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Okinawa

116 places

• Abuchira Cave, Itokazu Two hundred and seventy metres of cave, and they served as a hospital for more than six hundred wounded.
• AEON Mall Okinawa Rycom ‘Rycom’ was the Ryukyu Command, and today it is the official name of the district.
• Aharen Beach (阿波連ビーチ) Lifeguards are on duty only from mid-April to the end of November: outside that period, you swim without a net.
• American Village (Mihama) Its Ferris wheel, SKYMAX60, is the only one in the whole of Okinawa Prefecture.
• Araha Beach The sailing ship that serves as a play structure is the Indian Oak, wrecked here on 14 August 1840.
• Asumui, the sacred forest of Hedo The limestone is two hundred and fifty million years old, and people still pray at sixty spots.
• Azama Sunsun Beach It has a beach wheelchair and a walkway on the sand: it is a universal beach.
• Bankoku Shinryokan The G8 was held here in July 2000; the name comes from a bell of Shuri Castle.
• Bise fukugi avenue Some of the trees are three hundred years old: planted to stop typhoons, not to give shade.
• Blue Cave, Cape Maeda (青の洞窟 / 真栄田岬) The light turns blue because of its wavelength: jumping into the sea from the rocks is forbidden here.
• Cape Chinen Park Ten minutes' walk from Sefa-utaki, and there is almost nobody there.
• Cape Hedo Yoron is visible 22 km away: under the occupation, people from here arranged to meet halfway across the sea.
• Cape Kyan Almost all the reviews talk about the same thing, and it is not the view.
• Cape Zanpa and its lighthouse It is the tallest lighthouse in Okinawa, one of only sixteen in Japan that you can climb.
• Chibichiri-gama Eighty-three dead out of one hundred and forty, and sixty per cent were under eighteen.
• Chinen Castle Ruins Two castles side by side: rough stones in one, squared blocks in the other.
• Fukugiya — the soba-ya on the Bise avenue The vegetable soba always arrives ‘mountain-high’: the place is at the entrance to the avenue.
• Fukushū Garden You cross the waterfall from behind, and the ticket costs two hundred yen.
• Futenma-gū and its cave Under the shrine lies a two-hundred-and-eighty-metre cave: ask at the counter.
• Gala Aoi Umi There is no admission ticket: you pay only for what you make with your hands.
• Gangala Valley (ガンガラーの谷) Minatogawa Man (22,300 years), the oldest skeleton in Japan: digging goes on here.
• Gesashi mangrove forest Here the yaeyama mangrove reaches the northern limit of its distribution in Japan.
• Ginowan Tropical Beach The showers cost one hundred yen for three minutes, and the season opens on 18 April.
• Gorilla Chop, Sakimotobu Green Space The municipality closes it in bad weather, and in 2026 this happened at least four times.
• Gyokusendo Cave (Okinawa World) Five kilometres of cave, but only 890 metres can be walked: the rest stays dark.
• Haebaru Military Hospital Tunnel No. 20 In 1990 it was the first war site in Japan to be designated a cultural property.
• Hate no Hama (Kume Island) Seven kilometres of coral sand without a single tree: it can only be reached by boat, in 20–30 minutes.
• Heiwa-dōri, the market arcade It took its name from the Heiwa-kan cinema in 1951; the roof came thirty years later.
• Higashi Azalea Garden Forty-eight thousand azaleas, in a village of one thousand six hundred and ninety-four inhabitants.
• Hiji Falls The highest waterfall on the island, twenty-five metres seventy, and it has been closed for two years.
• Himeyuri no To and memorial museum A full-size model of the hospital cave where they died, in the museum next door.
• Ie-udun Tomb Between the roof and the door the gap is narrow: it is the signature of the earliest shell tombs.
• Itoman Haaree — Itoman fishing port Three villages race each other in sabani in Itoman's port: in 2026 the lunar race falls on 18 June.
• Kabira Bay (川平湾) The world's first cultured black pearls were born here: there is no swimming in the bay; it is forbidden.
• Kakazu Takadai Park From the tower you look right into Futenma, and the reinforcing bars stick out of the pillbox.
• Kakinohana Castle Ruins Half swallowed by the jungle, on a ledge a hundred and twenty metres above the spring.
• Kakinohana Spring It is the southernmost of the hundred waters chosen by the Ministry of the Environment in 1985.
