#the bus now has a completely drained battery which means I can’t drive him to the mechanic

[malpractice-morale]

you know green thumbs? And how people who are shit with plants have black thumbs? I am that but for cars….

[asterinjapan]

The long and winding road

It’s been a long and winding road today, but oh, the views were so worth it!

Today, I took a bit of a trip further north on the Okinawa main island (I’m staying in Naha, the capital city in the south). Remember what I said yesterday, about not being able to resist visiting castles if they’re nearby? Yeah, so that also goes for castles that are less around the corner than Shuri, haha. Follow me under the link to Nakagusuku!

As it turns out, gusuku refers to castles or fortresses with stone walls on the Ryukyu islands (Okinawa island these days), so no points for guessing what Nakagusuku is. Or rather, was – the only castle currently still standing is the one I visited yesterday, as Shuri castle was reconstructed. Nakagusuku never was, but it’s one of the best preserved ruins, escaping most of the destruction of the Battle of Okinawa in which Shuri burnt down.

Anyway, first I needed to get there! Quite the trip, actually. First of all, I’d slept terribly, waking up every 2 hours for reasons I still can’t explain (I usually just sleep a long time when jetlagged). Although my head is right underneath the window, so maybe it was just outside noise that woke me up, who knows. Anyway, I woke up over breakfast and decided to try out for Nakagusuku anyway. I found a nearby bus stop and took the bus to the nearest bus stop from the Nakagusuku castle ruins – over 2 kilometers away. That doesn’t sound that bad until you learn that it’s all uphill, haha. Luckily, the steepest part was right at the beginning, and the sun was hiding behind the clouds over Nakagusuku today. A faint breeze was picking up, so in the end, the walk wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Regardless, I was pretty thirsty once I made it to the entrance, having nearly emptied my bottle already. I grabbed a matcha latte (which I long for every day back in the Netherlands, haha) and caught my breath here, listening to music from the 60s – from America, pff. Hi there, Elvis songs! There’s actually quite some American presence on Okinawa due to the military base, and lots of aircrafts flew over here too.

 Armed with an extra bottle of water and my camera, I made my way up to the actual entrance. As it turns out, there are golf carts waiting for visitors, and you can hitch a ride to the top of the castle. It’s a dead end, so if you don’t take the cart, you end up walking the premises twice.

The cart ride was only 500 meters, so I didn’t expect to take super long walking the castle grounds, but I was underestimating my own castle fascination there, haha. Almost instantly, my breath was taken away at the top. There were already some marvelous views of the ocean from here, and I was impressed by how well the nearest wall was conserved. I hadn’t seen nothing yet at that point!

Via the main gate, you end up at the south enclosure with holy ground, containing several places of worship that are now partly reclaimed by nature. Moss covers the walls still standing, and with the grey clouds straight overhead and the occasional crow, I was getting Halloween vibes a little early, haha. But the sun was shining elsewhere, making for some spectacular ocean views in between the walls.

I’m actually not sure what I liked best; exploring the huge expanse of the castle or the gorgeous views. I had gotten caught behind a tour group, but they all but rushed through the next enclosures, which was incomprehensible, because who skips over a panoramic view of the ocean? Yeah, not me, that’s for sure. I stuck around for a good while, draining my first camera battery (luckily I always carry two) and just loving the sights here.

Nakagusuku is 160 meters above sea level and looks out over Nakagusuku Bay into the Pacific Ocean and the East China sea, with peninsulas in between. The first constructions of this castle took place in the late 14th century, and by the 1440s, the lord Gosamaru arrived and completed the castle into the six enclosures it still has today. Gosamaru was a war lord and castle builder, also responsible for Zakimi castle, and was supposed to defend the area from the lord Amawari from nearby Katsuren Castle. Alas, in 1458 Amawari overthrew him as yet, and my leaflet mentions 1458 as the year of death for Gosamaru. His tomb sits nearby.

