After almost getting crazy in Tokyo, after choking, after really feeling like a fish out of the water, after a violent cultural shock , after the beginnings of a burnout trip , I really needed to fresh air. I needed to escape the winter, to discover a place of Japan more relaxed and especially to live a very old dream. Head to Okinawa Island, some 2,000 kilometers south of Tokyo, to discover a completely different world. I was told that Okinawa was South America from Japan. It was exactly what I was looking for, although I might not go that far.
Okinawa is actually the southernmost prefecture of Japan. It includes three archipelagos, Okinawa-Honto, Miyako and Ishigaki, the latter being 110 km from the coast of Taiwan. By distance, climate and history, Okinawa is a world apart and far from Japan that we know. It is only since the end of the 19th century that Okinawa is part of Japan and even if many historical testimonies disappeared during the Second World War, language, gastronomy and culture are good clues of what was Okinawa. Even today, it is a world apart and the archipelagos themselves are distinct from each other. We have the strange feeling of being in a sort of strange mixture between cultures of the Pacific islands, China and Japan. And this clever mix seems to work perfectly!
