Ie Jima, Okinawa

August 8, 2015 - Okinawa Day 3

Happy 27th Birthday to ME!! So this morning I turned 27, officially. 27 sounds like a horrible, old age to be but I'm thankful God even let me see it and also the fact that for the past few years I've been able to spend my birthday in a different place from the last. So even though I have no idea what this year will have in store for me, bring it!!!

Like we decided yesterday, we would get up early and catch the first ferry out to Ie Jima. On my sister's suggestion and Junya's help, we had a reservation to bring our rental car out to the island. I read that the island can be traveled on foot or by bike but with this summer's heat and limited time, a car worked out to be the best option.

When we first got to the island we headed to Mount Gusuku. From Okinawa Honto Island, you can see the mountain stick out from the near center of Ie. Catherine had said she wanted to include physical adventures in our trip too so I figured this easy hike would be nice. The mountain was about 172 meters and allowed you to see a 360 view of the island. The hike was actually really easy and just stairs all the way up. The funniest part was seeing Andrews go up the stairs. There was plants and trees all around us, naturally, and along with plants were these huge spiders! My brother hates spiders! He was walking like a scared kitty, holding his head and squeeling at everything! It was pretty frightening but the site of Andrews was too funny it had distracted me from any of the creatures near us.

Once we got to the top, the view was awesome! You really could see the whole island! From the looks of it, Ie only had a few places tourist could actually go, but most of the land was farm land. We stayed up there for a while, taking photos and just taking in the views of a high place.

Afterwards, we hopped back into the car and headed to the next place on the map. Christina wanted to see the hibiscus garden so we went that way. The garden was pretty big but the flowers were not in full bloom. After a quick look around, we drove off to check out the Wajee View Point.

Luckily the island is really small so driving to one place or another took no more than twenty minutes. I was excited to see the view point because the pictures had looked awesome. When we got there I was not disappointed. The view was beautiful! The water was so blue and I could only imagine what life lived under the surface of the water. We all gazed at the view and took some photos while we were at it. Around this time we were dying from heat and needed a pick up. Luckily for us, there was a snack stand right next to the view point! There, we all got kakigori which is shaved ice and even took a photo with the man who served us. A great refreshing snack indeed!

After the beautiful view, we headed south of the island to check out Niya-thiya Cave. I read in the brochure that in this cave there is a rock thats said if you can lift it you will have a baby within a year. We were joking with Catherine that she should try and lift it since she would be the closest one to have a baby. Also on the brochure it stated that during WWII, this cave was used as a bomb shelter housing 1000 islanders. When we got there the cave was neat. It was hard to believe a thousand people used it as a bomb shelter! I could only imagine.

We still had some time left before the last ferry time at 4pm so we really wanted to try swimming in the ocean. We were on a mission to find an opening that was swimmable! After searching the map, we found an entrance. Sadly to our disappointment, the woman I spoke to said that the water conditions were too dangerous today to swim because of the hovering typhoon. My heart broke a little when she said that. I really wanted to swim in the beautiful blue waters but I couldn't risk my life just because I was being selfish. So instead of swimming in the water, we just enjoyed it from the shore. For the hour we had left until the ferry departure, me and my sisters hung out in our bikinis near the water taking silly pictures and looking out into the blue abyss.

When 4 o'clock rolled around, we all headed back to the ferry to go back to Honto Island. I really did enjoy Ie Jima and was super thankful to God for not letting it rain. The weather was actually really perfect for being out. The island would of been perfection if we could of swam but I guess we can't have it all!

On our last night for dinner we went back to the first food place we went on the first night. We figured it was close by and we liked the food so why not. We ordered all the things before but I wanted to try something different. Goya Champlun (my spelling could be off) is a common dish in Okinawa. The main vegetable is bitter melon. The first thing I think of when I see bitter melon is my grandpa. He use to love that vegetable and he use to grow it in the backyard of the house I use to live in. I never really liked it because it was bitter but I hadn't ate it in a long time and I wanted to try something different so I gave it a shot. It honestly wasn't that bad but the portion was too big for me and no one wanted to help me eat it!!! Anyways, beer and food was always good and even though I didn't do anything crazy or daring on my birthday, I accomplished my birthday goal of being somewhere new. If you don't remember last year was on Mt. Fuji for my 26th birthday and now I can say I celebrated 27 in Okinawa on Ie Jima! So God is good and I'm thankful I had this last year to live and experience life.

Big thank you to my brother and sisters who help me celebrate the day as well as Josh. Also a big thank you to all those who sent messages, Facebook posts, and texts from home. You guys are the best! So cheers to another birthday for the books. Let's see what life gives me in 27!!



xx
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