Sea Change Okinawa: Snorkelling

Picnic at Maeda Beach

Yesterday was glorious! I am still basking in the relaxation of FINALLY getting a beach day! I feel like the weather has been unseasonably cool for too long, and it's taken forever to warm up to swimming temperature.

Anyway, after a day of rain on Saturday, Sunday turned out to be glorious! We decided to pack up a picnic and head to our favourite close-by beach, Maeda beach for a couple of hours!

When we arrived it was low tide, but this beach is still great for snorkelling at low tide, and it probably made it easier for us to get in as the water was warmer than at high tide. I feel like this beach is definitely getting more popular than a couple of years ago, but it's still a great beach to find yourself a shady spot to relax.

We set up our stuff and snacked on some of my homemade faux tuna and cucumber sushi rolls and fruit. After a snack we got right in the water! I managed to get a really nice snorkel in, and was happy to see the clown fish still in their anemone I remember from last year.

I think once you visit this beach, it's hard to go elsewhere. In my case, it's only 5-10mins drive from my house, and no matter the tide it's a great place! If you're looking for a new beach to visit, I recommend heading here. There's even a great pizza place (Pizzeria da Enzo) you can get a snack from before or after your beach visit.

You can find the pin for the beach here. Enjoy your visit!

The Entrance to Maeda beach. Is there a view more perfect than this?

Basically my favourite view

Maeda beach at low tide, with crystal waters great for snorkelling.

Explorer pup

Enjoying the shade

That water <3

Cave window

Well deserved shaved ice with fruit!

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Maeda beach in Onna, Okinawa is the perfect place where you can snorkel straight off the beach, as well as find plenty of shady spots to sit and enjoy the beach!

18:21
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Weekend recap

Okinawa

This past weekend was busy, but so lovely. The weather was perfection! Even though i've had a horrid cough for the past week, I had to get into the water!

Sunday morning we headed straight to Maeda Beach because the water was incredibly still and the tide was high. The water was so clear and because we arrived early there was hardly anyone there. We got into our snorkelling gear and got straight into the water. We spent a good 45 minutes snorkelling around. G is getting really great at putting his head under to look at this fish! It's definitely getting much easier snorkelling with a little one in tow.

Perfect way to start the day

Maeda Beach on Okinawa Mainland is a great beach for snorkelling right off the beach in low or high tide. The water is clear and there's a great variety of fish!

Maeda Beach was perfection this weekend

That afternoon after some rest time, we started getting ready for a little birthday party we were throwing at our house for G's little friend Kaisei. Although it was only the two kids and a few adults, we blew up plenty of balloons, had cake and of course we had to introduce everyone to the Australian kids party staple, fairy bread! It was a hit!

After the sun went down we finished the night with some fireworks on the beach across the road..... perfect really.

Fairy bread, an easy and delicious kids party snack!

Fairy Bread - Australian party staple

Getting into the party spirit

Sunset

17:30
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More snorkelling at Maeda Cape

Okinawa

A couple of days after I got back from my work trip, H and I decided to take a summer leave day to hang out together seeing as I pretty much missed the previous two weekends with her. We headed straight to Maeda Cape to snorkel as it's something we can't really do with the little guy in tow. The weather was beautiful and visibility was great! We may be ended up a little sunburned after it all though. Oops.

Snorkelling really took it out of us, so we decided to head to Hamazushi for 100 yen sushi goodness! It's cheap, but still one of my favourite places to go. On our way home we stopped in to Onna no Eki for obligatory date day kakigori. Mmmm.

Scroll to the bottom for some under the sea videos

Cheese!

Bubbles from the divers on the other side of the drop

Touch screen sushi ordering system. The best!

Best dessert ever!

22:43
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Tour Guide for a day

beach

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
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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
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Finding Nemo right near my house

Okinawa

Last month I posted about venturing over to the little island off the coast of our house (literally only about 2-300m away). Well when our friends arrived last week, and our other morning plans fell through, we decided to walk on over in low tide to the island and see whether there was anything worth seeing under the water. We packed out little inflatable boat with towels, cameras and drinks and headed over. I had no idea what an amazing snorkelling spot it would turn out to be!