EN: During my second day on Okinawa I could confirm that the standard of transport on these islands is much lower than the one on the main land. As I had mentioned, the monorail is overpriced, you can’t use your SUICA card on it and although it can take you to the most important spots in Naha, that’s it, you can’t get anywhere else and you need to take one of the buses. And the departure frequency of buses is not always the best – I wanted to get to Okinawa Peace Park, since the Battle of Okinawa was one of the bloodiest battles of the WWII, but that wasn’t an easy task, especially not for a foreigner. I had to take two buses, with a 50-minutes long break. One ride on the bus cost around 700 yen, so if you take a one way trip, it’s around 1400 yen – not cheap at all. Once I finally got to the Peace Park, I had to be very quick as I only had one hour and 20 minutes to enjoy it – if I missed the bus, I would have to wait another 2 hours for the next one. My next stop was Okinawa World, which is supposed to be some kind of an entertainment and amusement park. Well, I enjoyed the local cave, but that was about it. I didn’t appreciate the walking path system, every visitor had to walk through the market zones and shopping districts to get to another attraction. Once I got back to the hotel, I had a break, got out into the town and that was pretty much the end of my trip to Okinawa, as I had to fly back to Osaka next day.
SK: Druhý deň v Okinawe potvrdil, že lokálna doprava je na otrasnej úrovni a okrem toho je predražená. Okrem jednokoľajky (tak sa to vraj volá?) sú na ostrove iba autobusy, ktorých frekvencia je v niektorých prípadoch každých 90 minút a to dokáže turistovi zabiť značný kus času. To sa stalo aj mne, snažil som sa totiž dostať do parku mieru, musel som sa tam trepať dvomi autobusmi, pričom medzi nimi bola časová medzera asi 50 minút. Nehovoriac o tom, že každý z nich si vyžiadal ďalších 40-50 minút a jedna jazda stála medzi 600-700 yenmi. V parku som nemal veľa času, nemohol som navštíviť ani múzeum, keďže v prípade, že by som zmeškal ďalší bus, musel by som čakať skoro dve ďalšie hodiny a na to som fakt nemal dostatok priestoru. Vybral som sa do Okinawa World, v ktorom bola jedinou pozitívnou vecou jaskyňa, okrem toho mi vôbec neimponoval a najviac mi vadilo nútené preháňanie turistov a návštevníkov cez nákupné zóny, ktoré sa nedali obísť. Do hotela som dorazil v podvečer, vybral som sa ešte von na prechádzku a to bolo všetko…
