THINGS are done a little differently in Okinawa. People are a little different too. ‘We are quite unlike the rest of Japan down here,’ they’ll tell you. ‘Our landscapes, our culture, our food, is really quite different to the rest of Japan,’ they’ll say.
Walking too is a little different in Okinawa, one of 160 islands in the prefecture, some 1,600km south of bustling Tokyo. Trails are less formal than the designated hikes in the country’s north.
At the heart of Japan’s health food-focused Blue Zone, it’s not uncommon for Okinawans to live to 100 years of age thanks to their predominantly vegetarian/pescetarian diet. It’s also not uncommon to take walks with owners of off-the-trodden-track lodgings and rural restaurants. Call it walking in their shoes.
