{"id":34265,"date":"2016-01-18T13:30:41","date_gmt":"2016-01-18T12:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peregrinusmundi.com\/temps-gris-a-okinawa\/"},"modified":"2020-07-12T18:22:34","modified_gmt":"2020-07-12T16:22:34","slug":"gray-weather-in-okinawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peregrinusmundi.com\/en\/gray-weather-in-okinawa\/","title":{"rendered":"Gray weather in Okinawa"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
DISPATCH<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Tuesday January 12, boarding around 10am for Okinawa. The 1.5 hour flight takes place peacefully over a particularly compact and impressive sea of \u200b\u200bclouds. The weather should be gray below. Around Naha Airport, the main city on Okinawa Island, as we descend below the clouds, I see a turquoise blue sea and small coral reefs appear. As I predicted, the weather is all gray.<\/p>

Rosaries of semi-tropical islands, the Ryukyu Islands evoke Hawaii, Brazil or Southeast Asian countries more than the rest of Japan. The Ryukyu archipelago of which Okinawa is a part, was for centuries independent from Japan. For a very long time, the islands were ruled by local chiefs called Aji<\/em>, until 1429, when Sho Hashi unified the islands and founded the Ryukyu dynasty. He developed exchanges with China, leading to the development of arts, literature and ceramics in the archipelago. Invaded in 1609 by the Shimazu clan of Satsuma (Kagoshima<\/strong><\/a>), the Ryukyu kingdom became for Japan a base of trade with the outside world. In 1879 the kingdom was integrated into Japan and became the prefecture of Okinawa. The Ryukyu culture and language were almost eradicated by the Meiji government. At the end of the Second World War, the Japanese army decided to use the Okinawa Islands as a shield against the Allies. Thousands of civilians perished in battles and the landscape was forever altered. Following the war, Okinawa remained under American control until 1972. Today, many active American military bases are still located on the archipelago.<\/p>

After settling in my very rustic inn (my room is made up of a bed and that’s it), I go in search of food and take a walk in Naha. Capital of the island and of the prefecture of Okinawa, Naha has a tropical and different atmosphere from Japan which is immediately felt: a sort of calm, relaxed atmosphere, of houses evoking more fishermen’s huts or divers than real dwellings, new beliefs and more tanned and more massive people than on the Japanese continent. On the other hand, Naha, like a majority of Japanese cities and towns which also suffered greatly from the war, is really not very attractive in terms of architecture. The only building that stands out is the magnificent Shurijo castle. Built in the 14th century when Naha was called Shuri, the medieval castle was the administrative center and residence of the kings of the Ryukyu dynasty until the 19th century. The building was destroyed four times by fire! The last time took place during the Second World War. The castle has been completely rebuilt. It is therefore quite strange to walk around in an almost new building when it is supposed to date from the 14th century.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t