I'm finally getting around to write about my first ride in Okinawa a month ago, which came after my “ride” to Okinawa. I posted a few photos in a preview post, but I want to keep the full memory of the lovely day, so I'm writing this report.

Here's the ride we did:

There are no big mountains in the south of Okinawa where we were, but there are plenty of short/steep hills, including two that average 12% over 600m, this and this. These short, intense climbs are the kind that, when I'm in good shape, I can do very well on, but trying that first one showed me just how weak I really was at the moment. I started out with what I thought was an easy pace, but had to scale even that back.

By the second one I had no illusions about my strength, so took it super easy and took photos during the climb...

Jason had shot ahead to position himself halfway to take some photos...

We took a meandering, exploring kind of route that sometimes required getting off the bike...

... but the results were worth it...

There was lots of infrastructure in this area that looked to be abandoned, as if the area grew too quickly after the war, and couldn't support what was built.

This lunch-only cafe serves wonderful home-made meals for a ridiculously cheap 500 yen (about US $4.50)....

The guy pushing his bike up the somewhat steep road was likely on his first ever ride, which seemed to be a commute. We'd encountered him early in the climb, prior to our side visit to the spooky tree, at the side of the road not knowing how to deal with his chain having popped off his gears. We showed him and went on our way, only to encounter him again here.

He's got gearing on his bike such that he should be able to easily ride straight up a brick wall, but I guess it can be overwhelming at first.

This sweeping road is the kind of dream descent that I'd normally like to ride aggressively (segment at Strava), but in recognition of my weak and out-of-practice state, I made the prudent decision to take it easy, and instead take photos of the group on the way down.

Unfortunately, despite going as slowly as I possibly could, it seems that I couldn't go slow enough to keep them in view behind me, so I eventually put the camera away and just coasted down. It was lovely.

After joining up with another road, the descent continued down toward our next destination, which eventually came into view....

I'd seen this big fish on the Google Maps satellite view and thought it'd be fun to visit.

The location also has a “heart bell”....

To be continued...