As another fun aside, from the castle site, you can spot the ruins of what was once supposed to be a hotel back in the 1970s. Monks warned that they were constructing it on top of graves and sacred sites, but the builders didn’t listen. Until of course, so many accidents occurred that the construction workers refused to continue. And now those ruins just sit there, lurking in a corner when watching out from Nakagusuku castle…

 Told you I got a spooky feeling here, haha. Luckily it was still broad daylight, and I braved my fear of heights to climb the walls for the best views, be it with shivering legs. (It was allowed, by the way – not that that was easy to tell since there was almost no-one else here, but they had plates up where you were not supposed to climb.) This castle was also special for its well within castle walls, meaning water supplies, but I didn’t go down there as the road was slippery enough without rain and there were warning signs for snakes, so uhm, no thank you.

It really took quite a while, but after about 2 hours, I made it off the castle grounds and had indeed found my way back to the entrance.

I had a bite here and decided that it was only a little past one in the afternoon, so plenty of time to visit something else today. I opted for the Nakamura house nearby, which meant continuing on the road up that I’d already walked for 2 kilometers… Thankfully it is one long road, so it’s almost impossible to get lost, and signage is really good here.

(Which randomly reminds me, but Shuri castle was very good with that too, plus it was super accessible. It might be the only castle I’ve seen so far that was pretty much entirely wheelchair friendly, which is a bit of a sad truth, but it’s good to see they can do it. That as a complete aside.)

 So, Nakamura house! The history of that house actually ties to Nakagusuku castle, as the Nakamura ancestor Gashi served as teacher to lord Gosamaru above. With the downfall of the castle and its lord, the Nakamura family also suffered, but in the 1720s, tides turned and one of the members was asked to serve as a village headman here. It was around this time when the house was first constructed. Miraculously, it has survived until the present day, so it’s not a reconstruction! It survived the Battle of Okinawa, and the Fuguki trees shield it from typhoons.

As a house, it’s pretty big, as it belonged to an upper class farmer and thus even has a pig pen. As a tourist attraction, it’s pretty small, haha. But there’s an office attached which also serves as a souvenir shop, and a place to have some tea with traditional snacks, so that’s very nice! I ended up buying a strap with two shisaa, those lion-dogs I mentioned yesterday. They’re everywhere here in Okinawa, so I’m taking them with me, haha. They’re here too; one of them is on top of the roof, actually. It should drive away unwanted visitors.

Walking the premise, you’re allowed to enter all places (just take your shoes off inside) and they put up QR codes for extra information. And this time it was actually useful, since there’s Wi-fi here and I thus didn’t have to use up precious data to get the extra info. It’s in multiple languages, so that’s very helpful if you can’t read Japanese or are lazy like me and just want to quickly read the info, ssh.

Regardless, it was a shorter visit than to Nakagusuku, if only due to the sheer difference in size. The house also has a koi pond, which is nice, but it also attracts bugs, which is less nice. Luckily I brought my Japanese bug bite cream with me, because last time I tried, Dutch spray did exactly nothing against the itching. The cream still works though!

Be that as it may, it was around 2:30 now and I still had quite a stroll to go, so I left and traced back the long and winding road. Apparently there should be a bus stop a little closer to Nakamura house, but a) the nearest stop was further away from my hotel and b) I had yet to find it. So I just chose the one I knew for sure and waited for a bit for my bus.

Really, these buses here are so empty, I’m going to get spoiled before I move on to the mainland and get stuffed into trains again, haha. At least the trains are more punctual, I guess that’s the trade-off.

 Back at the hotel, I picked up a sweet potato tart since they’ve been advertising that with a very catchy song, and I must say it was quite a delicious snack. Finally, it was dinner time. I found a small establishment which served some Okinawan dishes – I meant to go for taco rice, but I saw they also served a dish with Okinawan fish, so I went with that instead. I just – don’t know what fish it was, but it sure was delicious!

 And now I’m back in my hotel room. I have several options for tomorrow, but to be honest, I have too many ideas for Okinawa to fit into this one week, so I’ll have to make some choices, hm. No more castles for now though! I mean, I could, but I want to get a slightly more nuanced idea of Okinawa, haha.

So that’s it for today, pictures will be up soon and see you tomorrow!

Apologies for the length, castles make me wordy…