Weekend Camping on the Kerama Islands

I had so much fun this past weekend! Once again, the best weekend yet! On Friday night, we got off work and immediately packed our back packs and got on the green line at 7:20. The green line is a bus system that goes from base to base as free transportation. It's very helpful except there are no military bases near the two big cities of Nago and Naha, which sucks because that is usually where we always want to go. We got on the green line, and headed south to Kinser Marine Base. Then we had some random skater boys call us a cab, because we didn't know what we were doing. The cab arrived at this nearby gas station in about 5 mins, so props to those boys for helping us out! We got in the cab, and told the driver we were headed to the Shell House hostel in Naha. Kinser Base is right outside Naha, but no matter where you are going in Okinawa it takes forever because the roads are so busy and the speed limit is 30 basically everywhere. And, on the expressway.. which is like an interstate in the states.. it's about 45 mph. Which is so slow compared to back home! Once we got to Naha, our cab driver didn't know where to go. Since he hardly spoke any English, I just called the hostel number on my phone and gave my phone to the cab driver. After he talked to the hostel owner, he knew exactly where to go! When we got there.... it was a little different than we expected. I guess us girls just didn't know what a hostel was. The beds were hardly made.. and it was just a giant room of bunk beds. It did have a full bathroom though, which was a plus! We rented the hostel for 8 people, and there was only 4 of us there so we knew that others wouldn't be sleeping in the main room.. but later on that night a Japanese couple did walk in and sleep on one of the bunks. Awkward! After we got to the hostel we quickly changed in like 10 mins, and headed back downstairs. We started walking down the streets of Naha, hoping to find Kokusai street. Which is the most popular street in Naha full of shops, restaurants, clubs, and bars! We couldn't find it by ourselves, so I waved a cab down and he took us right there. When we got there we were in shock. It was amazing! So lit up and packed with tons of people! Exactly what I expected when I thought of Japan. We immediately started walking around going into every shop and just looking around. It was about 8pm by this time, and we were all hungry so we stopped at this Japanese Pub and ordered food. I ordered a Margarita pizza.. which was soo delicious! Afterwards, we walked around some more, and I had a random Japanese street artist draw me. It was straight up cartoon-style paintings from Adventureland. So awesome for only 500 yen. 


Afterwards we wanted to find somewhere to go dancing and hang out. We came upon this club and the bouncers let us in since we were American. :) We danced a little and met some new friends. One of the marines we met happened to be from Council Bluffs, Iowa. How crazy! We hadn't met anyone from Iowa yet, so that was really cool. After that, we took a cab and headed back to the hostel for the night. I had a little conversation with the cab driver using the very little Japanese i know. My favorite thing to say is "Hai, Hai, Hai," which is pronounced "Hi" in English. It means Yes in Japanese hahaha. It was pretty late, and we had an early day the next day. When we got home we called home and talked to friends and family since the hostel had wifi. Me & Breanna cuddled up on one of the bottom bunks, and Shelby & Kenzie cuddled up on the one across from us. We were all scared to sleep in our own beds because it was so sketchy. 

The next day, we woke up around 7.. and got all packed and ready to get on the ferry. We wanted to catch the 9am ferry.. but that definitely didn't happen. Our ride, Justin.. who would also be joining us for the weekend had trouble finding the hostel.. so he also had to talk to the hostel owner and get directions. Luckily this japanese guy knew English otherwise we would've missed the 10am ferry also! When we got to the ferry port we dropped off Kenzie & Breanna so they could go buy tickets and Justin, Shelby, and I drove around trying to find a spot to park the car. Which took FOREVER. It was awful. We were all starting to panic because we didn't think that we were going to be able to find parking and the 3,500 yen round trips tickets that we had bought would go to waste. We finally found a spot after we sweet talked the parking garage guy. Don't know what exactly we said to him, but it worked! With 20 mins left before the ferry left.. Shelby, Justin, and I carried a ton of stuff to the ferry. Justin was carrying basically a 50 pound cooler, and I was carrying a 50 pound tent. And it was SO HOT. I was basically dying of heat. Once we got on the ferry we headed up to the third floor deck of the boat and once the boat started moving it was so breezy, and felt amazing! It was about a 70 min boat ride, and I took some Dramamine because I started to feel sea sick. The waves were pretty big and the boat was rocking a lot from the wind. 


