December 11, 2025
Day 100 — Naha
Marilee here.
This was a day that for weeks we’d been mentally preparing for. Our flight to Bangkok was less than a week away and we needed to find a source of bike boxes somewhere in the city. I’d read online that securing bike boxes in Naha could be challenging, and so we’d purposely come to town several days ahead of our departure to start the hunt. We had compiled a list of bike stores to hit up. And we had a Plan B, in the event that our box hunt was unsuccessful: getting supplies to wrap the bikes in padding and tarps from a DIY store.
Clearly, we were going to need some sustenance for this expedition: to the breakfast buffet! We were staying at a hotel near the port that prided itself on the excellence of its breakfast buffet, so our expectations were high. And once again, Japan managed to totally surprise us. It was a “Mediterranean Breakfast with a Scandinavian twist” — which meant: pizza, fresh made to order pasta dishes, Swedish meatballs, gravlax, and all you could drink red wine.
We passed on the red wine at 7:30am, but there were folks in the dining room who were going for it.
Well, after an odd but good breakfast, we headed out on our quest. Naha is a fair-sized city (about 350,000 residents), so there were several bike shops on our list to visit. We’d already hit up one, unsuccessfully. The day before, we’d been sitting in the hotel lobby going over our list of prospects when I glanced out the window and realized that one of the bike shops was actually just across the street. We ran over, and were immediately buoyed up with hope by spotting two empty bike boxes sitting behind the cash. Alas, they were “reserved” for others.
And that was the story at each of half-dozen bike shops we visited: no, reserved, no we don’t have any, oh that one? no it’s taken, no sorry, no, no. At one stop, actually the bike department of a larger sporting goods store, Sports Depo (yes, there’s no “t”), we thought we’d finally struck it lucky. The clerk behind the cash said, yes of course we could have the bike boxes that we pointed to, standing in a corner of the shop. Turned out they were full bike boxes, and he assumed that we also wanted the bikes inside. Once we cleared that up, with laughter all round, his face went serious and he started in on the “no, no, no, sorry” routine that we’d been listening to all morning.
Sigh.
We were more successful at the DIY store, which had big rolls of bubble wrap, giant tarps, zip ties and packing tape — all the fixings for wrapping the bikes. No point in buying any of it yet, as we had nowhere to store it except for our very small hotel room, so we headed back across town to the tourist district. On the way we passed a US naval port, with a giant US transport ship being loaded with military vehicles. The US military presence on this island is not subtle. Every day since our arrival we’ve listened to the roar of fighter jets soaring overhead, and watched convoys of enormous vehicles lumber down the streets.
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Back at the hotel, we were at loose ends and needed some cheering up after our fruitless daylong quest. So we headed up to the rooftop glass-walled infinity pool! Before you conclude that we’ve become hopelessly self-indulgent (and possibly on our way to bankruptcy with the fancy lodging lately), let me offer in self-defense that hotel pools in Naha seem to be quite common — part of competing for tourist dollars in a crowded market. Anyway, it was a cool rainy day, so we were the only ones going for a dip, and we splashed around trying to get a look over the edge at the street below, and wondering what would happen if an earthquake struck.
Post dip, we headed down to the lobby for happy hour (I know, this is quite the hotel). Tom went ahead to get us a table and when I was ready to follow him down a few minutes later, I decided to take the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator. Don’t tell any fire inspectors, but it appears that the hotel is using their emergency stairwell as a storage area — the landings were crammed with boxes. Including, on the second floor landing, 4 huge boxes from flat screen TVs. Four long, wide, flat boxes…..
In high excitement, I dragged Tom away from his cup of free beer to show him my discovery. He agreed — this was a solution to our problem, sitting right here in our hotel! We sat down to craft our very weird request and put it into Google translate for the hotel desk staff. And it worked! Sure, we could have the empty boxes. The would even put a note on them to make sure that they wouldn’t get thrown out. Bless the staff of the Hotel Aqua Citta!
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
To cap off our day, we had dinner at a little 4-seater restaurant where the owner/chef was so impressed to hear about our cycling adventure, he insisted on giving us some free dishes. And with our bike box dilemma solved, we decided to head off the next morning to some nearby islands for a final beach weekend.
Today's ride: 20 km (12 miles)
Total: 4,837 km (3,004 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 5 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 1 |