my jab, straight hook combo, which is coming along nicely. Got a real fast burn out time on the Bear, and bearing in mind we're shifting 30kg for a set of 7 reps, it's pretty good. Next time we'll do 40kg.
Then lunch which was a Father's Day dinner here:
A traditional Japanese restaurant which is like a series of huts divided into rooms around a central courtyard. Very nice. It's main claim to fame is this building within the grounds:
This is the building where the guy who created Ultraman was born. Ultraman is like the Superman of Japan and he's influenced a ton of stuff, like the Power Rangers, Ryujin Mabuya, that Bike riding guy and others.
Anyway, here's the food:
Sort of a bento, which means box. The starter was this tofu thing and I learnt that I do not like tofu. In this box was rice, seared salmon, sashimi and some Kobe beef. Oh my god it was good! I recommend the beef to anyone. A little overpriced for what it was but still okay.
From there we went into town as Hisano had to open the shop to sell some emergency Togan (a chef uses it in his food) and then we wandered the market nearby on the hunt for a kimono for my mum! Got a great one and a discount too as the lady selling it is Hisano's cousin. From there I took everyone to the BEST ICECREAM PLACE IN THE WORLD. I will fight anyone for that as is it true. This ice cream is the best ice cream in the world. Look:
It's amazing! You must try it.
And from there it was home and chillax after an epic weekend. Humm... I feel like some tea.
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