I am an American planning to visit Okinawa for maybe 10 days or so with my fiancé this coming September/October for our honeymoon. I have heard that public transit is limited and been advised to rent a car. This is pretty intimidating. It sounds like Naha is okay with no car, (we love public transit and walking, using google for directions, and we fucking hate city parking), but the rest of the island we will need a car unless we expect to pay for and wait on taxis because there isn’t plentiful ride share.
So I’m just looking for clarification from someone experienced, I understand I need an international driver’s permit before arrival in the country. Is that just a pass/fail written test? How well does it prepare you to actually drive there? I’m gonna have to learn the controls of a foreign car, road signs, gassing up, parking…chotto kowai for someone from US suburbs. But I want to try and do this.
Some questions I have:
-Is google maps reliable out there?
-How do I pay the tolls?
-Are there a lot of one way roads and how do I recognize them?
-What is parking outside Naha like? Straight forward?
-If I don’t park backside first is that going to be a problem 😅 Is parallel parking something I should expect?
-Do Okinawan beaches typically require parking fees like some US national parks?
Thank you so much for answering any of these questions. It really means a lot. I have been to mainland Japan before but I was a teenager and didn’t need to pay attention to driving.
by catpetter_4