Okinawa (沖縄)

Okinawa is located in the very south west part of Japan, and one of very famous tourism spots. Okinawa has a very special history. Before Okinawa officially became a part of Japan in 1879, it used to be an independent country and had a very close trading relationship with Japan, China, Korea, South East Asia and other neighbour countries. Because of that multicultural background, Okinawa built a fusion of culture based on its own culture. If you visit castles and temples there, you can feel how Okinawa has been developing its own culture for a long time.

Shurijo (首里城)

Shisa (シーサー)

Some of you might know that Okinawa was the only one prefecture that experienced land battle during World War Two. You can visit many memorial parks or museums to learn what happened in Okinawa.

<source: http://rca.open.ed.jp/history/index.html>

Okinawa Peace Memorial Park

 Shurijo (首里城) 
Shurijo was one of the strong kingdom back in Ryukyu (琉球) which was an independent country.

I went to Shurijo back in Fwbruary 2009, and it was my first time to trip to Okinawa.

Climb the stairs and enter the big gate of the old kingdom!



The model of Shurijo:
It does not look like tradittional Japanese kingdom from the way so many people sit in that way. I guess it is simillar to Chinese?

The view from the castle

Unfortunately the castle is not the original castle, but I could still enjoy imagining how the kingdom was run, how people were living there by entering in the castle and museum.  The view from the castle was beautiful. I enjoyed the contrast between the area storing its ancient history and modern buildings where people live now. Just visit and feel the history there!