My day before the last at Okinawa was very adventurous. I woke up very early in the morning, packed my stuff and hoped to cross the bridge before it gets closed because of the typhoon. Left a thank-you note on the table and headed out. It started raining as soon as i set foot on the bridge, but i didn’t mind much since i had no illusions about making it back to Naha dry. I just had to get to the bus stop nearby and hope i’d get connections all the way. But it was raining hard, so i decided to give a try for hitchhiking to the nearest bus stop. Luckily enough, soon two surfer guys picked me up, and offered a ride not just to the next stop but all the way to Nago (where i had to change on the way to Motobu). In Nago i walked to the bus station (on the way making my usual ice coffee out of Via and having two onigiri for brunch (which, apparently, is a recognized english word)). This town seemed so… abandoned. I mean, there were people everywhere, but the overall impression was that it’s a dying town.

If the above picture of the past roof of a shopping walk isn’t enough, how about a tree/bush growing on it?

Anyway i made it to the bus station, where last time i spent so much time.

But not then. It turned out even if i made it to the bus stop at Kouri island, no bus would come, because all bus traffic was suspended due to the typhoon. And i had to make it back to Naha that day no matter what, so that i could surely get on my plane. So i set out to get there hitchhiking. (No more pictures from here on, because it was raining hard and i didn’t want to ruin my phone.)

I started walking on the side of a high-traffic road, holding my thumb up, hoping some chef on a spaceship would beam me up, but nothing like that happened. After a long while of walking and hoping and hiding from the rain under trees and overhead crossings, finally someone stopped for me. It was a nice half-japanese half-american woman, who gave me a lift roughly half-way. Then came again walking and hoping in the rain, when again after some time (i’d say i walked a few miles for sure) a guy in an old-school mini picked me up. I’d risk he was crazy. Although he lived the opposite direction, he gave me a lift all the way to Naha, and when the BASE guesthouse was full to CamCam as well. On the way he paid for my lunch (okinawan soba) and gave me another strap on my phone (let me choose, and i got a black-and-white figure out of wires, über-cool).

Thus i got back to CamCam, and i settled in again. Talked with the people there, played on the Nintendo 64, and thus another day passed. There was a strange guy, who seemed to be some kind of “boss”, not of the place, but all the youth and generally everyone treated him as if he was the head of a local yakuza. Whatever, in the middle of the night when he and his woman got back from somewhere, he pretty much made me drink with him, not that i minded (the drinking part, talking with an arrogant, dead drunk japanese and his chick, is another thing).

I went to sleep, a bit nervous of bed bugs, but had no problems.