JPN: Okinawa World
1336 Tamagusuku, Maekawa, Nanjo, Okinawa, Japan
Daily: 9.00am - 5.30pm
Located in the southern part of Okinawa Island is an attraction called Okinawa World, which comprises three sections: a massive limestone cave, a replica of a traditional Ryukyu village and a snake museum. Due to the limited time that we had, my BFFs and I only had the chance to go for the first two with the focus on the magnificent cave.
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JPN: Okinawa World <YOU ARE HERE!>
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We'd originally planned to explore Peace Memorial Park at the southern tip of the island instead, but due to the heavy rain, we ended up at Okinawa World.
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| There's a sign that tells you not to climb on the statues. |
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| Despite being disappointed about having to drop my initial plan, I was excited to explore Gyokusendo Cave. |
Each of us paid ¥1,240 (~S$15.25) to enter Gyokusendo Cave and Kingdom Village. At the point of writing, each adult needs to pay ¥1,300 (~S$16.00) for the two attractions or ¥1,700 (~S$20.90) to also get admitted to Habu Park where you can see the local poisonous snakes.
Ready to go to the underworld?
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| Does the entrance to the cave look a bit creepy to you? |
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| My jaw literally dropped the moment I entered the cave. |
The limestone cave has been beautifully carved by nature for more than 300,000 years.
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| Those stalactites illuminated in red look macabre. |
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| Tread slowly as some parts of the walkway are wet. |
There are a few information panels along the way, but they're all written in Japanese.
The total length of the cave is about 5 km, which makes it the longest cave in Okinawa and the second longest in the country.
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| Pikachu and Melon should know the difference between stalactites and stalagmites now. |
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| About 850 m of the cave is accessible to the public. |
There's a mini waterfall that's possibly called Jien No Taki (地煙の滝).
Some people obviously have no regard for regulations. Haha!
Do you think spelunking is fun? Given the opportunity, I'd certainly love to explore a random cave somewhere.
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| I wonder if those stalactites were cut on purpose, perhaps for security reasons? |
Take a look at the beautiful ponds illuminated in blue.
It's said that the cave was discovered by a research team from Ehime University in Shikoku. That's the last of the four major islands of Japan that I haven't been to.
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| Squeezing Curtain does look like a curtain being squeezed. |
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| Enjoy the beauty of Silver Aurora~ |
I wonder where do the staircases lead to.
Would you like to be a bat?
A few live creatures are on display.
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| Such a shy giant mottled eel... |
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| According to research, a jungle perch is quite a quick learner in avoiding lures. |
At last, an escalator brought us out of the underworld.
Welcome to Kingdom Village! We didn't have the chance to thoroughly explore the attraction as we only had slightly more than 30 minutes before the place closed for the day, but we started off looking at the various fruits and vegetables planted there.
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| For the uninitiated, those are vanilla beans. |
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| The notice on the right basically means that they can cut the apples for you should you wish to eat them there. |
There are quite a number of workshops at Kingdom Village, such as weaving, dyeing and pottery. The glass-blowing workshop is the only one that we had the chance to look at.
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| I still find it intriguing that glass can become soft and viscous when heated above its transition temperature. |
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| You can support them by purchasing some of the artwork. |
Thankfully, the rain had finally stopped by the time we went out to the open area.
There's a restaurant there. Last order for food is at 5.00pm.
Before leaving the premise, we had a quick glance of the interior of the factory producing Okinawan snake wine.
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| Do you think you can stomach that? |
How about getting some shirts as gifts for yourself or your family and friends back home? I wonder if the designer can get away with trademark issues though.
Lady luck was with us as we managed to hail a cab to go back to Naha.
The journey, which lasted close to an hour, was the ultimate Japanese oral examination for us as the gregarious middle-aged taxi driver, whose speech was also peppered with a local accent, kept engaging us in a conversation. He told us how many Okinawans still bear a grudge against mainland Japan for the killing of many innocent local people during the war. His grandparents were victims of the war, but he's moved on and also said that he'd continue to be loyal to his country.
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