Naha

After working straight through the past two weekends, I forced myself to get out this weekend and do something. I went to Naha, at the southern most part of the island, and saw a couple of sights that I had been meaning to get to.

The first place I tried to get to, after dropping someone off at the airport, was Shurijo Castle. Of course, nothing can ever be so easy as to just drive to the destination, so I spent a better part of the morning circling the city looking for my intended destination. One thing I learned about Naha is that as soon as you get off the main highway, the roads become one lane and a jumble of twists and turns.

After repeatedly consulting my free map, which didn't have road names, only pictures of stoplights and the local tourist destinations, I eventually found what I was looking for. The castle itself was a representation of what it used to look like, but the real one has long since been destroyed. There were still a few walls and gates left from a while back, but the majority of it was newly constructed. It was still interesting to compare and contrast the castle to other castles I have seen. What did I learn? It looked more like Chinese castles than German ones. Funny how that works.

I walked around the castle for about an hour and a half before I decided to make my way to Kokusai Street (I think that may translate to Foreigner Street, but I can't be sure). This time around, I stopped at an information booth and got another free map, this time with directions explained to me and a highlighter in full force. The street was easier to find than the castle.

Parking was a different story. Of course, always the cheap skate, I thought that I might be able to find off street parking somewhere. I didn't, of course, and while I was looking, I ended up getting rear-ended by a Japanese driver. It wasn't all that hard, but I definitely didn't see it coming. It was like getting smoked full speed in a bumper car. My bumper was a little scratched up, but my door handle cracked into a few pieces. Seemingly the energy from the crash made it's way to the door handle. It sounds strange, but it happened.

I didn't want to get the police involved. My car was only $800 to begin with, so a few more scratches wouldn't hurt it. I've said it before and I'll say it again, ugly (and cheap) but reliable vehicles are the way to go. Cheap insurance, no car payments, and no worries. In fact, the other guy's insurance company called today to ask about the damage. I told that that I wasn't worried about it; save their money. I think the insurance agent was pretty surprised. I'm trying to bank some kharma, forget the cash.

At any rate, the other driver of the other vehicle called the police, but I had to wait for a translator to come. The whole ordeal took about 3 hours. Not an ideal way to spend a Saturday afternoon, but it could have been worse. After that I went to Kokusai street and wandered around for a couple of hours. There are a lot of crazy "back alleys" which are covered by plastic/glass to keep out the weather. It was strange because there were still apartments on the second floor. It was like one of those fake town at Disney.

In the evening, I slogged my way through traffic once more and showed up an hour late to a birthday party. Since I was driving, I didn't have anything to drink, hence no karaoke for me.

Sunday I spent the whole day finishing the last 400 pages of "I Know This Much Is True" by Wally Lamb. It was an excellent book. I highly recommend it to anyone. I couldn't tear myself away from it. Read it. Trust me.