Traveling to all 47 prefectures of Japan, vlogging every day I'm out, this is Odigo47
Hey guys, so as the last prefecture on our quest to cover EVERY prefecture of Japan, we got to spend it in the beautiful Okinawa islands.
It is the most southern prefecture in Japan with a population a lil over 1million people.
It is apart of a chain of sub-tropical islands known as nansei shoto.
The prefecture can be split into 3 main island groups:
The Okinawa Islands, Miyako Islands and Yaeyama Islands
which are all apart of Okinawa Prefecture.
They were previously controlled by the Chinese influenced Ryukyu Kingdom
until the end of the 19 century when Japan eventually took control of them.
The island chain is still known as the Ryukyu Islands
with many of the kingdom's traditions still seen in modern day that differ greatly from the rest of Japan
which can be seen later in this video.
We got to explore the prefecture with 5 awesome YouTubers
including Kasia from the Uwaga Pies Channel
Rachel from Rachel & Jun
Jun the master chef from Rachel and Jun
Chris Broad from the Abroad in Japan channel
Kim, our beauty guru from the channel Kim Dao
and me, from the OkanoTV YouTube channel.
Welcome to Okinawa!!!
Our first stop was the very famous Shuri Castle, which was absolutely gorgeous.
Located in Naha City, Shuri was the former name of the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom.
It served as the residence for all of the kings of this kingdom, until becoming a prefecture of Japan in the late 19th century.
It was originally built in the late 1,300's but had been destroyed multiple times due to wars and fires.
The buildings are beautiful reconstructions dating from 1992
The castle's central building leads to multiple gates including the well known Shureimon Gate
The castle's hilltop location allows for nice views over Naha along the way
Tourists can explore the whole castle where you can witness the unique color and architectural design
that differs greatly from other castles seen in mainland Japan
It is very easily accessible from Shuri Station, either a 15-20min walk
or a 5 minute bus ride.It is a definite must if you make your way down here.
And of course after exploring the whole castle, I had to get some soft cream to recharge
So I got Salt Cookie Soft Cream
And this is really famous in Okinawa, it's probably one of the best ice-creams I've had in all these trips
It literally tastes like a sugar cookie
mixed in soft cream, it's just melting all over the place
It's really hot right now! But definitely try this if you come here!
There's like little pieces of cookies in here as well if you can see
It's like an added touch, it's really really delicious
If you like sweet ice cream
It's very convincing coming from you
Master of Soft Cream
You have tried..what..25 ice creams
Maybe more
You probably can count it on the vlogs
So it was so good I got another one, this one's sugar cane
And that is absolutely delicious too!
Yeaaaah this is our Airbnb!
With all of these people!!
Millie!! I know, that's what I'm getting the feel of
This is the living room area
Hammock!
We have a room over here!
With one bed!
We have one room over here with 2 beds
We have a room over here which is Japanese style
That's for Wembin the cameraman
Dining Room Table
Counter
Kitchen right here
And we got a hallway
One room right here
Another room
Ooooh there's Christopher
One more room right here
And that is the shower and bath!
Solid!
We do have a shared toilet amongst all 8 of us so that's going to be interesting!
Because we ended the first day so late, all we did for dinner was get some famous Orion Beer which is local here in Okinawa
and we ended up with ordering Domino's Pizza
There was such a huge variety of local food here that it seemed like we tried something different every other hour
Alright Okinawa Salt Cookies!
This is the cookie that I had in my ice cream
Many many times on this trip
We got the local Okinawa Pork Specialty
Oh noooo!!!
It's good! Try it!!
I got brown sugar mochi famous here in Okinawa
It's like the famous way to eat it
Called Muchi!
That's really good! This leaf is called a Geto and it's got a thick smell to it
And that leaves a good after taste to the mochi
Really hard but it's really good!
It makes you thirsty though
I like the hardness
But yeah, like Rachel said you need milk
The Makishi Market was by far one of the most surprising places that we visited that turned out to be super cool.
Here you can enjoy all sorts of fresh fish, meat and other tasty foods that you will only find here in Okinawa.
Fish cakes right here
That is an Oshare fish right there
That's a real fish! That's a real blue fish!
Oh my gosh these are all real! They look fake!
Whatever food you buy on the first floor, you can take with you up to the second floor and have the staff at the few restaurants cook whatever you bought.
After having the pleasure of trying this food back in Tokyo
I was determined to try it here in Okinawa and it was...
...very oceanyyyy tasting.
Imagine taking a big gulp of ocean water with a nice crunch to it!
Alright I'm eating a star fruit, I guess it's a star fruit coz it's shaped like a star
It looks like an orange...doesn't taste like an orange
To be honest it tastes like a flower
Or like the texture of like an apple
That's strange
No not like an apple, more like a pear
We then took an hour ferry ride from Tomari Port and ended up at the famous Kerama Islands, which made this trip unforgettable.
The blue water and white sand was something you only see in movies.
But be sure to reserve your activities before hand as a lot of them were already booked when we got there
We're going snorkling today!
Today we're going to Karama Island and it's famous for its color it's called Karama Blue
so it's supposed to be really blue
And that's it!
With all sorts of different activities available all at a decent price, I wish we had more than just 6 hours on this island.
Because of how clear and clean the water was, the snorkeling was absolutely breathtaking...
...partly due to the fact that I FOUND NEMO!
All of the locals on this island were super friendly. We got picked up by a tour guide and despite us being a little bit late
she was super chill and we immediately felt like we were on an island vacation of a lifetime.
The water was had such a dense amount of salt in it that diving deep into the water without any scuba gear
was actually a lot more of a workout than I had expected.
But my quest to find Nemo within these crystal blue waters made my search for him last over an hour in here...
...and yep I was pretty sore the next day.
We then headed to Manza Beach the next day, which was located right next to ANA intercontinental Hotel.
Despite it being on a main island here in Okinawa
This beach was also very beautiful
You don't have to take a ferry to a smaller island to find beautiful beaches here in Okinawa
As they are all above average and worth the visit
Even if you aren't a hotel guest, you can still enjoy this beach by only paying the fee for parking.
Activities, chairs and umbrellas are a seperate fee all for a reasonable price.
Jun was the only one brave enough to go that high up in the sky so...there goes Jun
taking a beautiful video from above the ocean!
There were so many different types of activities to do here
But be sure to reserve them beforehand as a lot of them were already booked when we got there
I don't know how I ended up on a jetski
but it was my first time and definitely something I wanna do again
It was actually a lot faster than I expected
and I was pretty shocked by how fast I was going
To be honest the main reason we choose this beach was because of this water park that they were advertising
It was actually a lot harder and more difficult than you expect, it was really really slippery and it's pretty easy to fall off the edge
Obviously it doesn't hurt because everything's padded
But it was definitely something new that I got to experience and I think everyone enjoyed it
We were all pretty sore afterwards though
This will be the last video for the odigo47 series, which was a huge success thanks to all of you guys.
Thank you for the continued support day after day and we hoped you enjoyed our Okinawa tour!