Melbourne to Okinawa

It wasn't until a month or so ago that I was alerted to the fact that people didn't know what the term Sea Change was referring to in my blog's name. I actually never realised that it was an Australian thing.

From Wikipedia: A seachange (or sea change) is an Australian term, ultimately adopted from a term found in Shakespeare's The Tempest^[1] which describes a form of human migration that involves individuals abandoning city living in favour of a perceived 'easier life' in rural coastal communities. The term was popularised by the popular ABC TV television series SeaChange, which triggered the phenomenon of many city-dwellers mimicking the drama's protagonist's escape from urban life.^[2] The result of this phenomenon (known as the 'sea change effect') is a rapid boom in tourism and real estate development in coastal Australia, particularly in New South Wales. A similar term, treechange, describes the movement of urbanites to the countryside.



So the reason I called my blog Sea Change Okinawa, was because prior to accepting the job in Japan, we had been thinking of making a Sea Change within Australia, as neither H nor I had been brought up in a city, and thought it would be nice for little G to experience a country upbringing at some stage during his childhood. It turns out that the places we were thinking of making a Sea Change to in Australia, either had no job prospects in our fields, or the housing was crazy expensive (Australian real estate, am i right??). Luckily, the job over here in Okinawa came along, and it was the best of both worlds! The chance to live overseas, AND move to a smaller beachside town - perfect.

Last weekend, as I previously posted about, we went in search of the cherry blossoms at Nakijin Castle Ruins, about 1 hour drive north of our place in Onna-son. After we had had our fill of blossoms and blossom related snacks we decided to find somewhere for lunch. Originally I really wanted to try a vegetarian place I had read about, which turned out to be closed. Next I though we should try Pizza in the Sky, which everyone seems to rave about, however when we got there it was SO busy and it looked like there would be a huge wait, so we headed about 100 metres down the road to the third option, Anettaichaya Hammock Cafe. I was so glad the first 2 options didn't work out because I LOVED Anettaichaya.

Entrance

There were only two other customers there when we arrived, which was lucky because it meant that we could be seated at one of the outdoor hammock tables, which are the best! The table was basically in a little sun shelter with comfy cushions and of course, the hammock. The weather was one of the only amazing clear sky days we have had in a month, so the view was incredible. The staff were really helpful accommodating a vegetarian. They advised us what was vegetarian and what could be made vegetarian (the pizza toast and the coconut toast) and also checked that we were ok with eggs and dairy. I had the chicken and vegetable pho, which was super tasty, and H had the pizza toast and G had the cinnamon and coconut toast. We also had a cup of hot chai which was super delicious! I could have sat around there all afternoon enjoying the view, but eventually after we all had a turn on the hammock we got in to the car and made the drive home after a lovely day. If you are ever up Motobu way, I definitely recommend stopping at Anettaichaya for lunch!

I love this mug!

What we ate - Vegetable and chicken pho, pizza toast, coconut and cinnamon toast, hot chai

Looking back at the little seating areas and the main restaurant

This guy was pretty happy.

Anettaichaya (Hammock Cafe)
60 Nobaru, Motobu-chō,
Kunigami-gun, Okinawa 905-0215
098-047-5360

I couldn't find it in google maps, so just searched for Pizza in the Sky and then kept driving past that.

I've seen a few blog posts like this recently so thought I would jump on the bandwagon!

2016 is going to be a busy year for us over here and we're hoping to cram in a decent amount of travel around the area while we can. Okinawa is a strange place. It's located closer to Taiwan than it is mainland Japan, and there are not a huge amount of destinations you can get to via direct flight because we're so isolated.

We already have a couple of trips locked in, but there are many more we are planning. You will notice the trips we've actually confirmed are all Tokyo. Tokyo is my favourite city in the world (apart from Melbourne) and I could go there a million times and never get sick of it. Even though we will be there so much, the three trips are all completely different.

February
Tokyo - 1 night - Confirmed
I will be heading to Tokyo for just one night, just to see Madonna at Saitama Super Arena. I cannot wait!

