UNESCO World Heritage Site #10: Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu

From the World Heritage inscription:

Five hundred years of Ryukyuan history (12th-17th century) are represented by this group of sites and monuments. The ruins of the castles, on imposing elevated sites, are evidence for the social structure over much of that period, while the sacred sites provide mute testimony to the rare survival of an ancient form of religion into the modern age. The wide- ranging economic and cultural contacts of the Ryukyu Islands over that period gave rise to a unique culture.

Okinawa is geographically and culturally different than the rest of Japan. I usually explain it as Japan’s Hawaii. Its language is distinct from Japanese and the islands weren’t even formally part of Japan until the 1870′s.

Much of Shuri-jo Castle and other landmarks in Okinawa were damaged during the battle of Okinawa in WWII, which took the lives of over 100,000 Japanese and 13,000 allied soldiers. The current castle is mostly rebuilt and reconstruction is still ongoing.

View my complete list of UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Kokusai Street

This isn’t my first time in Japan. I was here for one day in 1999 during a stop over from the US to Taiwan. We took off in a blizzard and the de-icing on the wings required a fuel stop in Anchorage. The delays resulted in me missing my flight to Taipei so I was put up in a Raddison near Narita for the night.

So while I wasn’t totally unprepared for Japan, I can’t say I’m really experienced either. I must say I’ve been somewhat surprised by Okinawa.

Okinawa was the only part of Japan proper which felt the brunt of a full scale invasion in WWII. Okinawa was also under direct US control for far longer than the rest of Japan. While most of Japan was under direct control of Mcarthur for only five years, the US didn’t give up control of Okinawa till 1972. Since 1972 the US has had a big presence on the island. Over 25,000 US troops were stationed here plus their families.

Given the strong US presence here, I figured that Okinawa would have a stronger American influence than the rest of Japan. So far, I’ve seen next to nothing.

Signage and usage of English is well below what I saw in Taipei. I’m only surprised at that because of the history of the island. I’ve seen very few westerners here. Only a small handful. I’m at a “western” restaurant right now typing this (because they have free wifi) and I’m the only white person in here. Everyone else is Japanese.

I was also surprised at how hard it has been to find an ATM machine, and in particular an ATM machine that will take foreign cards. Even in Minneapolis, I could find ATM machines that would work in six languages (English, Spanish, Russian, Somali, Japanese, and Hmong). I have since learned that the Japan Post Banks (the post office here is the biggest bank in the country) will take foreign cards. I have yet to find anywhere else that will. I guess I just assumed Japan would be on the cutting edge of ATM technology. They’re not. (most of the machines are designed to read passbooks, as in passbook savings account that you saw in the US 20-30 years ago).

Japan is going to be interesting. In many respects, this is the most “foreign” place I’ve been on my trip so far. Tomorrow I leave Okinawa for Kagoshima and Yaku Island. From there, I finally cash in my Japan Rail voucher and head to Hiroshima.

The flight was only about an hour long. The real difficulty was when I got on the ground. There were no working ATM machines that took foreign cards in the international terminal, and only one in the domestic terminal. There were no places available to change currency. Very little was written in English and my cab driver didn’t speak a word.

Nonetheless, I made it. Things always seem to work out.

Initial observations:

• It’s true. Lots of vending machines. I took a walk out around my hostel and managed to see seven without turning my head at one point.
• It is certainly more expensive here. I had prepared myself for worse, so I can deal with it. I’ll cut back a bit on my food.
• I got a map of Japan with all the youth hostels in the country laid out. My rail is paid for 21 days, so it shouldn’t be too bad as far as expenses go. I’m sure Tokyo will suck, but that’s Tokyo.
• I really really hate getting into to places after sunset. You can never see anything. I try whenever possible to arrive when I can see the city I’m arriving at.
• I’m going to finally have to buy a phrase book I think. The US controlled Okinawa from the end of WWII to the early 1970s. We still have military bases here. I figured that you’d see more English here than anywhere else in Japan. There is next to nothing here. Thankfully, Japanese isn’t a tonal language.

I should also note the reason why I have Okinawa separate from Japan on my list of places on the left. 1) I’ve arbitrarily taken the Century Traveler Club’s list of places as the list I’d use to organize my website. They list Okinawa separate. 2) Okinawa is to Japan what Hawaii is to the US. It is a part of Japan, but it is geographically, culturally, linguistically, and historically different from the rest of the country. It wasn’t made part of Japan proper till the late 19th century.

Tomorrow I’m off to see the castle and some of the other sites from the Ryukyu Kingdom.

Longshan Temple

This is the first time I’ve needed to get a ticket in well over a month and a half. I last purchased tickets way back in Guam. No longer island hopping like I was in the Pacific has reduced my costs dramatically. (That is why I did the Pacific countries first actually. I wanted to get the most difficult, expensive part of the trip out of the way first) I currently only have tickets booked to Kagoshima. I think I’ll take a ferry to South Korea from Japan. I have found that there is a ferry that goes from Japan and South Korea to Vladivostok. I’d be very interested in going, but the problem will be getting the visa from the Russians. I’d have to do it in either Seoul or Tokyo and the application process would probably take longer than the length of time I’d be in Vladivostok. I think a visit to Vladivostok would be very cool, but I’m not going to do it if the visa is too big of a pain in the ass.

My reason for going to Kagoshima is to visit Yakushima island, a World Heritage Site. It is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in Japan, and the forest that inspired Princess Mononoke.

If anyone has suggestions for what to do, where to go, things to see in Japan, don’t hesitate to make suggestions. The suggestions I’ve gotten from this website have proven more valuable that the information I get from guidebooks.