Japan 2019 – Okinawa – Naha

In 2019, I took a longer trip to Japan, 6 weeks to be exact. I’ve been to Japan several times, but always as a business trip. This time the extensive touristic tour.

I start at the southern – Okinawa, Naha to be exact. Naha itself is for tourism unspectacular. Touristically interesting is Shuri Castle (Wikipedia).

There you can learn about Okinawa history. Okinawa has long been the (more ore less) independent kingdom of Ryukyu with strong trade links to China, Korea and Japan.

Okinawa itself is famous for its diving spots. On the islands around and in the north of the islands. There are also some more beaches and resorts. The beach in Naha was a bit disappointing (why they build a highway in front of the only city beach?)

Updates (Shuri Castle Fire)

• Nov. 2019
  

I was shocked when I had to learn that a large part of the 500 year old Shuri Castle burned down in October 31 due an, as far as known, electrical malfunction.

So how can I help? At least I can upload my photos to this project – Shuri Castle Digital Reconstruction, helping to create an realistic 3D computer model from this pictures. There is also an crowdfunding campaign set up.

• Dec. 2019:

News about the virtual castle project, Kyodo News, virtual model at project website or Scetchfab and Googles arts and culture project site for the Shurijo Castle reconstruction.