Our 14 Days in Okinawa April 2024

Hi everyone,

we are back from our fourth trip to Japan, but this time we went to Okinawa Main Island.

Our first two trips to Japan also have an itinerary on reddit. On our third trip we got sick and didn't do anything crazy.

Honorably mention about our 3rd trip to Tokyo:

• Motomura Gyukatsu
• Sakura Tei
• Ghibli Museum
• Teamlab Planets
• Kawaguchiko

My wife and I are both 33 and are living in Germany. I am lao and she is german-russian and we are both very interested in the asian culture (Gaming, Anime, Mangas, …).
I don't really speak japanese, but my wife is able to speak sufficient enough to get around. We got some funny faces since the asian looking guy cannot speak japanese, but the blond girl can.

We planned to go to Okinwa for our honeymoon in 2020, but had to postpone it and are happy to finaly come to Okinawa

Pictures

Pictures are taken with Canon EOS RP with 28mm F2.8 / 50mm 1.8 lenses and Pixel 7 Pro.

https://imgur.com/a/okinawa-april-2024-tVvFTLt

Preperation

As always we have an Excel for our to-dos and were sure that we need a car to explore the whole island.
Public transportation is just good for Naha up to Chatan (American village). Everything up north is difficult / to time intensive to explore with public transportation.

We searched a lot in the internet/reddit/google/youtube to find itinerarys, but most of them were not suited / were beach heavy.

First we splitted the island into the northern and southern part, so we needed a stay somewhere up and one in Naha.
Since we didn't want a cozy beach resort, we choose one in Nago, which in hindsight was a really good place to have our stay for the northern part.
For the southern part, we choose Naha, since we didn't want to have a long trip to the airport.

In the end we had a nice itinerary for us, who likes to see a lot of things with just a bit of lazy days at the beach.

I saveed all the places to visit in Google maps and all restaurantes in a seperat Maps list.

Rental Car

In germany you can translate your drivers lincense with ADAC, but you can also do it in Naha. For our rental car an international drivers licens was enough, but I bought all 3 (german, translated and international) with me.
We never been on the highway, since we wanted to see the coastline and drive through the inner land.
The speed limit on the highway is 80km/h. On the normal road it is 60km/h.

We underestimated the time it would take to drive to the places. 100km is more like 2 hours.

We rented our car via https://www.web-rentacar.com/en/ with ZH Rental.

There english was decent and there were no problems with pickup and return.

You tell them when you land and they will pick you up at the airport and drive you to the rental park (~10min away). If you return the car, they bring you to the airport or to the next railstation.

We rented a car for 10 days, since the last days just Naha was planned. It would have been good to have the car 1-2 days longer.

E-Sim

Since we were on tour like all the time, I needed some kind of data connection. After some googleing a chose Airalo E-Sim. I bought 20GB for 30 days for about 20$ and I just needed ~8GB for our 14 days.
You can use me referal code AMARET1885 if you want a 3$ discount for yourself and I will also get 3$.
Besides for ~2 hours the data connection was perfect.

Apps

I would recommend to download the following apps:

• Airalo
• Google Maps
• Google Translate

Stay

We booked our hotel through booking.com.

Since we didn't need a resort, because we were always away, the hotels were much cheaper than expected.

Nago
ホテル アイオライト Hote Io Lite

Pretty big for japanese standards, with a little cooking place, washer, dryer and everything you need.
Self Check in with a pin. Everything went smooth.

• 40€ per night/room
• Free Parking space
• Would recommend

https://www.booking.com/hotel/jp/hoteru-aioraito.de.html

Naha
PROSTYLE RYOKAN Naha Kenchou Mae

Very stylish with tatami flooring and you get water every day. 10min by foot to the Kokusai Dori.

• 50€ per night/room
• 15€ for parking per day
• Would recommend

https://www.booking.com/hotel/jp/purosutairulu-guan-na-ba-xian-ting-qian.de.html?

I forgot my glasses there and they send them to germany. Special thanks for that 🙂

Flight (Economy)

Our holiday was from Friday to Thursday, since the flights were much cheaper for this days (~500€ cheaper in total).
We booked directly through ANA since we had good experience with them and the flight seems to be better / more comfy with them.
On our flight to Tokio we also had the whole row for us.
The Meal was delicious as always.

The flight to Tokyo takes about 13 hours. Then we were greeted by some ANA employer that we have to pick up our luggage and hurry to the next flight. We just had 1:50 hours until take off.
We thought the luggage would transit through, but it wasn't that case.
So we picked it up, had to go through customs, take the bus to the other terminal, check in the luggage and through the security check. All in all we still had enough time left, but after such a long flight it was stressfull.

