It's not all sunshine in Okinawa

Camping for two weeks at Yaeyama islands passed quickly. Whereas I was weatherwise somewhat lucky on Iriomote-jima, the Inoda Campground on Ishigaki-jima confirmed to be on the wet eastcoast - 5 days and a grey rainy sky did not allow for one morning sunrise shot.

Yesterday I had my one-hour flight to Naha, Okinawa, up north. There are no more ferries these days connecting the Yaeyamas with Okinawa. And my plan was to walk straight to Tomari port to catch the last ferry to Zamami-jima, my next remote camping destination.

Rushing in rain from Miebashi monorail station to Tomari port, the ticket office was closed ... and the last ferry departed 20 minutes ago. A late plane and wrong departure information upfront, and you find yourself on a rainy day in search for a cheap place to stay. I have to add here, that I do not have a local sim-card to access internet ... hence walking out there into a grey, wet late afternoon. Yep, moral was low.

Finally I decided for a very basic guesthouse not far from the port and the next morning - after a kind of instant coffee and cake breakfast from nearby Lawson convenience store - I made up my mind to cruise one day along busy Kokusai Dori shopping street and enjoy lunch at one of these tiny Noodle places in a side street.

There's nothing like those tiny places offering quick cooking in great varieties. And when I see people waiting outside of a small restaurant, it makes me interested.

Mahoroba, having hot Taiwanese stir noodles on their menu - yep, that sounds good. I entered my name in a list outside and had to wait about 10-15 minutes to be called in.

Oh, I'm loving that type of tiny restaurants: freshly cooked, delicious, very reasonable and ambience. Indeed, I alredy forgot yesterday's mishaps and can now relax for tomorrow's ferry to Zamami-jima and - according to the weather forecast - some nice camping in sunny spring days.