7/14/08 Beachin' It in Miyagi's Oku Village

I ate my onigiri and wondered if it might have been a hold over from lunch with the Spam and eggs stuffed in it, but it didn’t matter.  It was delicious and it was the last real food item at the little market in Oku Village and it tasted good to me as I ate it on the walk to the beach. I'm on this adventure without my camera and traveling lightly for about the first time since I arrived.  No pack, camera, passport, nothing.  I'll have to depend on my memories of this jaunt and I know my memory will not fail me this time.

 

The family traveling from Sweden and Germany are a really wonderful and close family of loving people.  They are kind and generous and love adventure and they happily tell me about the wonderful snorkeling on the beautiful beaches near Miyagi.  They are as fit as can be and have walked all over this region, having traveled here with no car.  Even back in Sweden and Germany, they don’t own cars and do their commutes via bicycle.  I love talking to each one of this party as they are warm and funny and intelligent and inquisitive and their love spills out freely.  They have had a fabulous time at the beaches and report all kinds of beautiful fish and corals.

 

I decide to take off, eating my Spam and egg onigiri as I go, to see about finding a beach for myself.  I don’t have a beach towel.  In fact, Miyagi doesn’t provide towels, so I’ve been using my handy camp towel from The Container Store when I bathe and it is doing triple duty these days.  I have my bathing suit on and wrap my pareo around and take off from the directions my new friends have given me.  I turn right on the little road right outside Miyagi and head down to what looks like a construction site where there is a bunch of big machinery moving those giant jack like concrete objects around.  We have speculated that this might be for some typhoon damage control project.  Since I’m on my own, I opt not to go to the little beach adjacent to the construction site and follow the directions to go up and around the hill mountain.  I can look down to see breathtaking private coves and beaches, but there is not way to them unless you can rappel down a forested cliff.  Finally, I spot my friends’ party in the water and on the beach and still see no access until I walk on and see a parking lot.  I parked in the deserted lot, noting the stealy boy signs, but no stealy boys in sight, and found a little path to the beach.  My friends must have hiked down the beach and around some coral to their beach, but I decide to walk out and wade in right away.  I know the water can be warm, but this was surprisingly warm, with no surf at all.  It felt so great to splash around and float in the water with not a soul in sight.  I got out of the water, finally, and spread my pareo out on the sand to stretch out and dry off before I walked back to Miyagi, not seeing another soul as I went. 

 

The afternoon of leisure, without ever leaving Miyagi’s Oku Village, was perfect and timely.  Back at the minshuku, I turned on my A/C and relaxed on the grounds until it was time to get cleaned up and ready for dinner.

 

Masa and Naomi had prepared a feast for us tonight and served it Smorgasbord or buffet style.  The wide noodles (Okinawa ONLY says Masa) were delicious and there was a beautiful shrimp dish that Masa told me I could eat with our without the shells. 

I peeled mine.  There were delicious, spicy sausages and fu champaru and stir fry peppers and a dish with greens and delicious Okinawa pineapple.  We were 

talking and visiting after we had all eaten until we couldn’t and Masa got up from the table and brought back a handful of shells and put them down by a pineapple rind on the table.  These turned out to be the largest hermit crabs I’d ever seen and he told us they love pineapple and would come out for it.  We all watched, spellbound, as the first of the shy creatures ventured out of its shell. 

Before long, the crabs were walking around all over the table and we were all joyfully snapping photos of them in the waning light.  Apparently, these are around on the ground among the rocks and coral and I had never even noticed them.  Masa had just gotten up from the table and picked them up because he knew how to look for them. 

There are many visitors who come to this table, all delightful and interesting and with stories and lives to share.

 The breakfasts and dinners here are always delicious and beautiful and lovingly presented and full of locally grown and caught foods.  Masa san, exceedingly proud of where he is fortunate enough to be, points out without hesitation the number one

Okinawa only foods and we are happy to know this information, but happier to hear him when he talks about his place and to watch his face come alive with pride and light, as he is most assuredly telling God’s honest truth