Ishigaki and Okinawa! Our first steps in AMAZING Japan!

Ishigaki and Okinawa are the first of 7 port stops over 8 days in Japan and we adored them!! Ishigaki brought some of the best sushi I have ever eaten and my connection to Okinawa is very special!

The sleepiness of Ishigaki is the start down a road of history, intrigue, bustle, and incredibleness that is coming our way as we journey through Japan together!

If you enjoyed the video, please leave a comment. I’m so excited to share this with you and hear your thoughts!

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hi I’m Lesley and I’m on Royal
Caribbean’s ultimate World cruise we are
cruising the world over 9 months and I’m
documenting all of it right here on
point your soul North so thank you so
much for joining me today because we are
going to start our journey to see
Japan I am so excited to see Japan
this whole leg of Asia um is all just so
foreign so different so new that it’s an
experience and an adventure at every
single port and ishigaki and okanawa are
the beginning of Japan and um have
stories and I’m excited to share them
with you so let’s go check out ishigaki
our very first stop in Japan
[Applause]
[Music]
as usual our plan is to just uh walk
through ishigaki get a feel for the
little town it’s a little fishing
Village just check it out journey
through create our own adventure and see
what we find ishigaki is known as the
country of poets the island of songs and
the land of dance not sure about the
song and dance but I did find this cute
little poem as we exit the ship we see
Miss yayama with
her posy and a huge bouquet of flowers
to welcome the ship to the port in
ishigaki and then we’re off we cross
over this huge
Bridge welcome to Japan woohoo our first
Japanese feet looking for saki we’re
looking for Saki and dumplings and
Japanese food in ishigaki
ishigaki our first glimpse of the
ishigaki Japanese water and these Waters
blew me away they are literally rival
Fiji they rival Hawaii the crystal clear
see through the bottom gorgeous
turquoise color that totally s took me
by surprise so we walk across the bridge
all the way over the top the very uh
peak of the bridge cool map of Japan on
the ground with the East West uh north
and south on it so of course I have to
get a point my soul North uh picture on
the bridge and then we head down into
town so we can roam through this little
town best beaches in ishigaki are in
cabria Bay where we were the beaches
were not super accessible the Shiro Reef
here is the largest community of blue
coral in the Norther hemisphere I wish
you could see this water I don’t know if
the videos and the pictures properly
protray it it was the most beautiful
blue beautiful clear turquoise just
gorgeous as we wander through the town
we’re going to uh first stop for lunch
as we’re walking through the town we see
this beautiful display of Saki
barrels like that’s just artwork in and
of itself
and then we of course go through the
local
market check it out and then we head for
lunch now lunch we don’t have a plan for
lunch so we’re just going restaurant by
restaurant we find one that has pictures
out
front it looks cool we go in the uh
waiters prepared this is a small
literally a small fishing Village
ishigaki is and so I’m sure they were a
little inundated with all these people
getting off the cruise ship for their
little town so he was prepared he had a
sign that said you need to order with
the chef or order with the QR code so we
uh pull up the QR code and we’re going
to order our lunch now of course when
the menu comes up on the QR code it’s
all in Japanese we have no idea where
we’re looking at and what we want so Roy
goes back outside he takes a bunch of
pictures of the things that we saw on
the menu at the door and he comes back
in so we’re finding them on the uh
online menu and I put them in the cart
and I go to pay in the cart of course
it’s in Japanese there’s two buttons
that look like you know yes I want to
pay and my cart disappears so I’m like
okay that’s weird so I go back in I put
all the items in again and I go back to
the pay screen again I hit the button
and everything
disappears so I’m thinking well maybe
I’m hitting the wrong button so I go
back in I put all the things in again I
hit the other button and everything
disappeared I’m like what am I doing
wrong and in just at that time the
waiter comes he brings the drinks and
then I realize that it’s probably likely
that I had entered our order three times
so that’s a lot of food and I’m thinking
okay well we’ll just you know figure it
out pay for it because at this point you
know what are we going to do and the
chef comes out and he pulls up the QR
menu on my phone he goes presses some
special buttons it shows everything in
my cart this is it and uh confirms kind
of in his Japanese my English that um
yeah we only want that one and this one
and the two drinks and so he deletes the
others out and you know our Train’s back
on the track and so um
we get the most
decadent fresh sushi that I’ve ever had
in the world
like it’s in that moment that it clicks
that I can use the little post that he
has marked for each one of the fish and
use Google
Images to
decipher what each of the fish are if
you’re not familiar with Google images
you can literally put in Google Images
in your browser it’ll show you a little
camera you can open your camera and
point it at a picture point it at an
item point it at writing and it’ll
translate it for you it’ll tell you what
it is it’s brilliant so um I am able to
decipher what each of the fish items are
on this huge boat of sushi he brought
miso that was
[Music]
incredible that is heaven in a
bowl liso soup heaven in a
bowl thank you Bab I also had this dish
of what looked like
worms that looks like
worms and that looks like worms I think
it’s rice
noodles let’s hope it’s rice
noodles I’m going to try
it it’s rice Ms thank God it’s not
worms this is what they call
muku it is uh seed weed only uh here in
