Day 5: Whale Watching Tour --> Nangoku Shokudo (lunch) --> Okinawa World --> Peace Memorial Park
After a good night's rest, we started Day 5 on an early note. By 8:20 am, we were already en route to a harbour for a whale watching tour. This was supposed to be one of the highlights of the tour but I was sadly quite disappointed.
From January to March, as part of their migratory route, you can find humpback whales frolicking around the coasts of Okinawa. They supposedly travel all the way from the waters off Alaska to the waters around Okinawa to give birth and raise their calves. I had purposely timed our travel to catch this awesome natural phenomena.
There are several whale watching tour operators, so I just let our tour organiser make the decision to book the tickets for us. My only request was to have the tour in the morning so that we can avoid the mid-day heat. To be honest, I didn't even bother to find out which operator it was. Only now that I'm writing this post and snapped these pictures of the guidebooks that were given to us, then do I have a notion as to which operator it was.
Once we reached the harbour, the tour operator was already waiting for us. We were asked to register and sign some waivers before dad and I were allowed to clamber on board one of the boats (as seen in the picture above).
Unfortunately, that morning itself, my mom wasn't feeling too great (side effect from her medications) so she opted out and rested in the car instead. Great decision actually. Because there were several others on our boat, who got really sea-sick. So those of you with motion sickness, please do avoid heavy meals and take those motion-sickness medication prior the tour.
Dad and I were also given a copy of a whale watching guidebook that detailed possible movements (aka potential camera shots) to watch out for. It was just a simple 4-page pocket-sized handbook and extra plus, the guidebook was in English!
As with such animal watching tours, it's not always a given that you will get the opportunity to see them in action. So every time I get on one of these, I would always remind myself not to be too upset if the tour was a wash. Except this time, I was disappointed, but it was not because the whales weren't around.
In fact, we were fortunate enough to see (likely) a mother and her calf, and another whale! So that's 3 whales in one boat-show. One of the whales even executed a breach!
What upset me was that it seemed like my boat captain didn't get to a vantage spot! I thought that our boat seemed stuck most times, while the other boats were moving into really good spots. In fact, for that particular whale breach, we were blocked by that particular boat (which had a front-seat ticket!) in my earlier picture. In fact, the whales seemed to stay mostly in front of the other boat!
I was so disappointed losing that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see such a spectacle! The whales seemed to enjoy performing for the other boat more while I was desperately praying (sadly unanswered) for my boat captain to just shift to the side.
In fact. the photos you see here on the blog, are the only (half) decent ones I could get. Also managed to get a couple of short clips during those rare moments the whales did come over to our side.
Loved the experience. And would love having a better experience, so yeah, this will definitely still be on the itinerary the next time I head to Okinawa again.
Tourist Information
Figured a shot of the operator's details on the guidebook would be best. Details on the bottom right corner.
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