Okinawa

New-to-us Port #52.

We spent most of the morning at sea traveling from Keelung, Taiwan to Naha, the port for Okinawa, Japan.

At dinner last night, Captain Maro had mentioned that the Port Authority schedule showed the pilot coming aboard Insignia at 10:30a. As it turns out, the pilot came aboard earlier and everything went like clockwork from there. The only exception … a last minute change to our departure time … moved up by 30 minutes due to an approaching storm that the bridge team wanted to get around sooner rather than later.

Okinawa being our first Japanese port of call, we had face-to-face immigration formalities to deal with before we could go off to do whatever sightseeing we could fit into our short day. The set up was quite efficient, with port officials directing us at every turn. Fingerprints recorded; photo taken; passport stamped. With the first shuttle into the city scheduled for 12:30p, we had time to get Japanese Yens from the ATM in the terminal after clearing immigration.

Today’s plan called for us to take the Yui Yui train (monorail) from the station near the shuttle drop off point to Shuri-jo [Shuri Castle] … our first opportunity to see how public transportation works in Japan. Couldn’t have been easier. Minutes after purchasing our tickets, we were on the train, heading to Shuri Station. With each stop being announced in advance in both Japanese and English, and the station number clearly noted on the display, knowing when to detrain was easy peasy.

Leaving the station, we ran into Younga and David who were apparently on the same train. We joined forces on the walk to Shuri Castle Park … and ended up sharing the rest of the day with them.

Shuri wasn’t always a district of Naha. At one time, it was the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Shuri Castle was the administrative center and residence of the Ryukyu kings until Okinawa became a Japanese prefecture in 1879.

Originally built in the late 1300s, the castle played an important role in the political unification of the island. It was destroyed by wars and fires many times over … most recently in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945 and in a fire in 2019. The consequences of the latter are still visible today in the form of barriers and walls that hide the ruins from curious eyes while reconstruction work continues . Thus, there wasn’t much to see, which meant that we spent less time at the castle than anticipated.

The on and off rain — from drizzle to downpour — made for a soggy afternoon. But we didn’t let that impede our meandering wander, which eventually led us from the castle to the royal mausoleum of Tama-u-dun, also inscribed on the UNESCO WHS list. It was built in 1501 on the orders of King Sho Shin to re-entomb the remains of his father. Constructed in the style of a royal palace — a stone structure with a wooden roof — it later became a necropolis for the second Sho Dynasty.

The mausoleum consists of three rooms. The east room was the burial chamber for the kings and queens. The west room was for the remaining family members. The center room was where the remains were placed before the bones were washed. Essentially, it was in this room that the body of the dead person was placed in a coffin and left until such time as only the skeleton was left. At that point, the bones were removed from the coffin, washed, and either cremated or re-entombed as is.

Our visit at Tama-u-dun started out in the exhibit hall where we purchased our tickets. I’m glad the attendant encouraged us to go to the exhibit first as it gave us a better understanding of what we would be seeing … or rather, not seeing. You see, one cannot go inside the mausoleum where the funeral urns are housed. Pictures of the urns and a scale model of the tomb helped shed light on everything.

From Tama-u-dun, we followed the very precise directions we received from the woman at the ticket office to get back to the monorail. This time, we walked to Gibo Station, which was slightly closer. The plan was to get off at the Makishi Station, walk to the public market by the same name, wander around a bit, and maybe get some food.

Once we detrained, the market was about a 10-minute walk. After checking out the fish market, we wound up at the food court on the second floor. There were a number of choices for food. Menu boards complete with photos were helpful in understanding what was what. We settled on an eatery recommended by fellow-passengers we ran into. The food, unfortunately, was so-so, but it worked to tide us over.

By the time we were finished with our early dinner, it was 5:00p. We still had to get to the shuttle stop to catch the last bus to the ship at 5:40p. Nonetheless, we took the time to do some shopping first … sashimi-to-go for Younga from the fish market and delicious mini pineapples grown on Okinawa for us. The mangos looked great, but at USD $32 for just two, we abstained.

We arrived at the shuttle stop with 10 minutes to spare. The ride was quick enough. The tour buses had already returned their passengers, so we had no lines to deal with at the terminal. By 6:00p, the gangway was being removed.

Captain Maro got his wish for an early departure. In fact, our lines were cast off around 6:15p, and Insignia left its berth under the heaviest downpour of the day yet. We’ll find out once we are in open seas if we’re going to be rock ’n rolled to sleep tonight.Läs mer