Southern Odyssey - Okinawa Day 3
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February 17, 2018 - Southern Odyssey - Okinawa Day 3
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For my third day on Okinawa Main Island I decided to go up North and complete quite a few walks. It's best to hire a car to these locations as some are totally inaccessible by public transport. The locations visited today include:
(1) Hiji Waterfall (500 yen entry)
(2) Daisekirinzan (820 yen entry)
(3) Hedo Cape
(4) Katsuren Castle
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Located around 50 kilometers from Nago, Hiji Waterfall is a pretty 1.5 km walk that allows people to see some of Okinawa's greenery. It costs 500 yen to enter and it's a reasonably easy walk apart from a couple of sections which can get a bit steep. In general, you don't really come to see the waterfall (which is meh) but for the walk itself.
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The first half of the walk is reasonably easy and there are also quite a few places to have a picnic. Note that there is not a toilet after the main entrance.
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One of the more interesting things about this walk is getting to see the forest, plus it should be quite a bit cooler in summer due to the large amount of cover from the canopy.
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Around 25 kilometers from Heji Waterfall and close to Hedo Cape is the highly impressive Daisekirinzan Park - a series of 4 reasonably easy but interesting walks through very unique scenery. It costs 820 yen for entry which is a bit steep, but in general it's worth it. Expect to spend around 2 or so hours here if your not a slow walker.
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As mentioned above, there are 4 different walks which have different themes. I'll include them here using their 'unique' English translations.
Walk 1 - Wonder of Rocks Trail: This trail is 1km long and goes through some large limestone formations. You'll also be amazed with how they say lots of rocks look like certain things - which they don't.
Walk 2 - Churaumi Ocean View Trail: This 700 meter trail goes slightly uphill and allows you to see the Hedo Cape.
Walk 3 - Wheelchair Access Route: This 600 meter walk allows you to see some of the better scenery throughout the park without going up or down any stairs.
Walk 4 - Subtropical Forest Trail: This 1000 meter trail goes past some amazingly large banyan trees and takes you down close to the car park. As such, it's mainly downhill.
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Being a geologist, the first trail I chose was the strange rocks trail. All I'll say is that there were lots of rocks. Do note that a bus takes you up to the main trail heads and there are umbrellas every 200 or so meters in case it starts to rain.
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This is meant to be a power spot. Touching the calcite crystal was a bit too tacky for me.
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The fourth walk has at least half a dozen large banyan trees, each seemingly bigger than the next. They really are quite interesting to look at.
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Cape Hedo is around 3-4 kilometers from the last stop and includes a car park, a toilet, some drink machines and a couple of short walks. I did not come here just for the end section though.
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My last stop for the day was Katsuren Castle, which was around 80-90 kilometers from my last stop. As I was heading down to the southern tip of Okinawa and missed this castle last time, I decided to stop this time. Like the other castles I have visited, this is also UNESCO listed.
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Apart from the sunshine and the odd banyan tree, you feel as though your almost in a castle in the UK.
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The strangest thing I found today was this Carrot Soda. As I like to taste the local stuff, I gave it a try and I'll say that it was weird - really weird. I really enjoyed today but I did not like the long drive compared to my other days. For tomorrow, I'll be heading into Naha to see some of the main sites there.
Further Information:
Daisekirinzan: http://www.sekirinzan.com/en/
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