[Leica] [OT] Travel - What to do in Okinawa?

[geordiepete211 at yahoo.co.uk (Peter Cheyne)]

Hi Pasvorn,

now is really hot and humid in Okinawa and not where I would be headed  
in summer.  Still, you can have some fun there.  I guess you'll be  
headed to Naha, so ask about snorkeling off the coast there to the  
Kerama Islands.  They give you buoyancy  aids if you can't swim.  It's  
amazing there.

Okinawan fare is not renowned as the best food in Japan.  However, to  
try a local speciality ask for goya chanpuru.  I love that dish!  Goya  
is bitter gourd, a kind of bitter, knobbly cucumber that also grows in  
India.  It is cooked with pork and tofu.  As for booze, awamori is  
famous in Okinawa.  It's made from rice, but rather than fermented  
like what you know as sake, it is distilled, so it is a spirit.  Some  
special local bottles have a pickled snake inside.

Dine at evenings in recommended izakayas, which are basically places  
to eat and drink, often with local live music played on the sanshin,  
an Okinawan three-stringed traditional guitar-type instrument.

The folks of Okinawa, the former Ryuuku kingdom, are not the same as  
mainland Japanese, historically and ethnically.  They tend to be very  
laid back and warm, and with the U.S. military still (controversially)  
there, you'll usually find someone who can speak some English.

All the best,

Peter