I thought they were just photoshopped

Oh my god

Appetizing

...is not a word I would use

to describe this

I recently packed my bags, put on my cheap sunglasses and flew through the sky

1500 km south to the islands of Okinawa

It was here on my trip with Odigo Travel that I would discover a culture that was like Japan

but not like Japan

A culture where people get drunk off alcoholic snakes

and the lots and lots of spam!

And no sooner we had landed the first opportunity to experience Okinawan culture presented itself!

In Beer form!

So we just arrived in Naha the capital city of Okinawa and what better way to kick things off

than by trying the beer of Okinawa

Orion...Orion

Original Brew

Supposed to be quite good this is the local beer!

Never had it before!

Tastes a lot like Asahi

But little bit more citrusy, little bit more fruity!

In a good way! I find Asahi beers a bit boring..

If I was gonna rank the mainstream Japanese beers :

Asahi, Kirin, Orion, and Sapporo, the number one!

Good! Let's go and check out Okinawa

...by walking over here

This is probably the best beach I've been to

...ever!

It looks like someone's tipped hundreds of barrels of blue dye into the sea to make it look so perfect

I used to think beaches like this weren't real when I saw them in the UK in pictures and stuff, I thought they were just photoshopped

And to be fair, I'm right to be pessimistic, especially given how British beaches look compared to this

In the UK, you can't see through the water at all

And the sand looks like mud, this sand is white and the water is really really warm

Again, if you go in the sea anywhere in the UK, it's always freezing or cold, here it's like being in a hot bath!

That is ridiculous!

But was the beach really that good? I decided to ask some fellow tourists for their opinions

If you could describe this beach in one word, what would that word be?

Wet!

And you?

Hot!

Hot?

Such boring words

No, hot and wet beach!

Disgusting!

If you could rate this beach on a scale of 1 to 10, what would it be?

Errr like 20!

It's off the charts!!

Oh my god!!!

Why do you think Japanese women don't really wear bikinis that much?

There's like barely anyone on here

They don't want to get tanned and I think they embarrassed about showing skin

It's the sort of beach that makes me frustrated coz I know I'm never gonna be able to do it justice on camera

You need some sort of 4D VR Super Dooper Beach Experience

To be able to capture it!

This beach is amazing Jun

Yeah!

There's no one!

Absolutely no one!

Just you and me

So romantic!

Apart from the towel, the towel kind of removes the element of romance out of the equation

I wish I'd bloody brought one

Sweating like a ....donkey!

It seems the best way to appreciate the waters of Okinawa though is to get under it

So we're about to hop on this banana boat

Go out into the bay and check out some coral

Got some snorkeling gear

Let's go!

Having spent an hour flailing about under water like a porpus

We traded the photoshopped Okinawan waters for the bustling streets of downtown Naha

In order to taste another Okinawan cultural icon

So this is Blue Seal, apparently it's the ice-cream of Okinawa

It started out in America a few decades ago then came to Okinawa and now they just call it Okinawa Ice-Cream

I don't normally like ice-cream at all, but I'm willing to give it a shot!

What do you recommend Chris?

Salted Cookie!

It's an Okinawan local specialty

Banana Suzanna

What's that all about?

We're getting Shio Chinsuko

Which is Okinawa Salt Cookie

Is it the same as Chocolate Chip Cookie? Normal Cookie?

It's like a white sugar cookie

White sugar cookie??

Like all the cookie inside is like a vanilla ice-cream

Blue Seal Memorabilia

Here we go!

Oh yeah I like that!

That's really good!

It's really really thick and there seams to be like

lumps of biscuit in it!

Salted Cookie! It tastes a bit like Hershey's Chocolate Cookie chocolate

But in ice-cream form

Quite chewy!

It's like chewy ice-cream

So one of the national dishes of Okinawa is Spam

I'm not even joking, apparently after WWII it was really popular during rations

And they still eat it now, they have it fried

And it tastes pretty good

I actually had it in an Okinawan restaurant in Tokyo, and I thought someone was playing a prank on me or something

when I saw it on the menu

It actually tasted surprisingly good!

And look it's Rachel! Do you like Spam?

I'm not sure I've actually ever had Spam

It's like cheap luncheon meat

It doesn't look good, it looks like cancer

It looks like cancer and diabetes all rolled in one package

but tastes pretty good!

And then over here

there's Snake sake!

Look at his little face!

This is actually a drink

What is it? What's in there?

Part of me wants to try it, the other part is incredibly disgusted

The fact that the snake's face is in there

I hate it when people put snake in my drink

But if I thought snakes and spam were weird enough

nothing could prepare me for the frog purses

Oh my god!

This is a frog purse

I'm not even joking

What does it smell like?

It doesn't smell like anything

Nothing

That was a jolly good sniff!

Disgusting!

It's the sort of thing you can hide in someone's bed

and have a lot of fun!

Somehow despite the drowned vipers and the odorless frog purses we were still hungry!

So we headed to a nearby restaurant where I was able to try a popular Okinawan dish that had been recommended to me by a friend

So having some Okinawan food for lunch, we're kicking things off with Rafute which is kind of

Soy sauce marinated pork and it's very very fatty!

But looks pretty good!

Let's check it out!

There you go! You can't go wrong with pork

Oh hell yeah!

That's so good!

The pork is so tender!

And the fat, the fat isn't like horrible fat

Because it marinates in soy sauce it's quite a nice flavor!

Lucky Okinawans who can eat this regularly

9 out of 10

And Chris got some sake

Snake Sake!

Let's watch him get drunk and be sick everywhere

45 900:08:04,220 --> 00:08:07,740 This is Snake Venom Sake

You can't even drink beer, little alone 45% Snake Sake

It's gonna be messy

Wanna do Kanpai with snake venom sake?

That's a really strong flavor!

It actually tastes kind of nice!

It does?

Chris has gone quiet

Too strong!

I wouldn't help you coz I'm driving!

Oh I totally forgot!

I was gonna offer it to you!

No

You're on your own mate good luck

Okinawa was a lot of fun, but I knew the trip wouldn't feel complete without eating some spam

Fortunately I came across some at the airport on the way home

So finally tracked down some spam

It costs 290 yen which is about 2 or 3 dollars

And smells rather spectacular

Appetizing

Is not a word I would use to describe this but..

There you go!

It looks like someone's cut out its tongue off

and put it over some rice

It's very very salty

It tastes very very cheap

I don't mind spam it's quite a nice surprise

But....yeah this is a bit dodgy

It tastes like the sort of thing you'd eat if you're hungover

I've tried to spice things up

By putting some sauce in it but it still pretty bland!

That said, this is a pretty cheap place so this could be a poor reflexion on spam

Weirdly addictive

Must be all the salt

I had an amazing time in Okinawa

For me, the beaches were my personal highlight and I hope to go back some time soon

Probably during the disturbingly snow-filled winter months in North Japan

To see more videos of my journey around Japan with Odigo Travel, be sure to check out the Odigo YouTube Channel

And if you wanna see where we visited on our trip to Okinawa, or get ideas for places to visit on your trip to Japan

You should visit the Odigo website at the link below

Many thanks for watching guys, I'll see you next time!

You're looking to improve your marriage Chris?

I'm single, ladies!

On Chris' Channel

There's actually two snakes in here

Can you see those?

They're like kissing

Well isn't that cute?