Okinawa, Day 1, Tokashiki/沖繩、一日目、渡嘉敷

木曜日から気分が悪くて、風邪をひいたみたい。そのお陰で、ブログを書く時間が十分有るけど、、、

病気は面倒臭いなぁ。風邪ひいてお正月を過ごしたくなかったのに。

I've been sick since Thursday, and while it seems like I'm on the mend, I still don't feel so good.  As a result, I've got plenty of time to write, so that's nice I guess, but I'm missing out on all of the New Year's 4-day weekend fun, so I'm not actually grateful.  At all.  Colds suck.

一昨日のポストでは花蓮の旅の事を書いたけど、花蓮を出てから、今回は沖縄（本島）に行って来た。五泊で、遊べる日は四日有った。フェースブックにもうこの写真を殆ど載せたけど、こっちではもうちょっと説明したいと思うので、既に見た人でもこのポストを読む価値は有るよ！読んで下さい！

I wrote on Friday about going to Hualian.  Right after that trip I and one friend of mine went to Okinawa.  We stayed in Naha for five nights, and we had four days to run around and do stuff.  The weather was really super nice on the first day, and the weather report was telling us it might rain later, so we decided to go to Tokashiki Island on the first day.  (Originally, I had thought of doing a day trip to Kume Island, but one of the guys at the hostel told me that that was kind of unrealistic, so I changed the trip to Tokashiki, which is much closer to the main island of Okinawa.)  Those of you who know me on the Facebook have already seen many of the photos in this post, but there will be a lot more historic, folkloric, and otherwise mentally stimulating background information in this blog post, so don't close your browser window quite yet!

旅行の一日目は凄く綺麗に晴れた。天気予報を見てみたら、後の日はもしかして天気が崩れると分かって、一日目に渡嘉敷に行く事にした。元々久米島の日帰りしようと思ったけど、宿の人にそれはちょっと無理が有ると教えて貰ったから、代わりに渡嘉敷にした。

渡嘉敷は沖縄本島の南部より西に浮かんでいる「慶良間諸島」（けらま／きらま）の一つの島だ。

ぎりぎり渡嘉敷への船に間に合った。と言うか、間に合わなかったけど、冬はオッフシーズンだから、わざわざ船を止めて、乗せて貰った。本当に船が出発しそうで船員はもう客を船に乗せる橋をなおし始めたところで俺達は着いて来た。ご免ね、共に旅をしている皆さん！
We just about missed the boat to the island.  They had already started folding up the bridge they use to get people on the boat when we showed up, still without tickets mind you.  However, I immediately took out my mini-American flag that I carry with me at all times and waved it around while demanding special treatment as a citizen of AMERIKUH, OOH-RAH!
...Well, actually, I think because winter is off-season, they didn't mind holding up the boat for five minutes while they sold us tickets and set up the boarding bridge again.

船から見た那覇市の泊港。
Naha's port, Tomari.

太陽のせいか、カメラは凄い事をして呉れた。これはパソコンで一切編集していないよ！
The sun caught my camera off-guard and I got this awesome photo as a result.  Speaking from a technical standpoint, I think my FP was too shutter-speeded based on the lens fracking quotient.  I know a lot about cameras, you see.

沖縄に米軍が多いとよく知られているけど、日本自衛隊もしょっちゅう見掛ける。特に最近の尖閣諸島の問題など有るから、多分沖縄辺りの海での巡回が多く成っている。
We saw this Japanese Coast Guard boat on the way to the island.  This boat is part of Japan's (totally not a) military force, which is constitutionally not allowed to exist unless the legislature really wants it.  The coast guard has a lot of bases on the Okinawan islands, and they've stepped up patrols recently ever since China started causing problems over the Senkaku Islands.

ちょっと虹が見えるとね！
The spray from the boat caused a rainbow.

渡嘉敷に着いた。元々レンターサイクルをしようかと思ったけど、坂道が非常に多くて、走るのがきついから辞めた方がいいと教えて貰った。（後でそれがよく分かった。自転車で渡嘉敷を回るのは本格的にサイクリングしたい人以外にはあまり勧められない。）又、台湾の花蓮でバイクでずっと回ったから、それでもいいと思ったけど、残念ながら日本は交通規制に対して台湾程ルースじゃない。友達は日本人で、５０ccが乗れる。でも５０ccは二人乗りしてはいけない。結局軽自動車を借りるしか無かった。（花蓮では免許の事一切聞かれずに借りれたのに。）
When we got to Tokashiki, we originally thought we would save some money and rent bicycles, but the rental guy told us that we were better off not doing that. It turns out he wasn't just trying to increase his profits, the island really is quite hilly, and unless you show up and intend to do some serious exercise, I can't really recommend renting a bicycle on Tokashiki.  We also thought about renting a scooter like we did in Hualian, but the enforcement of traffic rules is a lot stricter in Japan, so we were unable to rent a scooter.  (Well, my friend could have rented a 50cc since she has a Japanese driver's license for cars, but 2 people aren't allowed to ride on a 50cc scooter.)  We ended up going with a "Kei" car (a light car with a lawn mower engine in it).