the okanawa Islands which ishigaki is
part of okanawa and it was marinated in
kind of a soy base that was so good at
first sight it looked like worms um so
it wasn’t sure but I was going in I was
just going to try it and go for it
that’s seaweed um but it was so good and
so worth the try um different something
I’ve never had before but delicious just
a beautiful lunch beautiful
restaurant beautiful people there
helping us to make sure we got only what
we wanted and only what we ordered and
just yeah that’s a memory of a
restaurant and food and people that I
will never forget we set our Arigato to
the Japanese restaurant we’re back on
the streets to roam around we come
around this corner to this potato Shake
bar now I’ll give you a second to let
that sink in baked potatoes and
milkshakes I don’t know about you but
that sounds like the perfect com
[Music]
Roy and I have actually talked about a
potato bar in Mexico we frequent Puerto
Penasco um just off of the Arizona
border in Mexico a lot and we’ve talked
about a potato bar just on the beach
like how great would that be to just go
get a jacket potato from the beach and
to have milkshakes there too ishigaki
had it figured out potato bar and shakes
in their own little
um food truck it was brilliant we didn’t
try it but just the idea is brilliant so
this is
another unique thing all over Japan
there are vending machines for
everything mostly it’s drinks and coffee
and cigarette and sodas and that kind of
thing but this vending machine looks
like a vending machine it’s not a
vending machine it was the front of a
Speak Easy so you actually opened the
vending machine door in inside was a
little like a footprint that was
probably 4T wide and maybe 3 ft deep and
then a bar so there was a little beastro
table in there with I think maybe three
seats and you could just order beers
from the bar and sit inside this portion
of the building that was the size of the
front of this vending machine
[Music]
super cool more on that to come so stay
tuned but this little spiky was really
cool we saw it in the morning too early
for beer time we should have stopped and
just gotten a beer when we were there
because of course as soon as all the
cruise people come in there’s no getting
in this three seat little bar so we kind
of missed the window but um it was still
cool to check it out and see it just the
concept of it another brilliant idea
from ishigaki okay so for all my uh Diet
Coke drinkers or diet soda in general uh
there is something in Japan and China
that is called it’s a Diet Coke option
so there’s obviously regular coke diet
coke and there’s something called f Diet
Coke and you guessed it it has fiber in
it 5 G of fiber which on initial thought
sounds like an you know an awesome
additive but you got to be careful you
don’t want to drink too much of
it um and so we I had heard about it
before we left on the trip so I was very
conscious of not having too many of them
uh cuz it can be you know a cleanser
we’ll leave it at that cleanser uh but
we saw it here in ishigaki we saw it and
we tried it it tastes exactly like Diet
Coke it just has five grams of extra
fiber so we’re going to Bid Farewell to
ishigaki walk back over the bridge on
the other side of the bridge there’s a
park so we walked through the park down
to the water to get as close to the
shore
and the um water as we could again this
wasn’t a Beach area so it was all
barricaded kind of blocked off um but
there were fishermen out there and um it
was a beautiful Park we could just see
the water and um you know kind of have a
moment our first moment in Japan in this
beautiful water it was yeah not in the
water at the water um was just a special
moment to be able to say goodbye to our
very first stop in ishigaki
tomorrow we’re in okanawa just a side
note for ishigaki the stargazing from
ishigaki is unprecedented because again
it’s a fishing Village so very small
zero light pollution out here and so the
skies just light up with stars just so
beautiful I do have a um an awesome
camera on my phone but just trying to
translate in the dark it just doesn’t
come across but just trust me just
beautiful Skies out
here okay so next up in Japan stop two
is
okanawa let me tell you about okanawa
two super cool things first of all it’s
Easter so on board there is a priest
that does a Catholic service and then an
inter denominational service so we had
Easter Service and just celebrated
Easter on board the second part of okan
is it’s super special because my dad was
stationed in okanawa when he was in the
Army so interesting story about that
he’s married to my mom he has my brother
my brother and I are three years apart
in the middle of having my brother and
me he’s goes to okanawa now he’s in
okanawa and he’s not real sure about
whether or not he’s uh fully in to stick
with my mom so he’s not sure if he’s
even going to come back to her so if you
do the math if he doesn’t come back to
her I would never be born and I would
never see the world and I would never be
able to share it with you so first of
all thanks Dad for keeping us all safe
secondly thanks for coming back to Mom
and having me cuz we know that I am your
absolute favorite daughter he has only a
son and a daughter but that is a minor
point um and third we loved okanawa so
there you go so let’s go check it out
before we hit the streets in okanawa I
just want to show you the Japanese money
this is so
cool so again
Japanese their money when you put it up
to the light you can see the image of
the uh face on the the bill in the
window just I don’t know random but I
just thought it was super cool the pilot
either jumping on or jumping back
off I’m waving just
goodbye on a somber note our first stop
in okanawa is at the former Japanese
Naval underground headquarters in 1945
the Japanese Navy established this
underground structure as their
headquarters it was a place the rear
Admiral and many of his men committed
suicide during the
war its intent is to educate generations
of the tragedy of war and encourage