Once we got there, we asked around a bit and found the shuttle that took us to the camp ground. We kinda just went with it.. not knowing where exactly it would take us. We arrived at this campsite. It was 800 yen to camp out, which was pretty cheap and it was super close by the beach so we were pumped! We found a shady spot for the tent and then immediately headed down to the beach because it was so hot. Walking down to the beach we were all freaking out at the view. The water was so blue it was unreal. Looked like a postcard.. literally. And the beach was such soft sand it felt like flour. Which kinda sucked at times cause it always stuck to your skin. But, it was absolutely beautiful. Prettiest place we've been yet! We immediately jumped in the water and went about 30 yards into the water and saw some awesome fish! Then, we went a little farther and were now swimming through schools of fish that were bigger than my hand. It was so awesome I was lovin' it! They were so close I could reach my hand down and touch them. After that we hung out on the beach a bit more, and Breanna & Shelby booked a yellow submarine ride for 1:30. We walked around and explored a bit, then got on a bus to go to the Tokashiki Island marina where we got on the yellow submarine. It was pretty cool.. except that I slept through the entire ride.. 45 mins long. and 45$ worth to ride it. Yup, stupid dramamine knocked me out. After that, we went back to the beach and layed out and got superrrrr tan! Hah. That night, we went to dinner at Octopus Grill. It was interesting .. I ordered a caesar salad and a weird pizza. .. it was pretty good though! Then we celebrated Kenzie's birthday (Which was the next day on Sunday.) Nearby someone was setting off small fireworks so that was fun! The stars on this island were so amazing. Triple the amount of stars you could see back home! No joke.. it was so legit. We decided to move the tent down to the beach because saw a huge banana spider on the tent and it freaked us all out. Instead of taking the tent apart we just decided to pick the tent up with everything inside it.. and carry it awhile ways down to the beach. HAHAHA. It was so hilarious.. one of the funniest things ever.. I couldn't stop laughing the entire time we were carrying it. Once we got down to the beach we got it all set up, and then just relaxed on the beach. We ended up falling asleep on the beach... and when I woke up I went inside the tent. Shelby & Breanna were still outside and I woke up to Shelby saying she had gotten bitten by something outside the tent.. so I went out to check on Breanna who was still passed out on the beach by herself! So funny. I woke her up so she could move inside.. but then I couldn't fall back asleep it was dumb. I hardly slept that night.. but I finally did.. when...

I was woken up by raindrops hitting my face inside the tent! AWESOME. I woke everyone up cause I was freaking out apparently because I didn't want our stuff to get soaked. Justin ran up and just grabbed the rain tent while all us girls freaked out and grabbed all our stuff. He put the rain cover on and we were just waiting wondering where he went.... after about 20 mins we went back to the tent and he was already passed out HAHA. And by that time it had stopped raining lol! Yay. After that none of us could really go back to sleep. We all woke up at 7 and headed out to the beach. I jumped in the water cause I was covered in sand all over! Yuck! I basically slept in a pile of sand cause we didn't have blankets or pillows in the tent! We just hung out on the beach all day and snorkeled and explored the island and walked around checking out the scenery. Shelby, Justin, and I snorkeled through a cave it was so awesome! Then later on we all went and found this pier that overlooked everything it was beautiful. The beach and ocean looked so pretty from up there. We got on the ferry at 4pm.. and it was a quick ride back because I fell asleep for most of it haha. I always fall asleep darn it! Then Justin took us home and dropped us off at our barracks. It was a super fun weekend, and I would definitely want to go back if it wasn't so expensive! It's crazy there are only 4 weekends left in Okinawa! We definitely gotta make it count, cause there is so much left that I still want to do while I'm here.