1
The first time I travelled in some 4 years (in fact the first time I travelled alone), I was going to Okinawa for a short 4-day vacation. Impressed by the MRT Airport Line, and pleased by the simplified boarding procedure of Eva Air, it took a little more than 1 hour from Taoyuan to Naha. Given the Kanji obvious in meaning, it was more straightforward than I thought to figure out how to transfer by local monorail to Miebashi Station [美栄橋駅] close to where I was to dwell for 3 nights. Along the neatly arranged blocks and traffic lights, I was able to get to the hotel, by following Google Maps (thanks to the affordable roaming plan of mobile company Docomo, about 300 NTD each day in price). The Smile Hotel Okinawa where I was staying, marked 3-star on Google Maps, was tidy and equipped with necessities, and it only cost about 2 000 NTD every night.
From the hotel I went back to Miebashi Station to meet my friend Fangyi; it was a 20-minute walk. The street was full of Izakaya-bars and Yakiniku-grill restaurants, and of chained retail stores still opening late, the most pervasive being “Lawson”. By 9—it was here nominally 1 hour later than Taipei—I saw Fangyi by the Station. She came to Okinawa too, together with another friend of ours, Peiling.
Though staying in Okinawa for the same interval, we were only to meet tonight. To elaborate, they first invited me to come with them, but they regretted. I appeared irritated, and later I asked their pardon for my attitude. In return, Fangyi said she and I could have dinner on the first day. Meanwhile, Peiling had to work to meet the deadline on this long-planned vacation. Let us bless her and refrain from disturbing her.
Instead let us note, in front of us, the first place of interest as of today—but not for Fangyi, a seasoned traveler of Japan—The International Street [国際通り], where along the direction of radiant signs, lay a variety of shops and restaurants.
Figure: The International Street.
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The very first eye-catching product was the glassware, a feature in Okinawa. I purchased a spiral-curved glass cup in an attractive dark blue, resembling, and named after, the Blue Cave [青の洞窟] (where I wasn’t going to, since it was too cumbersome to swim or snorkel alone). Besides food, cosmetic shops were also said to be a must visit, for your information.
There were masks made of volcano dust, shampoo containing honey, Merlion-like lion figurines, and the peculiar sea grapes [海ぶどう] tasting crunchy and salty. What I did buy was cheap packs of dried seaweed, cured fish, and a jar of chilies dipped in wine (though they were to be stopped in custom later). I also bought a case of Sablé cookie made with the featured salt of Chitan [北谷], intending to treat fellow Lab students, supporting the excuse for my absence in so doing. Food made up the most practical gifts.
Figure: A grocery shop.
Figure: Glass cups displayed in a shop.
Figure: Lion figurines displayed in a shop.
3
Fangyi and I walked westward along the International Street, and encountered a ramen shop, Koryu [康竜]. I ordered a soy-sauce-flavored ramen simply called “Ramen”, served with rice with raw yolk. It was, as expected, salty but good.
Fangyi had been to Germany when she was a child, and knew Japanese too. We commented on language learning experiences; although I was embarrassed to admit that I had almost forgotten anything German I had learnt a few years ago, and my understanding of Japanese was no more than Duolingo level-one lessons taken days ago.
I shared a recent enlightenment with her. In every language, there were so-called “content words” and “function words”. I found it instructive to think that function words add redundancy, analogous to error correction codes, so that content words could resist from misreading and mishearing. And Japanese was particularly unusual in this regard, since it adopted two writing systems, Kana and Kanji. It was no accident, then, that Kana exhibited inflection in a wider sense, while Kanji could not, so they complement each other.
We talked a lot, and were in a good mood. Having returned to the monorail station, we parted, and I wished them two well. Since I planned to catch an early bus to Churaumi Aquarium afar in the northern part of the island, I had better sleep now.
Figure: A bowl of ramen.
❧ July 8, 2019; revised July 13, 2021