Our final stop in Japan before heading toward Southeast Asia, was Okinawa, the southern most island of Japan. We arrived early in the morning, and quickly cleared immigration and were off the ship by 9 am. The pier is only a short one mile walk to the center of the city, so we opted to see the city on our own. Kokusai Street, the main commercial street in the city is lined with store after store selling souvenirs and the powerful rice brandy, made in Okinawa. The specialty is one particular brandy in which an entire native Okinawa poisonous snake is bottled.

We ducked into an alley off of Kokusai Street, which appeared to be an extension of the same type of stores on the street, but which quickly turned into the local market place, including a large fresh seafood market, a vegetable and produce area, and the local fresh meat market. This market continued in a maze of alleyways, winding around for block after block. For a while, we thought we were lost, until we ended up back on Kokusai Street. The seafood market was amazing, with large abalone, lobsters, conch, and a zillion varieties of fresh fish.

We stopped for a great Japanese lunch, then headed back to the ship for an early departure to Taiwan. Finally, the weather is warming, so when we returned to the ship, we pulled out all of our winter clothes from the closet, stuffed them into suitcases under the bed, and got out all of our summer clothes. Today was our first day sitting out by the pool, and the warm sun felt great. I’m sure by the time we reach Thailand, we’ll be wishing for cooler weather, but today was perfect. More from Taiwan.