Onna Coast

The Onna Coast lies on the East China Sea and stretches from Yomitan to Nago. This pristine and breathtaking stretch of coastline is home to the finest beach front resorts on mainland Okinawa.

Tadashi arrives at our apartment a little after 10:00 A.M. He is lending us his Honda for our day trip. Art drives and Tadashi supervises Art’s first foray onto this reversed system of traffic flow, signage and turns. John makes wise cracks from the back seat expressing doubt in his Papa’s ability to navigate the mirror image traffic system. We stop at a small pastry shop and pick up some morning buns and Tadashi drives the few final twists and turns to his apartment. Tadashi’s and Shoko’s upstairs apartment is sunny, small and tidy. Shoko makes coffee and serves the drinks and morning pastries on their low table. We meet Johnny, their timid calico cat, and I sit on the couch and look at their two thick wedding albums. The first album is filled with many wonderful candid photos of the wedding party as well as formal shots of the ceremony, performed in a Western style wedding chapel. Shoko is breathtakingly beautiful and Tadashi so very handsome. They change wedding attire three times during the wedding. Shoko wears a frothy white wedding dress and Tadashi, a tuxedo for the chapel ceremony. Following the chapel ceremony they change into formal Japanese kimonos and then change a third time for the wedding “party;” Shoko wearing a brilliant red dress, low cut and trimmed with satin roses. When I open the second album of formal studio shots, tears well up in my eyes and Shoko hands me a Kleenex. I very much regret not being able to attend their wedding. Our daughter, Alisha’s wedding to Sterling was just last April and looking at these wedding albums brings all sorts of emotions to the surface.

It’s noon before we are on the highway heading towards the Onna coast. Art maneuvers the car cautiously but with switches reversed we tease him each time that he turns on the windshield washers when reaching for the turn signal. The weather is gorgeous, sunny and in the mid 70’s. The color of the ocean is that delicious tropical turquoise, deepening to a brilliant blue towards the horizon. Sea stacks jut from the water, each outcropping lushly covered with foliage. We pull over to explore a few beach resorts and coves. On our first stop, after descending a long set of cement stairs I realize that I have forgotten my dark glasses. The white coral sand is so brilliant that my eyes tear in pain. I step into the scrubby palms that shelter the beach to look for hermit crabs and shade my eyes. There are no hermit crabs but a littering of tin cans and bottles washed up and trapped in the roots of these lovely palms. As beautiful as this coastline is, it is marred by many engineered breakwaters of cement, stone and the enormous interlocking cement “jacks.” The engineers have even bridged some of natural sea stacks together with these
breakwater monstrosities. There are still sweet spots that are left natural, but between the luxury resorts and the seawalls, much of this coastline looks artificial.

We pull into the Moon Beach Resort and walk through their lobby and out onto their pristine beach. We don’t look at the rooms, but the cavernous lobby is outdated and the overall feel is a bit sad. It was one of the first beach resorts on Okinawa. The prices however aren’t outdated and I am surprised at the rate sheet. Even off season, mid week rates start at $175.00 for a single, including breakfast. An off season double room is about $200.00 and a triple is about $250.00 per night. During high seasons a double room will cost close to $500.00 a night. The hotel beach and grounds are beautiful and John would love to stay here for a few nights but to his disappointment we hop back into the car and meander further up the coastline.

We stop for lunch along a straight stretch of beach with many picturesque offshore island sea stacks. The tide is low and the stakes of a seaweed farm are protruding from the back lighted ocean. Our restaurant choice is a bad one but I will not make lunch the focus of today’s blog. After lunch we want to walk down onto the beach. It’s not easy to access the water but we maneuver up and over the highways’ unbroken steel railing, cross two opposing lanes of traffic, stride over a 50 foot expanse of geometrically arranged cement and stone, and walk down the dozen shallow steps of the seawall, to reach the tidal flats. At high tide, the water reaches up to the seawall, but at low tide the flats are exposed and the mucky sand is alive with minute sea snails. Shards of broken shells and worm casings lie exposed. All is a yellowish green and although not beautiful all is quite interesting.

Further north is the world class Busena Resort and Marine Park. The Busena Resort was the site of the 2001 G8 summit. We pull into the manicured grounds of the resort, the white sand and turquoise water shimmering in the afternoon sunlight. Architecturally the hotel is unimaginative and corporate, but the setting is breathtaking and the amenities more than likely first class. The resort is located on a land spit just south of Nago. The walkway to an underwater observatory extends some 300 feet out over the water and glass bottom boat rides embark dockside from a pier adjacent to the walkway. We buy the package; underwater observatory and glass bottom boat ride. Adult ticket prices are 2,000 yen for the combo, somewhat less for students and children. We descend the iron spiral stairway to the observation pod below. Portholes offer a view of a clear underwater world and we are delighted and disappointed at the same time. There are hundreds of Taman, schools of needle nose fish, several brilliant parrot fish, a smattering of colorful reef fish and one lone puffer. (I need to mention that we have recently snorkeled in the Galapagos Islands, the Zamami Islands, the Yucatan Peninsula, and Hawaii. 35 years ago I snorkeled along the Australian Great Barrier Reef.) My expectations may be unreasonably high. We climb back up the iron stairway to catch the 4:15 P.M. glass bottom boat ride. I am as fascinated by the whale shaped boat and the delighted children peering intently down into the viewing window as I am by the underwater world that we are gliding over. We see many fish, but very little live coral. We are delighted to spot several large anemones each hosting one or two clown fish.

We decide to return home tonight. We haven’t traveled much distance but the day has been full. Art retraces our route back down the coast but the traffic is slow and he decided to cuts inland to catch the toll Highway back to Naha. We zip along the toll road at close to 60 miles an hour. We reach Naha in less than an hour and Art navigates side streets back to our apartment only turning on the windshield wipers a couple of times!

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