Getting Lost in Sueyoshi Park

Today is overcast and there is a very slight drizzle. We had planned to take the ferry to Tokashiki Island, but islands are best visited on sunny days so we spend the morning inside working. At 11:00 A.M. Narumi, Art’s newly acquired Kanji and Japanese tutor comes to the house. She is gregarious with a big smile and I like her immediately. Art and Narumi sit at our kitchen table and she works with Art to help him read the newspaper and they converse in Japanese. John works diligently on several writing assignments and I work on completing my third original dragon pendant; this one wrapping around an fiery orange 8.75 carat Mexican Fire Opal.

It’s Friday, March 2^nd and we need to cash travelers checks again. Around 2:00 P.M. the three of us head to the monorail stopping first at a nearby bank. Going to an Okinawan bank is nothing like banking back home. Not all banks offer foreign exchange, but we get lucky and this one does. As soon as we enter, we are greeted pleasantly and asked what our business is? The “greeter” pulls a number from a machine, hands it to us and bows slightly. We are graciously motioned to sit down and wait. There are 5 rows of couches all facing a television screen suspended from the ceiling. Magazines and newspapers are available to read. Above each of the teller windows is a screen with lighted numbers. When it is our turn our number lights up above one of the “windows” and I am seated in an upholstered chair. Art stands beside me and fills out the required form while I sign traveler’s checks. We return to our couches and watch television until we are graciously called and motioned back to the chair opposite our teller. Our money is presented to us on a small tray, the receipt slid gently towards us. We are invited to count the money. Everyone bows, smiles and thanks us. We reciprocate bows, smiles and thank yous. This cycle continues until we have exited the bank.

We walk to the Monorail and Art purchases 3 one way tickets to the stop nearest Sueyoshi Park. The monorail is not a bargain for three traveling together. Our three one way tickets are 230 yen each. ($2.00 each.) I like the monorail; traveling high above the red tile roofs of the ancient homes and being level with the apartment balconies and windows. I like looking down on the rooftop patchwork. The city is gray today and by the time we arrive at the station it is drizzling lightly. I see the lush forests of Sueyoshi Park high on the next hill over. To reach the park we must first walk down into a residential district before climbing back up to the hillside park. It’s after 3:00 P.M. and Art and I have had little to eat today. We enter the park, but the stone pathway looms formidably up the hillside and we are too hungry to continue before eating something first. Two boys on bicycles point us in the direction of a soba shop. Although not memorable, our late lunch fuels us on and we return to the park with enthusiasm. The light rain adds to the atmosphere as we enter the overgrowth of this subtropical forest. Initially the limestone walkway is beautifully restored, but as we continue to climb the stones are broken and irregular, the forest’s vines and tendrils encroaching on the ancient pathway. Just steps away from the city we are in a magical and ancient forest. We continue to climb and come upon a formidable tomb. It is a “turtle back tomb,” some 60 feet square, pristine and with every stone of the wall and tomb intact and undisturbed. Moss grows from between the stones and I feel as if I am Indiana Jones discovering an ancient ruin. We haven’t seen another human since leaving the manicured park below. John and I want to climb to the shrine still further up the hillside, but Art is feeling queasy from lunch and turns back. Our meeting plans are not clear, but at this moment I think we all assume we will connect again within the next 15 to 20 minutes.

John is the proverbial explorer and there are many overgrown pathways to choose from. He encourages me to climb still further and we come upon several small and magical Utaki. The burnt remains of incense is wet upon the stones. John continues to climb and explore small natural caves weathered deep into the limestone veiled in the root and vine structure of the Aka trees. Our ultimate goal is the Shrine, but the pathway isn’t clear and we are about to turn back when I spot a glint of red through the foliage. We follow the slippery overgrown pathway and come upon the shrine. The wooden shrine is reconstructed but the steep stone stairway, wall and archway are ancient examples of Ryukyu Kingdom stonework. I climb the stairway to sit at the very top step of the shrine. I breath in the magic off the forest cascading below and beyond and gaze over the hazy city of Naha beyond. We haven’t encountered another soul for over an hour and I am ready to turn back but John discovers yet another overgrown stone stairway behind the shrine. He prods me onward and upward until we top the hill and emerge with a view of the other side of Naha. Dusk is settling in and I have tried to call Art’s cell phone, but it just buzzes busy. I am feeling anxious to reconnect and I tell John that we must hurry back down to the center of the park. Art is no where to be found so John and I wait near the playground area for another 20 minutes. Eventually my cell phone rings. Art is calling from a pay phone up at the entrance to the park. The battery on his cell phone died and he has all but organized a search party to find us. He has been imagining all sorts of mishaps that might have befallen us, from habu (a poisonous snake) to just plain getting lost. Admittedly we were exploring much too long, but with Arts phone dead my attempts to connect were useless.

We take a taxi home and we pay about the same as we would for three tickets on the monorail.