world World Peace we definitely got that
uh this is something to be remembered
this is something to educate as to the
impact of the wars around the world and
to um encourage World Peace we saw that
all over Japan but what an difficult
place to see an important one but a very
difficult place to be I we you’re able
to go down in the tunnels see all the
war rooms where they planned where they
met um where they literally were holed
up hiding um and where they died and it
was just um overwhelming to be in there
I cried through the whole thing um just
a massive amount of loss of life and
what these people went through in these
tunnels and the situations they were in
and the decisions that they made um just
a
heartwrenching difficult um but
obviously necessary to um see so that
was the beginning of our uh trip to
okanawa a somber start so it’s all
uphill from here or downhill from here
we continue walking with our friends to
see the fugu in Garden this is a
traditional Japanese garden before we
get to the Garden um a couple random
things a quick bathroom stop at the Navy
headquarters introduces us to this giant
little friend you can see from the size
of the tile this thing was huge it
wasn’t a quarter it was probably about a
half
dollar I’m not a spider girl like
yeah I didn’t even want to be in in the
building let alone in that stall um but
when you got to go you got to go but I
did not go in that stall he was yeah not
getting anywhere near me also random uh
as we’re walking to the Garden is
another vending machine but this one had
um hot chickens roasted
chickens there were roasted chickens in
the vending machine on the
street I I I can’t believe those words
just came out of my mouth but that that
yeah yeah roasted chickens in a vending
machine on the street in
okanawa the Japanese people have been so
kind and have gone out of their way to
be accommodating and helpful and we
needed to mail something um from a post
office in okanawa and we couldn’t find
the post office so we stopped into a
Supermarket she handrew us a map of
course she only speaks Japanese we don’t
speak Japanese but she understood mail
and stamp and she Drew us a little map
so that we could find our way around the
building and find the post office um Roy
went into the post office and blam blam
blam he was in and out of the post
office paid for this envelope to be on
its way
so yeah that could have been a whole big
ordeal it totally wasn’t it’s totally
simple love that another quick stop on
our way to the Garden is to Mr donut
because let’s be honest why
not that’s
delicious quick ride on the
train and then we are at the gardens so
let me tell you about these Gardens the
garden was built as celebration with
naha which is the city here in okan
and its sister city Fu in China all the
wood and stone in the gardens are from
fuzu the gardens are beautiful
traditional Japanese garden the pagodas
the koi pond a waterfall uh Japanese
statues it’s
beautiful the koi pond you can purchase
um koi food and so This Is Us feeding
the
koi a little further
okay look they’re coming running from
across the all the way
across actually reserved some of the
pellets so that we could kind of go
further away from the main part of the
pond so that the little guys could
actually get some food because these
guys went Bonkers over this koi
food we left some coins on the Japanese
sculpture this tradition is known as
tamagushi it’s done to honor the spirits
of the Shinto
religion and is believed to bring good
luck and
protection it’s only $1 us about2 yen to
get into the Japanese
garden and it’s a sweet little garden
right in the center of the city
definitely one I wouldn’t miss if I were
in
okanawa another random side note the
Japanese culture is that they don’t put
their trash barrels out on the street
it’s a thing there’s no trash barrels
there’s no trash collection from barrels
on the street what they do is the trash
truck plays adal Vice this song Those
are yeah no yeah
[Music]
ferti as the trash truck is driving it
plays the song So it alerts the
homeowners that the trash truck is
coming and so when they hear the music
playing they bring their trash out he
takes their trash dumps it and they go
back into their house the cities in
Japan have been impeccably clean and
this is another way to just keep it
clean we don’t need the trash on the
street the truck alerts them and they
bring it out loved that loved that Lov
that love that this is just a beautiful
cap off to our beautiful day in okanawa
started somber had a little middle Suite
A whole bunch of random things um gave
us a real picture of local Japanese
culture and so warm so welcoming loved
it goodbye okanawa we loved you
goodbye next up we’re going to take a
detour for a bit from Japan while we’re
down here at the bottom to scoot over to
South Korea and South Korea is going to
take me months to
process what we saw what we experienced
and what our Port stops were in South
Korea yeah it is going to take me months
to process so these are uh some stops
that you do not want to miss so be sure
to
subscribe so that you’re notified of the
post of South Korea and uh if you liked
the video today on our beginning of
seven stops in
Japan I would love to hear your thoughts
on ishigaki in okanawa have you been
there what do you think did you like
them would you go back um these two for
sure in Japan we’ve checked off of our
list um saw them we don’t need to go
back but yeah I would love to hear your
thoughts and stay tuned for South Korea
you’re going to want to see this as
always thank you so much for joining me
thank you for being part of this
incredible World Journey that we are on
thank you for just yeah being part of it
uh it’s just been mindblowing
extraordinary overwhelming incredible
all the adjectives and I’m not supposed
to use anymore but I don’t know how to
describe this stuff any better so thank
you thank you thank you as always for
being here and um yeah next up South
Korea and until then bye for now
[Music]