March
Tokyo - 3 nights - Confirmed
H's family will be coming to visit so we will be meeting them in Tokyo to show them "real Japan" for 3 nights before we all come back to Okinawa to show them our home. Because this trip involved children, Tokyo Disney is likely to be included in the itinerary. We will be staying in the Asakusa/Ueno area

May
Tokyo - 3 nights - Confirmed
Yes, yes, Tokyo three times in 4 months! We have some more great friends coming to stay and at the end of their trip we are going to go to Tokyo and hang out together. This is an adults only trip so will involve food, drinks and shopping! We will be staying in Shibuya.

July
Korea - 5 nights - Confirmed
We have just booked our first non-Japan trip for the year. We will be going to Korea over my birthday! We're going to spend 3 nights in Seoul and 2 in Busan (near where my brother lives!)

Osaka- Dotonbori

Other trips we are considering/planning

Fuji Rock Festival - End of July
I have always wanted to attend Fuji Rock, and let's face it, we'll probably regret it if we don't go. Also living in Japan makes it much more feasible to attend than when we are living back in Australia....

My family visit - August
My family will likely visit in August, so as well as showing them around Okinawa, it might be nice to make a weekend trip to the mainland, such as Kyoto or perhaps Fukuoka.

Kyoto and Koya-san for autumn leaves - Definite, just waiting to book
We went to Kyoto for the cherry blossoms last April, and really didn't have enough time there so we are going to go back for the autumn leaves season this year. We are planning on 3 nights in Kyoto, a one night temple stay at Koya-san, and one night in Osaka on the end before flying home. This trip is a definite, we are just waiting for the cheap airlines to release flights for this time of year so we can book. If anyone has done a temple stay at Koya-san I would love recommendations on the best place to stay.

Hokkaido - winter
Seeing as we won't be going home for Christmas this year, I would love a white Christmas (obviously never possible in Australia) so we are thinking of making the trip up to Hokkaido for this. I briefly went to Sapporo for work during the summer and really enjoyed it so would love to go back in the winter.

Hakone/Mt Fuji
I recently read a blog about doing this as a self-drive trip, which I think could be really fun. (I took the photo below in 2007 - I still can't believe I was lucky enough to see Fuji on that perfect day!)

Fuji-san

Taipei
Taipei is so close to us (about 1 hour flight) so we would be stupid not to fit a trip to Taipei in at some stage. It's just about finding the right time to do it.

Hong Kong
Again, it's only a 3 hour flight away, and H has a friend there.

Obviously, it is unlikely we would be able to fit everything on this list into this year (or afford it!), but I'm hoping to at least get a few of the above into the second half of this year!

If anyone has any amazing trip recommendations, please let me know!

Beautiful blue ocean in the distance

Perfect weather

We arrived at about 10:30 and the carparks were already filling up. We walked around, and I got to take millions of cherry blossom photos. Cherry blossoms in Okinawa, are the first to bloom in Japan. When I first moved to Okinawa, I wasn't that fussed about going to see the cherry blossoms here because they didn't seems as beautiful as the ones on the mainland, however this year I finally went, and they were gorgeous. They are much more pink and vibrant that the ones on the mainland, and definitely suit the environment here perfectly.

Over the weekend Okinawa really got on board with winter. It was miserable and rainy the whole time, and the wind sounded worse than some of the typhoons we had last year. The most exciting thing though was the fact that it was actually sleeting yesterday and Okinawa recorded the lowest ever ever recorded temperature in history! Craziness.

Blowing a gale

Yesterday I had to force myself out of the house to walk the dog. I was super rugged up and expected to hate every minute of it, however I kept to the back streets in my neighbourhood in the hopes of avoiding the worst of the wind, and I actually got to take some cute photos as well as spotting my first cherry blossom of the season!

So many pot plants

I remember my grandma and mum used to have these flowers when I was growing up. I liked how they were growing all over this roof.

Colour on a very gloomy dog walk

Spotted my first cherry blossom of the season

Entrance to a house in my neiaghbourhood

We only made on other short trip out for the day to the market for fresh vegetables as well as Green Leaf in Yomitan for a coffee and a snack and to stock up on some other groceries. The rest of the day was spent either rugged up under a blanket on the couch or rugged up under a blanket in bed reading and watching things. It looks like this burst of winter weather will be short-lived though, as it's due to warm up from tomorrow onwards, hopefully enough to get me out of the house for some real cherry blossom viewing up in Nago next weekend! I can't wait!

All ready for sakura season at Onna no eki.

Vegan tuna bagel from Green Leaf cafe was delicious!

Keeping warm in bed.