Sea Change Okinawa: Maeda Cape

Tour Guide for a day

Right now we have visitors from Canada, and yesterday I was lucky enough to take the day off work to play tour guide around the island for their first full day in Okinawa. Luckily, we had the most perfect weather!

The first plan for the day was to go snorkelling at Cape Maeda, but for some reason (I have no idea why - maybe a bad rip or something) it was closed. Not letting that deter us, we headed down to Maeda Beach to try snorkelling there. I think everyone else who had wanted to snorkel at the Cape was also there, but we didn't care. The water was super clear, and the snorkelling was actually great. We saw heaps of amazing fish, then came back up to the beach to rest. Over to the right side of the beach was a little rocky alcove that was empty of people (amazing, considering the rest of the water was teeming with snorkelling groups), so we perched ourselves in the little secluded slice of paradise.
I think this is my new favourite beach spot.

Even though Maeda Beach was crowded, we found this little private slice of paradise.

These little fish had a nibble on my feet!

After lots of morning beach time, we headed to Cafe Doka Doka (mostly to show my visitors the amazing view) and had taco rice and mango juice for lunch.

Taco Rice lunch at Doka Doka

After lunch we headed for our second beach of the day, Sun Marina. By this stage the sun was super hot, and I was really paranoid about getting burnt, so we didn't stay in the water too long, and I kept a towel wrapped around my shoulders while we walked over the sea wall and bridges. Alas, I still ended up with the worst sunburn I think i've had in about 20 years!

Sun Marina Beach

Finally, we ended the day at Onna no Eki for the tropical shaved ice dessert I had in my last post.
It was basically my idea of the perfect Okinawa day, and i'm so glad that I got to share it with some first-time visitors.

That's right. That's around $50 for two big mangoes!

23:09
3 Comments

Obsessed with snorkelling

Maeda Cape

Since I arrived in Okinawa, i've become obsessed with snorkelling, and given a choice, I would probably do it everyday. This weekend we had friends visiting from Australia. They are in Japan for 2 weeks and for some cheap flights down to Okinawa to visit for the weekend. Luckily, the rainy season was declared officially over on Thursday, and Okinawa brought out it's best weather for our guests.

Both Saturday and Sunday mornings we headed to Maeda Cape first thing to try and avoid the crowds and see some amazing fish. Saturday morning we had my 3 and a half year old in tow, so my snorkelling involved occasionally putting my head under whilst hanging with a child in a floating ring, but it was still fun. On Sunday Helen took the little man to the shops while we did some serious snorkelling.

I know Maeda can be like people soup with all the tour groups and diving companies, but there is a reason it is the most popular snorkelling spot on Okinawa's main island. The selection of fish is HUGE and there is lots of room to have a great snorkel. Also, the water is crystal clear. We tried to go to the secret snorkel spot in the afternoon, but it turns out that on the weekend, it's not so secret, and it was actually rough and really murky when we tried to go, so visibility was almost non-existent.

Aaron and Reannon

A school of fish

Reannon hanging with the fish

I love the colour of this water

crystal clear water

It's impossible to capture the real colours of the fish with my underwater camera but this blue/green fish is amazing in real life and one of my favourites.

These stripey fish seem to be the most common

A larger kind of clown fish. Not Nemo, but similar

17:12
4 Comments

Snorkelling at Maeda Cape

Maeda Cape

Recently the stars aligned (perfect weather, no work, child free) and I got to have my first snorkelling experience in Okinawa.

Randomly we headed out to Maeda Cape, only about 10 minutes drive from our house to see whether we could hire some snorkelling gear and get in the water. We ended up at Take Dive, the nearest dive shop near the Cape, and they were fantastic. The owners were so friendly and spoke great English. Since we were a group of 5, and 2 of us wanted to dive, we were all taken out on a boat to the cape.

I had heard that it was the most popular place for snorkelling and diving in Okinawa, but was so much more impressed than I was expecting. The colour of the water was crystal blue and when I put my mask into the water, I was blown away by the fish I saw! So many tropical fish in amazing rainbow colours!

I want to go back every weekend. We also went inside the famous blue cave, and the water was an incredible colour.

I've heard that during the summer and busy holiday season Maeda Cape is like "people soup", but I would definitely recommend people to go at this time of year.