Here it is, my last week in Okinawa (with a side trip in Hong Kong) and wow. It's been a crazy week, a crazy time... and I think I'll have to make an entirely separate other post later just reflecting on what an amazing experience this has been.
Before that though - at long last, my final week in Okinawa and the end to my summer dream.
August 28:
- I went scuba diving with 2 of my roomies and 3 other friends and it was an amazing experience. So.. we went at around 12:30 - arrived, signed the forms and what not, and then they brought us on a bus and took us to the area we would be diving. Then they explained to us how to breath, hand signals to tell us what to do underwater, and then we put on the suits.
I mean - I'm sure most people know this, I knew this, but it's an entirely different feeling once you put it on - but those tanks are HEAVY. They apparently weighed about 10kg - and this is without the extra belt of weights they put on us. So yeah. Lots of weight. And then we had to walk down 3 flights of quiet long stairs - the last one being very narrow - before we made it to the ocean. I made it down, got in to the water and felt so much better. And then the diving started.
Like I said, amazing experience. The fish weren't as colourful, and neither was the coral and what-not, but the ocean itself was so blue. It was so pretty. We also were given pieces of bread to feed to the fish, which was pretty cool. We were down there for about 45min - it felt a lot longer. Time just seems to slow down when you're under water. They took pictures of us, brought us to this cave where it was literally PITCH BLACK (kind of scary to be honest)... it was great. I really enjoyed it.
WITH THAT BEING SAID... I don't know if I would ever go diving again? One of my roommates threw up - and walking back up the stairs with the tank nearly killed me. Like, I pretty much ran up because I was so desperate to get the tank back off me. Also, apparently my instructor had been flirting with my friend the whole time (we split of in to pairs, there were 6 of us and 3 instructors guiding us). Also, just... in general being under the water, although it was fun and awesome, I never felt 100% comfortable. In the back of my mind I was always thinking about what happened if I stopped being able to breath properly, what happens if my ear starts hurting too much etc. Like, I wasn't terrified, but I definitely wasn't 100% calm and happy etc.
Still, I'm really happy I was able to go scuba diving. And it was quite cheap - around $90 CAD for 45min of in-water scuba diving, all the equipment, and they also gave us a CD with all the photos they took of us and they took quite a few photos. So I'd say it was well worth it.
So after the diving, everyone was EXHAUSTED so we went home, took a break.
Then for dinner we went to this very nice bar that mostly served Italian-style food and it was actually very good and not that pricey. $11 (1000yen) for a freshly made pizza and it was a pretty good size too. All the food was really good, it was near the water and had an amazing nightview of... no sure which city. It had a nice atmosphere too and in general, was just a very nice and relaxing place. I wouldn't have minded getting an actual drink, but those were not cheap.
We were supposed to go karaoke after, but my roomies were sick and the diving had us all pooped so... cut the day short. But it was still amazing, and awesome.
Aug 29-30
- My last two days of work. Nothing big happened.
On the 29th it was one of my coworkers birthdays so we surprised her at the end, when she got off work and was about to leave. We hid in the back and surprised her with Happy Birthday.
On my last day - the 30th, I was asked what job I wanted to do and I said drinks. It was... pretty empty that day, which was good. I finished everything on time and then one of my co-workers asked me if I wanted to go to karaoke. We had actually talked about this before since we both like Johnny's music and one of my roomies does too. So she was like, this is the last time - let's go.
We didn't end up going. I was pretty bumbed out, but guess what - I also ended up getting a cold that day! I woke up with my throat feeling like sandpaper. All my roomies had been sick for a least a week, or more, and I was hoping I would hold out and not get sick but I guess it was just too much. Oh yeah - we didn't go because it was also roomies last day and she had been crying and was too sad to go. We also ended up getting a new roomie who has morning shift, so I never really spoke to her for these two days - she was gone when I woke up and was asleep when I came home.
Aug 31
- My official last day. I went back to the restaurant to say good bye to some of the lunch shift people and then my manager told me I could come back to have dinner. The thing was everyone I am friends with either works late shift, or were going to a BBQ later tonight, so I wasn't sure who I should go with. I ended up asking the new roomie, because the other roomie (the one I was supposed to karaoke with) was too sad to go back to the hotel.
I actually ended up talking to the new roomie quite a bit, and the free dinner was good. I would never have paid to eat at my restaurant, but when it's free it is pretty good. My co-workers wrote me little good-bye messages too and I made sure I got everyone on LINE or facebook so I could keep in touch.
After that, I made sure to sleep early that night because I'd be on my way to HK for 3 days, 2 nights. Which I guess I'll briefly mention now.
Sep 1 -4
- So in Hong Kong I really didn't do anything. I arrived, went to a family friends place because that's where I would be staying, and they actually weren't home at first and their caretaker wasn't there to open the door for me. I was super tired by then and when I was finally let in to their place I pretty much went to sleep right away. The next day (the 2nd) I went to get my adult ID card, went back to the friends place, bumbed around and hat was about it. Pretty much the entire reason I went to HK was to get my ID card so that's all I did. Then I flew back to Okinawa on the morning of the 3rd.
On the 3rd I actually ran around doing quite a few things. I went to Kokusai-dori, to Don Quijote's to see if I could pick up some stuff - mostly just pens for a friend. Which I did. Then I had dinner, bought some jagariko for the same friend, and then I went to AEON mall to find some sailor moon goodies for another friend. I didn't end up buying anything cause all they had were Iphone 5/5s cases and I wasn't sure what phone she had.
Needless to say I ended up running back to the AEON on the morning of the 4th to pick up the phone case before going to the airport and my flight.
After that it was 24hours of travel time before I finally made it back to Montreal.
My flights actually went surprisingly smoothly. When I landed I felt generally okay - tired, but no nausea, no shaking and tremors like when I arrived in Okinawa. All good. One hilarious thing though was that on every flight, there was a flight attendant that would ask me how old I was.
From OKA -> NRT when I first go on the plane, I walked past the attendants and then I hear one of them say "hitori?" and I kind of just ignored them because they were talking to each other - but it was actually about me! After I heard that, one of them ran up to me and asked me if I was alone, and whether I'd be okay and I was like "..um, yes ^^;;". But the same thing happened NRT -> TOR, a flight attendant walked up to me and was like "sorry, can I ask how old you are? Are you traveling alone?" and the shock when I told her I was 19.
So.. I guess despite feeling totally exhausted, I apparently aged 5 years lower or something because this isn't the first time I've flown alone and no one has really paid attention to me, except now. Weird. Funny. But yeah.
What can I say - I was not happy at all when I landed back in Canada. Haha. I miss Japan already. It was a great experience, I'm happy I did it (not 100%, but still pretty awesome). Can't wait until the next time I get to go back!
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