Minnajima

Ok, Ok this is the island I didn`t show yesterday! After watching the sunset last night we had dinner with a friend of a friend (Jenko-San) who owned a small beach cafe and Mika-San who had been working for her all summer. Mika had been fishing that morning and our dinner was fresh sashimi, rice balls and goya (Okinawan vegetable) pizza followed by fresh Okinawan pineapple. All washed down with a few beers it was really nice to sit out and enjoy good food and perfect our charades conversational skills. They asked what Andy did for a living, you try miming Environmental Consultant..

When we woke up in the morning it was so hot there was nothing to do but go swimming in the sea. The coral reef comes in really close to the island and swimming out we could see hundreds of fish of all shapes and sizes. It was amazing to see up close what we had seen at Okinawa Aquarium just a few days earlier. Andy came bolting out of the water after seeing a sea snake, there are posters all around the island identifying highly poisonous sea creatures and giving first aid tips. If my memory serves me right the sea snake was only second to the blue ringed octopus.

Catching the last ferry of the day from Minnajima we headed back to mainland Okinawa to be met by Jenko-San`s daughter. Our Japanese friend from home, Chiyo, had done a great job at organising accommodation for us. Again our hosts didn`t speak any English and the thing with Japanese is you can`t look it up in the dictionary easily. We stayed the night at a small guest house over looking jungle. Brilliant!