• Katsuren Castle From among these stones came the first coins of the Roman Empire ever found in Japan.
• Kerama Islands (Zamami) From December to April the humpback whales come back here to give birth: the boats keep 300 metres away.
• Kin Kannon-ji and the awamori cave Beneath the temple, at a constant eighteen degrees, awamori has been ageing since 1988.
• King Tacos — the original shop in Kin Tacorice was born here in 1984: today it still costs 400 yen, one minute from Camp Hansen.
• Kokusai-dori In 1995 its procession won the Guinness record for the largest straw rope in the world.
• Kondoi Beach (コンドイ浜) The only beach on Taketomi where you can swim: at low tide the water comes up to your ankles.
• Kouri Bridge and Island One thousand nine hundred and sixty metres for free, with green sea on both sides, and there is a pavement.
• Koza Athletics Stadium (Zento Eisa Matsuri) It began in 1956 as a contest between 9 groups; today it draws three hundred thousand people over three days.
• Koza Music Town and the Peaceful Love Rock Festival The festival began in 1983 as a reunion concert by the Murasaki, and it is free.
• Koza: Gate 2 and the centre Business Center Street came into being in 1950, for orderly trading.
• Mabuni Peace Park Among the 242,659 names carved here are those of the enemy too: 14,012 Americans.
• Makishi Public Market You buy the fish on the ground floor and go up to the first floor to have it cooked to order.
• Manza Beach It lies on the other side of the same bay as Manzamo, nine hundred metres away as the crow flies.
• Manzamo The king praised it in 1726, saying there would be ten thousand places to sit on the grass.
• Mībaru Beach The water is so shallow that at the right tide you can walk out to the reef.
• Michi no Eki Kadena It is the only michi-no-eki in Japan from which you can see the runway of an American base.
• Michi no Eki Kyoda Discounted tickets for fourteen attractions in the north, and cash only.
• Murasaki Mura Thirty-two workshops and one hundred and one experiences, almost all of them with no booking needed.
• Naha Airport Naha Airport is Okinawa's main airport and the gateway to the island, at the address 沖縄県那覇市字鏡水150 (Naha, Shimizu 150). It is run under the…
• Naha City Museum of History The only National Treasure in Okinawa, and the crown has been on view for two weeks in all.
• Naha Haarii — new port pier The 52nd year of dragon boats in Naha's new port, fixed on 3–5 May every year.
• Naha Ōtsunahiki, the great tug-of-war Once the tug is over, you cut a piece off the rope and take it home: it is said to bring good luck.
• Nakagusuku Castle In 1853 Perry had it surveyed, and in his journal he wrote that those walls deserved praise.
• Nakamura House The thatched roofs became red tiles as the family grew richer.
• Nakijin Castle Japan's first cherry trees bloom here, in January, and they are deep pink.
• Naminoue Beach On the beach stands the Ryūjū: two dragons 15 metres tall, erected in 2011 for Fuzhou.
• Naminoue-gu The first of the eight shrines of Ryukyu: excavations here have found Chinese Ming coins.
• Navy Underground Headquarters In the command room the grenade fragments are still in the wall.
• Neo Park Okinawa (ネオパークオキナワ) The largest free-flight aviaries in Japan: birds, red pandas, sand cats.
• Nirai Beach At low tide you can walk for hours on the coral reef, which is usually under water.
• Nishihama Beach, Hateruma (ニシ浜) TripAdvisor: most beautiful beach in Japan in 2017. A rescue post only since 2019.
• OIST — Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology The 60-metre skywalk between the laboratories can be visited for free, without booking.
• Ōjima Island Fish tempura is sold by the piece, from sixty-five yen, and there is always a queue.
• Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium (沖縄美ら海水族館) The tank's glass is 60 cm thick and weighs 135 tonnes: the tank holds 7,500 m³ of water.
• Okinawa Karate Kaikan The museum closes at six, but the dōjō stay open until nine in the evening.
• Okinawa Kodomo no Kuni At weekends it stays open until nine, and nobody under fifteen pays.
• Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum The building takes the shape of a グスク: the walls of a castle to tell the story of an island.
• Okinogū, in Onoyama Park The shrine lists eight stops to make in order, and the fifth is a hill.
• Okuma Beach Non-guests pay one thousand five hundred yen, towel included.
