Day 69: Okinawa Ferry from Nago to Kagoshima

Today featured a 6AM wakeup, just to be sure that we made it to the ferry terminal in time, as we couldn’t afford to miss it again.

The ferry that we were catching back was a slightly newer ship than the one we caught here which had western-style second-class rooms.  Yup, that meant it had real beds, not giant open flooring to share with the dirty masses.  We were going to have some privacy, and only for an extra ¥1000 each.

We also were more prepared this time, buying food to eat during the mind-numbing 22-hour journey.

It was a beautiful sunny day as we departed Motobu Port, travelling past many beautiful islands along the way, though for the majority of the trip we were content to just lie around in our private beds and relax.  There wasn’t much else to do anyway, apart from a small (and unsuccessful for us) bingo tournament.

The ferry stopped at all the same ports again that it stopped at on the way down, but instead of the storm grey overcast skies, we were treated to blinding sunshine and blue/green waters.  We even saw a huge school of baitfish being hunted by a few larger fish.  Watching them jump out of the water in their thousands was mesmerising, so we watched for close to ten minutes.  And that was almost the highlight of the trip.

The only other highlight was the fact that this ship had a bath (instead of a small and grimy shower), so we soaked away a few hours and watched the sun set.  Separately, of course.

All that was left was to eat the remains of our convenience store food, and sleep.