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Searching
for budget accommodation in Okinawa - by Marty
December 2003 (Beginning of winter)
It was just around dark at the very beginning of our 2 week
stay in Okinawa, and we were still cruising around in our rental
car looking for some reasonably priced accommodation. We had
spent the previous night in the tent which we'd dragged along
for backup and to spend a few nights in if the weather was good,
to help offset our accommodation budget. Being Japan, it's usual
to be charged per person, so even if you share a room with 5
or more people sleeping on the floor on futons, you still all
pay the same price each. Anyway, we were looking for a Minshuku
(Japanese Inn) or another camping spot which wasn't right next
to a mangrove boardwalk park. It was free and did turn out to
be quiet, but not exactly a 100% legitimate place to camp.
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| A
quiet spot for a night in the tent. |
Mangrove
boardwalk park. |
We were in the middle part of Okinawa Island in the Nago region,
but quite some distance from Nago city, so it was a pretty "remote"
sort of area and not much in the way of shops around. Being
winter, it was especially quiet. Come summer, you'd probably
see lots of activity in this scenic part of Okinawa with people
camping along the beach and people about. Generally Okinawa
is fairly quiet (except in the cities) outside the accepted
summer tourist season or other major holiday periods. Driving
along, we went right past a little local General Store (blink
and you'll miss it) and I decided, what the hell, do a U-ie
and go back and see if they know of any places to stay. Our
usual approach was to take a bit of a look around the shop for
something of interest, like food for example, of which there
usually wasn't much on offer; crusty looking, expired, or all
of the above as well as a bit expensive. Then, after finding
nothing much, as expected, we would wander over to the counter
and ask the most likely candidate, usually some old man or woman,
"Camp-jo wo sagashitemasu" (We are looking for a camping
place).
Well, on this particular occasion it looked like we were in
luck. This old guy who didn't look too crash hot, even for his
age, suggested that camping around here wasn't a good idea this
time of year, because it was too windy and cold. Obviously this
was the situation just off the beach where there was no protection
from the gusty onshore wind. Then he went on to say he knew
of a nice place we could stay for 3000yen (6000yen for the 2
of us, AUD$80) with a kitchen. So we said, ok, lets take a look
shall we.
After he made a quick phone call without getting an answer,
we wandered down the narrow road behind his shop and came to
a newish looking typical Okinawan concrete three storey house.
After fumbling with the key trying to unlock the door he finally
showed us in. We were amazed to find a really nice Japanese
style place which seemed very much to resemble a holiday house,
complete with, well, everything. Trying to hide our enthusiasm
for this really really nice place, we started telling him we
had 2 weeks in Okinawa, and 6000yen was just too much for our
budget. A little maths, 14 days, that's 84,000yen (or AUD$1100).
A bit of a step up from the tent the night before. So he said
5000yen might be ok, and we sat around for a bit trying to decide
whether or not to take him up on the offer. After a quite a
bit more indecisiveness on our part, he finally offered us 4000yen.
We were pretty tired from driving around the whole top end of
Okinawa Island all day, and a shower and sleep was looking really
appealing, so we grabbed the offer!
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Nicely
decked out house.
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Fairly
new Okinawan house made of concrete to help withstand
typhoons. |
After a soak in a big slate tiled bath we were feeling really
stoked about our luck. I mean, imagine if we hadn't turned around
and asked, we might still be driving around looking for somewhere
to stay! And going from camping to finding this awesome place,
in a nice quiet area just across the road from the beach. What
more can you ask for?
The next day we took it easy, and did a bit more sight seeing.
Later we went shopping for groceries in Nago city, since we
now had a kitchen (much bigger than the one in our little apartment
in Osaka). It was not long after we got back, and I was preparing
some spaghetti Bolognese, that we had our first visitor. An
old local woman living nearby came over and said she needed
to use the shower because hers was broken (this is what was
said in Japanese to my wife), and that she was a friend of the
owner. I thought, sure, whatever, it doesn't worry me. There
was actually a downstairs shower, as well as the upstairs bathroom
so it was super easy. No harm in getting to know some local
people, especially when they seem friendly enough!
By the time she was finished having a shower, we were already
eating dinner. As she was just on her way out the door she asked
us if we were friends of the owner. She explained she lived
in an old traditional wooden Okinawan house, which had been
damaged after the last typhoon. Since then she didn't have a
shower and often came by her friends place, and occasionally
meeting people who were staying. Obviously we had nothing to
fear, so we said the guy at the shop arranged this place for
us. To this she was quite surprised, and said the old guy at
the shop had nothing to do with the owner and nothing to do
with this house! The worried look on her face didn't give us
any reassurance. Well, we said we just followed the old man
at the shop and paid him 4000 big ones per night. To this she
started going on about no one ever having paid to stay here
before, the owner usually letting people stay for free!! Hmm,
ok free accommodation sounds even better than what we'd managed
to arrange!! hehehe. Then she insisted that we probably had
better call the owner and let her know we were staying in her
place. We tried to get hold of the owner, but only got her husband
(who didn't seem to be involved at all), so we said we'd wait
for her to call back.
In the mean time, our visitor went home and came back with a
beer to wait for the call. At this point I wasn't too worried,
maybe because I only knew the basics of what was said. We settled
in with a beer and had a chat to the woman who introduced herself
as Miyagi the oil painter. It turned out that some of the paintings
in the house were hers (see photo above). We had a good long
chat, and waited for the call, but none came, so Miyagi finally
decided to go home. After all that, she invited us to come see
her traditional Okinawan house the next day and she would show
us her paintings. She lived just around the corner. Nice and
easy.
Later the owner finally called, and sounded rather suspicious
(as you would with strangers staying in your holiday house all
decked out with expensive ornaments!!), and said she had no
idea what was going on!! We said we had no idea either, and
had just followed the old man. We said we even paid him, and
to this she repeated what Miyagi had also said. Finally she
said she'd talk to her brother and give us a call back. Interestingly
Miyagi had also mentioned that she thought the shopkeeper had
made a copy of her key to the place, without permission, when
she had lent it to him. Don't ask me why she lent him the key!!
hahaha. At this point we were suspecting the old man was doing
a swifty, but I thought, what the heck, we got some nice accommodation
out of it and had treated everything with respect; although
my wife was of a slightly different frame of mind!! hahaha.
There was also the chance that maybe she might be feeling very
generous, and let us stay for free in the end!!
When she called back again, everything was much clearer, and
she'd confirmed with her brother, who had made an arrangement
with the shopkeeper for the place. She said we should follow
the old man and could stay there as long as he said. That's
all fair enough then. A bit of a hassle, but all worked out.
Submitted: 19 December 2003 |
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