Kanji

With all this diving the past three days i had become pretty tired physically. I therefore set the alarm a bit later to catch up on some sleep and snoozed it multiple times to get even some more quality nap time. As the diving had ended it was time for me to pack my stuff in the backpack and head on down south to Naha. The capital of both Okinawa island and the prefecture with the same name. Isesan, the very friendly and helpful owner of Oyado hostel looked up the busschedule for me and offered me to bring me to the busstop, something I gladly accepted with the temperatures outside already reaching 30+ degrees. We arrived at the busstop and as i got out the car the bus was already there. I said a quick thank you and goodbye to Isesan and rushed to get on the bus. Today was gonna be another day of strolling around the downtown area. After about an hour i pressed the button to get off the bus. The Japanese have their own system of paying for the bus. It's not very complicated but it requires throwing the exact fare in cash into a machine when one exits the bus. It took me some time to get the right amount of money as i was fiddling around with the wrong bills, apparantly to the dismay of the driver as he started commanding me to hurry up. (well i am guessing that's what he was saying, based on the non-verbal communication). I finally got the right amount and tossed it in the machine, shutting up the driver. I exited the bus and went looking for a big electronics store called Yamada Denki. I was not really looking to buy stuff but i always enjoy walking around in these to shops to see al the cool stuff they sell. For a while i stood at the toilet seat section, seriously thinking about buying one. I know a lot of you have serious second thoughts about these toilet but once you've tried one there's no going back. The only thing that stopped me from buying one was the fact that i would have to rebuild half my toilet. But still...
Next i headed for Kokusai street, the main shopping street/area of Naha. Although it's a big shopping street you don't see a lot of the bigger chain stores but instead a lot of local shops. I promised one of my friends to get him a tshirt with big kanji signs on it. I have been frantically searching all over Japan but it was really hard to find a one that i liked. There would always be something in the design to put me off. Apparantly a shirt with just straight kanji is very difficult to find. My last hope was that somewhere in this shopping street I would find a tshirt that would match my criteria. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were so many tshirt shops that let you design your own tshirt, with or without pictures, kanji, smileys and whatnot. I got a brochure from one of the shops and decided to study it before choosing a design. I still had three days to make up my mind. From Kokusai street i walked to the seaside to cool down a bit and watch some kids play at a small beach before heading to the hostel as I was really in need of a refreshing shower. I passed an Aeon supermarket and went inside to get some cold brewskis and some snacks. Great was my surprise when i saw a small real baguette lying in the bread section. They have a lot of different breads here but they are all soggy and very sweet with no real crust. I had been craving "real" bread for a while and would not let this opportunity pass me by. I put it in my basket together with some local Orion beers. (an excellent beer to drink in the warm sunny climate of Okinawa) As soon as i got outside i got the bread out of the bag and took a first big bite. It's hard to describe the feeling but suffice it to say it was pretty darn delicious. I was still enjoying this great find as a i arrived at the hoste. The check-in was easy and pleasant with a giggly girl at the reception who laughed at almost everything i said.
I went to my dormitory and met Jack from England. He won a trip in a competition from his university and chose to go to Japan. After giving him my condolances on Brexit and talking about the Euro Championship footbal we went out for some food and found a nice smal streetvendor that sold fried noodles. We grabbed a couple of drinks and had a lot of fun quoting various classic comedies like Naked Gun, Police Squad and Monty Pything. Pretty impressive since he was only 19 years old. :-)
At midnight it was lights out in the hostel and i quickly fell asleep. I guess my body is getting tired from all this running around. ;-)Read more