Okinawa Trip Last Day - Kokusai Street and Sam's Sailor Inn

Our last day in Okinawa was kind of sad. After all of the amazing things we were able to do, it was at bit depressing to leave it all behind and go back to school. That was pretty much the weird thing about having a short vacation in the middle of the school year. Actually traveling to a new place and being a complete tourist really took most of us off of our game but I regret absolutely nothing. Once we checked out of our hotel we went over to a nice little street near Naha Airport called Kokusai Street which is pretty much reserved for souvenir shopping. All of the usual generic items like keychains, t-shirts, trademark snacks and things like that were littered up and down the way and I did not really see too many things I was willing to buy for any particular person.

 I did pick up a few boxes of chinsuko – tasty little cookies – along the way, and then my companion Megan and I stumbled upon a record store. On the window outside they were advertising the release of a new album from a band called Oz. I remembered hearing them on TV one day in our hotel room and decided that now would be as good as any time to buy their CD. Even though it cost me about $25 it did come with a decent amount of songs and a DVD of their main music videos. At around 13:15 we went into Sam’s Sailor Inn to have our lunch prepared right before our eyes. The prep cook at our table was pretty good at what he did which was clearly indicative of how much one must practice in order to perform for a crowd of hungry people.

 

When all is said and done, I believe the one thing I will miss the most about our trip was being able to enjoy the onsen every night after a long day of travel. Towards the end I think everyone got a bit tired of one another, something that is completely unavoidable when you are in a location that does not have much public transportation readily available to escape one’s companions. Nevertheless, I really think that many of us grew closer to one another for the better and I am glad to have had the opportunity to do so.