With a little plane and another 3 hour flight we arrived in Naha.

Flight back was also OK. This time our luggage was transited through and there was a special Bus for international connecting flights. Also our flight from Tokyo to Germany was delayed, so we had plenty of time to buy some Tokyo Banana and a little UNIQLO Shopping in the airport.

I can fully recommend this airline and would take ANA over other airlines.

Expenses

I wrote down all our expenses in an Excel (every single Yen).

Sicne the Yen is currently weak, we bought more than expected.
We also bought some Shisas – lions dog statues for our house, which were a bit pricey.

Expenses are for both of us. (e.g. 1250€ for the flight per person)

Itinerary

Things marked with * are highly recommended.

Day 1/2:

• Arrival Naha 12:00
• Pick up to Rental Car
• 3h drive to Nago
• Family Mart
• Check In
• Fell asleep at 18:00 after a 24h trip

Had my birthday on the plane and watched Demon Slayer. The drive from Naha to Nago took like forever, but some Pocari Sweat helped :).

Day 3: Motobu / Kouri

• Heart Rock
• Ocean Tower*
• Bisezaki
• Emerald Beach
• Bise-Fukugi Tree Road*
• Sesoko Beach*
• Ufuya Shabu Shabu*

We learned pretty quickly that the weather can change quickly. The weather forecast predicted sun for most of the time, but the forecast changed hourly. With a bit of rain, but still 25°C we had some nice strolls.
Ufuya is a very beautiful restaurant, where you have to go through some Torii gate to get from the parking spot to the restaurant.
We had to wait about 30min and took the time to take some pictures. You can also reserve online, but the whole month was already booked. If you come early and have some time, the wait is not that long.
In the evening they have ShabuShabu. We tried the Agu Pork (special Okinawa premium pork) and some Wagyu.
You can order via Tablet.

Day 4: Onna / Yomitan

• Cape Manzano*
• San Marina Beach
• Cape Maeda
• Pizzeria da Enzo*
• Aqua Grace Wedding Chapel
• Cape Zanpa
• Yomitan Pottery Street*

This was one the the rainiest days, but the beaches still looked beautiful. The Pizza, especially with white sauce, was really good.

Day 5: Cape Hedo / Yanbaru / Southeast Botanical Garden

• Tataki Waterfall*
• Maruhira Syokudo*
• Daisekirinzan*
• Cape Hedo
• Southeast Botanical Garden*

Maybe the best day we had. For the waterfall you have to walk through the little river and climb a bit. I recommend some proper shoes and swim shorts. Since it rained so much, the water was up to waist high.
We ate at a local restaurant which I found somewhere online and the portion was massive and delicious.
In Daisekirinzan you can spend half a day, but since we had some tickets for the Botanical Garden, we just had 2 hours there.
The illumiation at the Southeast Botanical Garden was spectacular. I would say a must, if you are here. We bought our tickets online the day before, which was a bit cheaper.

Day 6: Beach Day / Uruma

• Sesoko Beach*
• Captain Kangaroo Hamburger
• Nu Salt Factory*
• Ikei Beach (Closed)
• Hamahiga Island
• Okinawa Table Tennis Shop

It was a sunny morning so we rushed to the beach, to have a little rest and enjoy one of the most beautiful beaches I ever been to.
After a little lunch we headed down to the Salt Factory. The Salt Ice was really good.
We wanted to go to Ikei Beach, but it closed at 17? so we just drove around and walked along Hamahiga Beach.
At the way home we stopped at a Table Tennis Shop in Okinawa City and grabbed some blades.

Day 7: Way to Naha

• Busena Marine Park*
• Katsuren Ruins
• Ishigufū Gusukuma Shop*
• Sefa Utaki
• Farmers Market
• Naha

We checked out from Nago and on our trip to Naha we went to Busena Marine Park. The Boat tour with glass-bottom was fantastic. We saw so many fishes and corals. The Observatory was too crowded, but there you could also so all kinds of fishes.
At Katsuren the ruins were interesating and you had a very nice view from up there. There was also a little cinema where they showed the history of Okinawa and the conflicts between the families.
Ishigufū Gusukuma shop was recommended here on reddit and it was the best ramen I ever had. I never had chicken Ramen, but this was phenomenal. There is also an english Menu an Robbi can speak english.
Sefa Utaki was Ok and at the farmers Market we bought some fruites which was also ok, but I expected it to be a bit better.

