Okinawa is one of the most interesting places in Japan since once it was the capital of ancient independent kingdom of Ryukyu, the prosperous maritime kingdom where international trade influenced its unique culture making the island became a fascinating melting pot of local, Chinese, Japanese with some Southeast Asian touches. On invitation of my friend to see the Okinawan cherry blossom festival on February, which considered the first place to see the flower blooming in Japan, I stayed on the island for one week and had a chance to see the Gusuku sites, one of Japanese World Heritage.

I have visited 5 out of 9 sites that UNESCO inscribed, the first two places are the ruins of Nakijin Gusuku and Naka Gusuku, both were Gusuku which means castle, the castle ruins were just amazing, I never ever expected to see these kind of ruins in the country liked Japan, the ruins made me think that I was looking the Inca or Maya civilization or even the great Zimbabwe ruin in Africa, they were so unique in my opinion, not only the ruins surprised me, the surroundings were just breathtaking, from the castles I could see the beautiful turquoise coral sea of Pacific, the lush tropical forest and many of blooming cherry trees, truly a postcard perfect.

As I mentioned the Gusuku I visited were ruins, both from antiquity and war especially the battle of Okinawa during WWII which destroyed almost every historical site on the island, the only place where in 1992 the Japanese restored all the war ruins to their former glory was the Shuri area, Shuri was a former capital city of Ryukyu and three of world heritage sites were in this area. The first place I visited was Sonohyan Utaki Stone Gate of the sacred grove, it was just a small stone gate that located next to the main road hardly notice its importance. The gate is still considered as a sacred shrine and during my visit I saw a couple of locals offered fruit and did some ritual thing.

The main focus of Shuri area was Shuri Castle, which was a royal palace of Ryukyu monarch, the castle was fully restored with many beautiful ceremonial gates and the royal residence complex, giving a great idea what other Gusuku should be look liked in ancient time. The castle exterior was built in Chinese style, especially the throne hall; however the interior was similar to Japanese one, the castle museum was also interesting and the replica Ryukyu throne was just amazing and my favorite was the cultural show of Ryukyu dance, the dancers were all graceful; however, visiting Shuri castle was liked visiting a theme park, everything were so superficial and set up for tourists, I did not think I enjoyed Shuri after I have seen other two fascinating and authentic Gusuku places.

The last place was Tamaudon or the royal mausoleum, this place located not far from the popular Shuri castle, but Tamaudon was totally a different world, this complex was so quiet and peaceful with the very interesting exhibition on ancient Ryukyu royal funeral as well as many photos of pre-war Shuri. After visit Mainland Japan, South Korea and China in consecutive years, visiting Okinawa to see Ryukyu Kingdom was a gap filling of my East Asian comparative travel study, visiting Okinawa and its Gusuku sites gave me another version of Japan and this regional culture, the island may not offered the ideal Japan that people want to see, but it has its own characteristic and charm that deserved to be praised and visited and in my opinion another great world heritage site.