Bios on the Hill is alright. I booked my trip through ITT which included the guided boat tour. It’s either a small lake or a large pond. Hard to tell. They call it a lake. The main benefit of booking through ITT is that you will have english narration of the boat tour. As you float around the pond, the tour guide describes the various vegetation that you see. Occasionally, the pilot will bump the boat into the bank to show you the plants that they are particularly proud of. You’ll pass a floating barge that features a traditional Okinawan dancer.

The dancing was pretty need and the pond was worth the trip. If you purchase the tickets for Bios on the Hill yourself, you’ll still have the option of paying about ¥600 to add the boat tour to the trip. It was my favorite part of the visit, so if you stop by Bios on the Hill, I’d recommend adding it. Unfortunately, if you book independently, the boat tour would be narrated in Japanese. You also have the option to tour the pond yourself on a rented paddle board or canoe for ¥1500. That’d probably be neat.

After completing the boat tour, we had time to explore the rest of the park. There was a playground for children that was made of natural logs. If I had kids, I’d think that was pretty cool. You could pay ¥900 to have a water buffalo pull you around the park on a cart. There are goats. You could walk on stilts if that was something that you were in to. I walked around the park. It’s not too big. There’s a nice swing, some hammocks, wooden chairs you can lay down on. It’s a nice park.

Cost: ¥810 plus extras

Hours: Daily 0900 – 1800

I was looking for something to do on a rainy day and I figured, underground is pretty much a roof, right? My wife and I decided to visit Cave Okinawa. It’s a sweet little limestone cave that is about 200m long. Apparently, no one else had the same idea.

The parking lot was empty as we pulled in at 11am. A friendly man greeted us at the counter. Since it was still raining, and we were completely unprepared, he handed us two umbrellas and walked us towards the cave entrance. About 100m up the road, he stopped, unlocked a electrical box, and flipped the switch to turn on the lights in the cave. The light was greatly appreciated. He brought us to the cave entrance and left us to explore the cave on our own. Okay, we weren’t really exploring. There is a single path through the cave. We stopped to take a few pictures at the entrance. Be quick! There are mosquitos!

The path through the cave is all elevated, which is good, because there was an active creek running all along the bottom. I enjoyed the sound of the running water as we walked through the cave. It was pretty alright. There was some limestone. There were lots of little bats. I hope I didn’t disturb them too much. We walked slowly and posed for lots of pictures. It took us 30 minutes to walk 200m.

When you get to the other side of the cave, you follow signs along the road back to the parking lot. We passed a cute cafe on the road that we would have definitely stopped at if it was open.

Cost: ¥500 per Adult. ¥300 per Child. (Yen Only. No Credit Cards)

Hours: Daily 0900 – 1700

533-1, Ishikawakadekaru
Uruma-Shi, Okinawa
Japan 904-1114