• Orion Happy Park At the end they give you two beers each, and drivers get a badge and the alcohol-free one.
• Ryubo Department Store The only department store in the prefecture: open since 1948, and its basement is given over entirely to food.
• Ryukyu Glass Village The furnace runs at one thousand three hundred degrees, and the master handles the dangerous steps.
• Ryukyu Village Eight real houses, taken apart from across half the island and put back together here.
• Sakaemachi Market By day it is a market; in the evening the same shops become izakaya until late at night.
• Sakima Art Museum The staircase on the roof has 6 steps, then 23: on 23 June the sun sets in line with it.
• Sakurazaka It owes its name to 60 cherry trees planted in 1954: they died almost at once, but the name stayed.
• Sashiki Onsen — Enjin-no-yu Water that is neither filtered, heated nor diluted: from the second floor you can see the Pacific.
• Sefa-utaki The ticket is not sold at the entrance but at the town market: without one, you have to turn back.
• Senaga Island and Umikaji Terrace Forty-seven shops on a white hillside, under the Naha flight path.
• Sesoko Beach Car park one thousand yen a day, five hundred within an hour, free within ten.
• Shikinaen A royal villa from 1799: this is where the king received the Chinese envoys before showing them Shuri.
• Shimuku-gama A thousand people, the same day, eight hundred metres from Chibichiri: no one died.
• Shiokawa, the salt river A hundred metres of salt river, and the Ministry writes that the reason is unknown.
• Shioya Bay — the Ungami One year is for praying and the next for dancing, and the two have alternated for four or five centuries.
• Shuri Castle The throne hall reopens on 23 November 2026: until then, what you visit is the building site.
• Sonohyan-utaki Stone Gate The ninth of the nine UNESCO properties of the Ryūkyū: the other eight are already on the map.
• Southeast Botanical Gardens (東南植物楽園) A national cultural site since June 2025: capybaras roaming free among 1,300 plant species.
• Sunset Beach, Chatan An artificial beach: the water is so clear that you can see fish and crabs among the rocks.
• Ta Falls The path is the river: you walk in the water for thirty to forty minutes.
• Taketomi (traditional village) The classic tour is by cart, drawn by a buffalo, half an hour through the three hamlets.
• Tamagusuku Castle Ruins The gate of the main enclosure is carved out of a single boulder.
• Tamaudun Since December 2018 it has been the first building in Okinawa designated a National Treasure.
• Tarama Hōnensai — Hachigatsu Odori National heritage since 1976: three days of dances rooted in a tax paid in the seventeenth century.
• The banyan-hinpun of Nago It acts as the hinpun for the whole town: the wall that screens the entrance and turns spirits away.
• The great stone lion of Tomori It was put there in 1689 so that the village would stop burning, and the fires stopped.
• Todoroki Cave This is the cave where the Okinawa prefectural government came to an end, on 15 June 1945.
• Todoroki Falls The path is barrier-free and there is a wheelchair to borrow: for a waterfall, that is rare.
• Tomari Fish Market — Iyumachi Opens at six, twenty-four wholesalers, and some stalls close when they sell out.
• Tsuboya Pottery Street Potters since 1682: on the 400 m street, one shop has been open for over 60 years.
• Tsushima Maru Memorial Museum The English signs were translated by a third-year junior high class, and it shows.
• Urasoe Yodore and the castle ruins Capital for two centuries before Shuri, and on the reverse slope the bunkers are still there.
• Yachimun no Sato Its wood-fired kiln, built in 1980, has nine chambers in a row along the slope.
• Yaedake Cherry Tree Forest Seven thousand red cherry trees that bloom in January, before anywhere else in Japan.
• Yohena Hydrangea Garden An obā planted two hydrangeas: today it ranks 6th among the 30 best gardens in western Japan.
• Yonabaru Ōtsunahiki It is the only one of the three great tugs-of-war where anyone can turn up on the day and pull.
• Yonaha Maehama Beach (与那覇前浜ビーチ) Seven km of white sand: the start and finish of the marathon of the Miyakojima triathlon.
• Zakimi Castle In the arch of the gateway there is a stone wedge that no other castle has.
• Zanpa Beach It is run by a village consortium, and the season runs from 1 April to 31 October.
• Zuisen Distillery The black yeast collected here in 1935 had survived in Tokyo, and it came back in 1998.

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