So just over a week ago I went to the USA for work. This was my second trip to the US, and I visited Chicago, rural Illinois and Miami, Florida. Miami was my last stop on the trip, and I was lucky enough to have a whole day at the end before my (looooong) night flight back to Japan. Because I only had one day I decided to spend it in South Beach, as it promised to be a combination of the beach, shopping and art deco heaven.

The Albion Hotel - Where I stayed in Miami

Let me tell you, Miami really didn't disappoint. I couldn't stop taking photos of all the amazing art deco buildings, and the skies were so incredibly blue. I can see why people flock here for some warm weather holiday. I also loved the fact that basically EVERYONE was speaking Spanish. I honestly barely heard anyone speaking English at all while I was there. It was like being in another country. 

I just arrived back to Okinawa yesterday after a week-long very busy work trip! If you follow my Facebook page or my Instagram you would have seen some photos already, but today i'm back to start blogging about this epic trip!

Entrance to the beach

I'm lucky enough to live in an area of Okinawa surrounded by resort hotels. Although I don't get to stay at these hotels, I do sometimes like to take advantage of their facilities. The resort hotel closest to me is Moon Beach. Recently they opened a new lagoon pool and it is absolutely gorgeous! Usually I prefer going to the beach (salt water! snorkelling!), but every now and again I get persuaded by little G to go to the pool.

A couple of weekends ago, the weather was amazing, so we headed up to road to the Moon Beach pool. Because we were not guests at the hotel, we had to pay for parking and pool entry (500yen each) but it's worth it. There are 2 pools and the beach. The semi-indoor pool is good on a rainy day, and has a childrens pool as well. The outdoor lagoon pool is the nicer and newer of the two, but is more laid back, and you kind of need to keep more control of your children. Both pools are surrounded by sun lounges, and during the morning there was a nice bit of shade covering the lagoon pool if you are worried about getting sunburned. One other thing I really liked was the free kids arm floaties you could just borrow, which was handy because we forgot ours.

As for the beach, there are sun lounges and umbrellas but I think you need to pay for these, as well as floating rings for rent. There are also lifeguards at all the pools/beach. I noticed a beach bar near the lagoon pool, but it wasn't open when I was there (before midday), however, nothing is more resorty/relaxing than a cocktail by the pool! One last thing that I think is the icing on the cake is the relaxing hawaiian music playing near the pool. Perfect!

If you are coming to Okinawa, but can't afford the expensive resort hotel prices, you can always stay somewhere cheaper and just pay to use the facilities at the resorts. Moon Beach is definitely cheaper than some of the others (expect upwards of 2000yen per person at other places), but it's still lovely!

Lagoon pool

Vines growing inside from the roof

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One of the great things about mainland Japan, is no matter where you are staying, you're probably going to stumble across some temples and shrines. This is exactly what happened on our recent trip to Tokyo. Even though were staying in what seemed like a suburb completely full of love hotels, I also spotted a shrine across from the station. Of course, I needed to check it out.

Motomishima Shrine is located just near Uguisudani station, and even though the weather was horrible and rainy, I still went to have a look. The shrine was nothing spectacular, but there was no one else there and the gloomy, rainy weather was actually really nice.

I definitely recommend wandering around your accommodation neighbourhood. You never know what you might stumble across.

Stairs up to the shrine

The view from our Airbnb over the misty train tracks to the huge graveyard on the other side.