Saturday 9 March 2013

Okinawa's temple for the senses

One of my Okinawa stories is in the travel section of this weekend's Sydney Morning Herald (and other Fairfax papers around the country). It's about a luxury hotel with soul, and an ocean view, one of the most peaceful places I've ever stayed. And not just because it's in Japan.

Here's an excerpt and a few pics:

The inauspicious entrance
It's an inauspicious start. An overcast afternoon, with heavy clouds threatening rain. 

The divine bath
We follow a 
breadcrumb-trail of 
hand-painted wooden signs through nameless seaside villages, along ever-narrowing roads flanked by low walls bearing Chinese-looking lions called shisa. 

I feel like Alice falling down the rabbit hole - then we drive down a ramp and into an underground car park.

It's an odd first impression but the perfect introduction, I soon realise, to a luxury hotel that marches to the beat of its own drum: Hyakuna Garan, on the south-east coast of Okinawa's main island. 



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