Day 8: Okinawa World

• Okinawa World*
• OKINAWA SOBA EIBUN*
• Tsuboya Yachimun Pottery Street*
• Okinawa Outlet Mall Ashibina*

Come early to Okinawa world or it will be super crowded. It was worth the trip, the shows were really good. We also had some fruit drinks, which also were pretty good.
We wanted to try some Okinawa Soba and had to wait ~45minutes, but it was worth the wait. We had the pork and beef one and the beef soba reminded me a bit of ramen.
At Tsuboya we looked for some Shisas and found a pair that we liked 🙂
After that we went for some Shopping and picked up some clothes here and there. It was pretty nice there and everything was cheaper than in germany.
We got some Beef Skewers at the Aeon Mall to finish off the day.

Day 9: Round 1 / Kaiensai

• Round 1*
• Okinawa Ryukyu Kaiensai (4500Yen per Person)*

We bought our Ryuku Kaiensai tickets some days ago at the machine in a Family Mart. It was a bit tricky, but with Google Translate everything went fine. We bought "Entry only" Tickets and bought our own matts.
We decided to go to Round 1 before we go to the Hanabi. We had the "You can do everything" Ticket (3500Yen per Person) which included Spocha, real Bowling, Darts and Karaoke with Softdrinks included.
With the normal Spocha ticket (3300Yen per person) you cannot play normal Bowling (just a miniatur Bowling), but the normal Spocha includes more than enough, if you don't plan to play Bowling, Darts or bigger Karaoke rooms.
We played a lot in Spocha and played 4 rounds of real Bowling.
We ate a bit during bowling and the chicken was really good.
After that we left our car in the parking sport there and went to Okinawa Ryukyu Kaiensai. It was fully packed but we were early enough to get some good places at the beach. After we grabbed something to eat there we enjoyed the beautiful firework.
It was about 1 hour long and perfectly synced with the music.
The way home took a bit longer, since we had to wait ~30min int the parking garage to get out. Parking was free, since we visitied Round 1 earlier.

Day 10: Around Naha

• Shuri Castle
• Shikina-en Royal Garden*
• Umikaji Terrace Senagajima*
• Happy Pancake
• Naha
• Motomura Gyukatsu*

Today we had to return our car, so we visited Shuri Castle beforehand. The castle is under construction, so for us a bit underwhelming to visit.
Shikina-en Royal Garden was a very beautiful place to visit and to take pictures.
For Lunch we went to Umikaji Island a waited for pancakes. The wait was about 1.5 hours, but the pancakes were really good.
After we returned our car we walked around Naha and ate at Motomura Gyukatsu, which we already knew from Tokyo and really enjoyed the food there.

Day 11: Chatan / American Village

• American Village
• Blue Ocean Steak*

We had a slower morning since we just had Chatan planned and a table booked at 17:00. So in the afternoon we took the bus (you get a ticket when you get in and pay cash when you exit) to Chatan.
American village looked nice, but had not that much to offer. After an hour we grabbed some ice and waited for our dinner.
Blue Ocean steak was phenomenal. You should reserve a table at 17:00 and come on point. If you come on point you will get a table at the window with a nice view of the see.
You can choose a Main Course and will get a 7 course meal, with you Main course chosen. We had Wagyu A5 and Okinawaw Wagyu and some Shrimps extra.
It was really good and our dessert came on point with the sunset.

Day 12: Naha

• Naminoue Shrine
• Naminoue Beach
• Fukushuen Garden*
• Korean Chicken 辛ちゃんチキン那覇店*
• Kokusai Dori

Naminoue Shrine and Beach were near our hotel so we walked there. For us the Beach was weird, right next to a autobridge. The Shrine was also packed with tourists.
Fukushuen Garden was really calm and a nice mix from hectik Naha.
We ate some Korean Chicken with cheese and went a bit shopping. We were overwhelmed by all the tourist, mostly from Cruiseships.

Day 13: Naha

• Kokusai Dori
• Branchu*

We walked a bit around, grabed some souvenirs and ate at Branchu, which served some local food.

Day 14: Flight Home

We called a Taxi for 5:30 and were at the airport at 5:45. The airport opens at 6:00 so we had to wait a bit. The check-in, security check and so one went really quick, so we were at the gate at 06:30.
This time our luggage would be transited automatically.
In Haneda we did some shopping and after an hour delay or flight to Germany was ready.

Conclusion

Okinawa has way more to explore than we thought. It was a beautiful time there and we might come back for some more relaxed vacation.
If you never been there, try to get there at least once. It is way different than mainland Japan and has a lot to offer.