Last weekend was all about beaches! The weather was glorious all weekend and we made the most of it. Saturday morning we packed the car and drove out to Ikei Island to visit Oodomari Beach (or Mama-san Beach, as it is also known).
I really wanted to go there because I heard that it was child friendly and you could snorkel off the beach.
When we arrived, a man approached us to pay for the parking and beach entry, which was kind of expensive in my opinion (coming from Australia, the fact that some beaches charge for entry seems crazy to me!), but we did, and off we trundled down to the beach with our snorkelling gear and Griff's new floating ring.

Helen and I took turns snorkelling while one of us played with Griff in the water. The array of different fish was pretty good (although nothing like Maeda or our secret snorkelling spot), however, I felt like they were so tame and used to being fed by the beach visitors, that they were following me around the whole time (I felt like I was being stalked by creepy fish!), which was slightly unnerving.

After we had had enough of Oodomari Beach, we decided to stop in to Ikei Beach on the way home (we had driven all the way to Ikei Island, we might as well check out the other main beach). Although Ikei Beach didn't offer the many fish for snorkelling, I actually preferred it to Oodomari Beach. The water was crystal clear and DEEP! It felt like swimming in an ocean pool. There was also a well shaded kids play area with a box of sand toys to play with, which Griff loved. After we had a swim, we sat down and had some well-earned ice cream and Kakigori (shaved ice)!

Oodomari Beach

Griff was pretty pleased with his floating ring

Snorkelling off Oodomari Beach

The sand was made up of smooth small shell pieces

Ikei Beach

Ikei Beach

Griff had a lovely time in the little playground on Ikei Beach

We cooled off with ice creams and Kakigori (shaved ice)

You can rent these tents with tables for ¥3000 per day

Ikei Island is about an hour away from our house

Last weekend, we decided to go in search of a secret snorkelling location not far from our place that we had heard was not crowded (like Maeda Cape) and had a great variety of fish to see. I can't believe we live so close to such an amazing secluded beach! I'm looking forward to spending lots of time here on sunny days!

You have to drive down a dirt road to reach it

Walk along a muddy track

Until you reach this amazing spot!

Crystal clear water

The snorkelling spot is out in the middle of the water in a blue lagoon full of amazing fish!

The other day I was lucky to have a day off in lieu, which meant Helen and I got to enjoy a child free day!

We started the morning with Breakfast at a Hawaiian cafe near our house, which was fantastic. It actually opens at 7am (usually cafe's don't open til 10 or even 11am here in Okinawa, which is too late for breakfast!) and offers more than just pancakes. We over-ordered, which we know not to do next time, but we weren't disappointed.

After breakfast we went and finally bought ourselves some snorkel sets and set out to Cape Maeda. The water conditions stated that it was "ok to swim, but only with certified tour guides/groups". We were the only ones there not in wetsuits and/or life jackets, but I figured, we're Australian, and grew up in the ocean! Anyway, of course it was fine. It was low tide, so we needed to walk out over the reef in shallow water to get to an place we could swim, but as usual, the visibility was amazing, and we saw heaps of beautiful, colourful fish!

After Maeda Cape, we drove home, then collected our dog, and decided to walk over to this island not far from our place, that is accessible by walking during low tide. We've always been really curious about this island, because there are abandoned buildings on it. We finally found out from a friend, that the Seaside Drive-In in Nakadomari (right near our house), planned to open another restaurant on this little island, accessible by boat. They went about building it, and not until they had completed the building, did they decide to contact the authorities about getting water, gas, electricity etc organised. They were refused permission for these things, and the restaurant was never opened. It's now just an eery run down building on an island.
Anyway, we finally sated our curiosity and walked over there while it was still low tide. We had to carry the dog most of the way because he doesn't love the water, but we finally made it and got to explore the rocks. We saw some amazingly neon blue fish swimming around the rocks, and got our snorkels on to check them out! All in all, it was an awesome day!

The cream on these waffles would make Leslie Knope proud!

Mushroom cream omelette that came with a side of 2 pancakes!

The resident puppy at Kaiholo Cafe

The island across from our house.

The abandoned building

The lovely water around the island

If you look closely, you can see the little blue fish towards the bottom right-hand corner of this photo

I tried to capture an underwater photo of the blue guy. I really need to get a good underwater camera

Beautiful

Our house is next to the big building in this photo. This is the view from the Island back to the shore.

Ollie doing his best

We found these birds eggs on the beach.