Okinawa: Day 1

It has always been a goal of mine to go to Okinawa and see the world's biggest aquarium. And I had mentioned to my Rotary since I have gotten here that I wanted to go. I thought I was just saying it. But my rotary being so nice as they are made it come true. I must say I'm really happy to be on this trip, within a trip (trip-ception).
So last night I was up packing and generally just screwing around because I couldn't sleep and I was talking about feels with Beki on skype, so I ended up only getting around 2 hours of sleep. We were going to leave at around seven in the morning, as we were taking the train to the airport instead of going by car. I was awoken (apparently) many times but eventually got up at around seven. I got panicked and threw on my clothes, finished up some packing and skipped breakfast. So everyone got together and with our luggage boarded the crowded trains for almost two hours of transferring and standing uncomfortably close to too many people. We took the monorail (MONORAIL!!!!) from Hamamatsucho and arrived a few stations later in Haneda Airport. It was my first time there! Well today was full of a lot of firsts, yay! So we checked in, and I find it really strange that I had to not show one piece of ID in the airport and I was able to take more liquids on board then I:m used to (not on purpose). Japan, you trust too easily. Before checking in though we decided to get breakfast. Mine was a delicious strawberry sundae! Yay nutrition! We boarded after scanning a ticket, not unlike the train station, and received another piece of paper that said our seat. We sat down and I had a window seat. It was my two younger host sisters first time on a plane so they were scared and excited. It was cute. i ended up just sleeping the entire time. But we arrived at around 1:30 and in order to make it in time, we rented our car and started on our two hour trip north to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. We picked up some lunch from the convenience store and after eating that and singing in the car, majority of us fell asleep, due to lack of it. We arrived at the aquarium around four and I became so excited. We went in and the first thing we saw was a touch tank. It mainly had starfish and sea cucumbers but it was really interesting. Then we mad our way through the tanks. Seeing giant fish, regular sized fish and super tiny fish, we eventually made our way the the biggest tank. A tank that housed three whale sharks, five manta rays and countless amounts of fish. I was in sheer awe. I had seen a video of this exact tank a few years before and ever since that day I have been determined to go there. It was beyond beautiful. I was speechless. There was also a shark section. And if any of you actually know me, you:ll know that my favourite animals are sharks and manatees. So I was very interested in the shark section. They had many specimens on shark teeth and foetus of sharks and even had the skin of a great white that was caught back in the 80's. I was utterly and completely happy. Oh, but there is more. We left the actual aquarium and made our way through the souvenir shop. I say a plush manatee and thought it was weird that they would sell it without actually having any manatee on display as a lot of Japanese people don't know what manatees are or they just don't know that they do. After the shop we made our way downstairs into another exhibit. I had seen a building that said マナティー館. Me being silly, didn't read it correctly and therefore wasn't excited. I honestly thought it said Manta ray. But As we were walking towards it, my senses came back to me and realised it said "MANATEE"! I was so excited and I broke out into a sprint. I got there and once again was speechless. There were four manatees; two girls and two boys. The creatures I love so dearly were being as lazy as usual and just as adorable. One of the boys came to the surface for air and on his way down bumped his nose into the side of the tank. It was.... so... adorable. FEELS! I watched them from above for awhile before I realised that there was a downstairs and you could see them closer. I went and did so and one of the boys (Ryu) played a lot and so I got good pictures. Along with a picture of him and I. My dream has come true. I am so happy. So happy to the point where words can't describe it. After we found this little area called Turtle Beach. Unfortunately no turtles but it was really beautiful. White sand and warm crystal blue water. We then made our way to a dolphin and whale show. It was really cute. I'm not a fan of dolphins but yeah, it was an entertaining show. Then we decided it was time to go to check into the hotel. We made our two hour trip again and once again majority of us slept. I woke up as my head slammed against the window (not fun) and it was dark. We were almost to our hotel but my host parents were looking for a place to eat. They drove us to the hotel and we checked in and brought our bags to our rooms. This hotel is very beautiful. Very grand. We then walked to an Izakaya (basically a restaurant with good food and cheap alcohol) to partake in Okinawa food. We ordered so much food and I don't even remember half of it. But all was delicious. We stuffed ourselves and talked a lot before getting the shuttle bus back to the hotel (really didn't need to because the hotel was around ten minutes away on foot haha). And now my host family is playing ping pong and billiards as I write this on the public computer, as i did not bring my own. I was kicked off the piano in the middle of the room though. Sad times. But now I am by myself in this huge lobby. I think I'll go to bed now. Tomorrow is when we will be doing all of our water activities and I'm really excited! I'm basically the only person who will be actually swimming as 4/5 of my host family cannot swim. I may or may not write tomorrow! Until next time!