最初にこの丘の頂上に来た。景色が綺麗だけど、俺の隣りに（この写真で見えないけど）戦争の時に亡くなった人の慰霊碑が建っている。渡嘉敷などの慶良間列島は那覇の直ぐ西方に有るせいで、米軍が沖縄本島に侵入する前に、慶良間列島を襲って占領した。その時に、米軍に殺された人も勿論沢山居たけど、後で本島でも見られた「強制集団死」も有った。（一般に「集団自決」と呼ばれているけど、この言葉の「自決」には問題が有るから、俺は使わない。）
沖縄の戦争に関する慰霊碑などは頻繁にこんなところに有る。慰霊碑の寂しさと景色の綺麗さの矛盾をいつも感じる。
The first place we went was this cliff overlooking the harbor we had just come in.  The view is absolutely stunning, but it's kind of sad at the same time.  Right next to me when I was taking these photos was a memorial to the people who had died during the invasion of the Kerama islands by the US military in WWII.  In order to take the main island, the US had to first secure the Kerama islands since they lie just off to the west.  Not only did a lot of people die from US bullets, but there were also a lot of civilian mass murder/suicides, the same kind that would be later seen on the main island.  In some cases, these may have been actual suicides, but there is a lot of evidence that the Japanese military actively pushed people to kill themselves, and there are plenty of reports of the military killing its own civilians.  It's a little chilling to look out over this beautiful view of the sea and to think that things like that happened here only about 70 years ago.

上の一枚と下の四枚は次に行った場所だ。展望台が有ると聞いて、行ってみたけど、展望台は思った、人工的な物じゃなくて、単に高い所だけだった。ここからちょっと周辺の島々が見える。
The next place we went is in the photo above and the 4 below.  We were told that there was a lookout tower, but it turned out that there was no tower.  However, the view was very nice.

ここで偶々カップルに出会って、話してみたら、何と波照間島に住んでいると言う事だった！俺はちょうど今年の三月に行ったばかりだから、ちょっと吃驚した。よく一個の小島からもう一個の小島まで来たなぁ。
While here at the lookout (no)tower, we ran into a couple on vacation.  It turned out that they were from Hateruma Island, one of the islands I visited last March.

運転中、車を一回止めて、この上の一枚と下の一枚を撮った。慶良間列島は海の透明さが有名らしい。夏に成るとスキューバをしに来る観光客が多く成る。
また、これは目撃していないけど、ウィキーによると、慶良間鹿は時々海を泳いで島から島へ渡るらしい。凄くない！？
We stopped while driving and I got these two photos (above and below) of the sea in between Tokashiki (which is the easternmost of the Kerama islands) and the other nearby islands.  The sea here is famous for being exceptionally clear and good for diving.  I also read on Wikipedia that sometimes the Kerama Deer (a subspecies of the Japanese Deer, found only on these islands) swims from one island to another!  It's reportedly not a very good swimmer though.

ここで食事した。猫だらけだった。
We got lunch at a cat-infested restaurant.

シャワーするのか？！まさかそういう事有ったからこの看板を置いたかな？

店のおばあちゃんは頑張って猫を追い払おうとしたけど、一匹を玄関から出したら、二匹が裏から入って来るって感じだった。俺達にも蠅叩きを渡して、「猫が来たらこれを使って追い払って」とお願いした。ウケる。
There was one old lady running the place by herself, and she was trying her best to chase out the cats, but it seemed like every time she would chase one out the front door, another two would come in the back.  She gave us a flyswatter and asked us to chase off the cats with it if they bothered us.

わいのんびりしよるたい！ほら！ここは居ってはならんばい！

店に侵入する準備をしている猫達。
Here's the cat reserve army, waiting across the street to invade the restaurant as soon as an opening is spotted.

Damn cats!

食事をしてから、近くに有るビーチに行ってきた。

After lunch we went to a nearby beach.

めっちゃ小さなヤドガリ。
This is a tiny hermit crab.

この岩からあっちこっちから蒲公英は生えていた。

人間の進化みたいな絵に成っている。烏が一羽、猫二匹、そして一番前の方に人間二人がちょうど列に成って座っている。実は、二人は展望台の所で出会った二人だ。
I thought this scene was kind of funny.  (I just wish I could have gotten closer before it broke up.)  It looks like the famous "Evolution of Man" picture, except with a crow, two cats, and two people all sitting in a line.  The two people are actually the couple we met earlier in the day.

The last place we went (starting with the photo below) was the southern point of the island.

最後に島の南端に行ってみた。ここもやっぱり景色が凄い。

英語を読んだら、ハブがめちゃくちゃ多いって感じがするけど、日本語を読んだら、まあ、時々居るから注意ねって感じだ。
The "Habu" (spelled "Hub" here, which is non-standard, but makes sense pronunciation-wise) is a poisonous snake that lives on most of the Ryukyu islands.  The English version of the sign sounds quite dire, but the Japanese is a little less so.

これもヤドガリ。さっきのやつより大きいのに、臆病者で一回家に籠ったらなかなか出て来て呉れなかった。
This is also a hermit crab.  Unfortunately, he didn't want to come out after hiding in his shell from us.

道教の陰陽シンボルが見える。
This scene here reminded me of the Taoist Yin Yang symbol.

亀の頭？
Turtle head!

沖縄の離島旅は本当に好きだ。三月、石垣島に行った時の思い出の中に、やっぱり波照間島や竹富島などの小島は一番印象に残っている。晴天の日に当たったら、離島は他の場所で絶対見れない風景を見せて呉れる。
今回、二日目の沖縄本島南部のぐすくの旅の話をする！
Going to Tokashiki reminded me of my trip to Ishigaki back in March.  The small islands in Okinawa really are the most beautiful.  Because they're inconvenient to live on, they aren't very built up compared to the main island of Okinawa, or even some of the other larger islands like Ishigaki.
Up next: Day two, where we traveled around the southern part of Okinawa and visited lots of Gusuku!