Things to Do

MariCAR Okinawa

Posted on by Greg

MariCAR is a unique experience exclusive to Naha or Tokyo. You get wear a custom and drive a street legal go-kart around the city. The go-carts easily keep up with 50 KPH traffic and the entire trip is a hoot.

Cons: It’s expensive. It’s ¥90,000 for a two hour trip, though they’ll reduce the rate to ¥75,000 if you leave a review on a Social Network Site (Facebook). On top of the cart rental fee, we decided to rent two cameras as well. When you rent the camera, you have the option to buy a 16GB micro SD card for $10 or a 32GB micro SD card for $15. We decided to get the 32GB SD cards. Since you’re reading this, you probably won’t be impulsively buying a SD card, but, if you do, the 16GB is probably sufficient for the trip. On our two hour tour at night, our recordings each totaled about 13GB. You’ll also get to decide whether you want to use a head or chest mount for the cameras. We chose to try each option. You can tell the difference in our video below. I like the perspective from the chest mount, but it definitely captures a lot more vibration and you can’t focus it at interesting things.

The cameras were fun, but definitely not necessary. The guides took pictures at almost every stop light and they came out surprisingly well. They took about 90 pictures over tour hours and provided all of them when we got back to the shop.

We went for impromptu evening ride. The costumes are lightweight, but they’re still essentially one piece pajamas. If I was wearing it in the heat of the day, I would have been sweating profusely. The evening ride was a very pleasant temperature. The downside is you can’t see as much. The 2 hour course takes you to Senagajima Island, which has beautiful views during the day. You won’t see anything at night. The first hour went by really quickly and we were glad that all of the one hour slots were already booked on the day we wanted to go. As you drive down Kokasai street, expect lots of people to wave and take pictures of you. Kokasai was a slow, relaxing drive, which is unique to go-kart driving. The constant stop lights would be maddening in a regular car, but in the go-karts I felt like a celebrity.

Cost:
One Hour – ¥60,000/person
Two Hours – ¥90,000/person

Hours: 1000 – 2200

Website: https://maricar.okinawa/en/

Location: 7-1 Higashi-Machi Naha City Okinawa, Japan

Reservations: Facebook messenger is the easiest way to make a reservation. Alternatively, you can call them or just show up.

Bios on the Hill

Posted on by Greg
Look! A dragon!

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

Cave Okinawa

Posted on by Greg

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.

Stairs to the cave exit.

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

Okinawa Bucket List: Uruma

Posted on by Greg

Things to Do:

  1. Cave Okinawa. ¥500/¥300
  2. Bios on the Hill. ¥810 + Activities
  3. Ride a horse on the beach with Mihara Horse Club. $150.
  4. Katsuren Castle Ruins. Free.
  5. Watch Bull Fighting at the Ishikawa Dome
  6. Hike Mt. Ishikawa. Free.
  7. Janeh Cave. Free
  8. Complete the Ropes Course at the Ishikawa Youth Center. Free.
  9. Golf at Taiyo Golf Course
  10. Agena Castle Ruins. Free.
  11. Watch a local performance at Uruma Citizens’ Art Theater

Resturants:

  1. Forest Cafe
  2. Taiyo Steakhouse
  3. Very Berry Cafe
  4. Indira Indian Restaurant
  5. Blue Cafe Jerk Chicken

Beaches:

  1. Mihara Beach
  2. White Beach
  3. Kelp Beach
  4. Uken Beach. ¥500 Parking.
  5. Gushikawa Beach.
  6. Janeh Beach.

Okinawa Bucket List: Yomitan

Posted on by Greg

Things to Do:

  1. Visit the Cape Zanpa Lighthouse and park.  ¥200 to climb to the top.
  2. Zakimi Castle Ruins
  3. Happy/Sad Caves
  4. Make a glass cup at Ryukyu Glass Factory. ~¥3,000 per glass.
  5. Yomitan Pottery Village
  6. Make Pottery. ~¥2,500
  7. Visit a WW2 Japanese Pill box at low tide

Restaurants:

  1. Little Greek Kitchen
  2. Suien Cafe
  3. Fisherman’s Wharf
  4. Song Bird Cafe
  5. Jakkepoes Pancake House

Beaches:

  1. Zanpa Beach
  2. Nirai Beach
  3. Tori Beach

Summer Festival at Ocean Expo Park

Posted on by Greg

The Summer Festival is an all day event with live bands, performances, food, and the grand finale — the largest fireworks display in Okinawa.

The fireworks start at precisely 8:00 PM. Kadena ITT had four tour buses that left the baes 2:00 PM. The cost with ITT was $20 per person. The tour busses are great if you don’t want to drive, or deal with the traffic, yourself. However, you loose a lot flexibility. We left our apartment closer to 3:00 PM. It was a relaxing drive on the Okinawa Expressway, but from Okinawa-Minami to Nago, the toll is ¥590 each way in a Kei car. The drive through Nago was uneventful. About 2 km from the Expo Park, traffic came to a standstill. If you get to the event early, you might have a chance to park in the main parking. If you get their later, there is an overflow lot that has shuttles to take you to the event. We took the third option and found some street parking which had a 40 minute walk to the event. I’m not a patient person and I’d rather walk a long way than wait in traffic.

We finally got to the Festival around 5 PM. Our first objective was to claim spot on the beach. Some people had folding chairs, sun shelters, or pop-up canopies set up in their spots, but blankets, like we had, were much more common. The beach was crowded, but there were still plenty of open spots. If you want to look like a seasoned pro, bring four plastic bags with you, fill them up with sand, and place them on your blanket to hold it down. We are not seasoned pros, but I brought a camera tripod to try to take pictures of the fireworks, and it held the blanket down just fine. I would have had problems if it was a windier day. The entire Expo Park is filled with people. The beach has a view of the main stage and the fireworks, but some people are only interested in the fireworks and claimed nice shady spots on the hillside. Standing is also an option, but you’ll be at the event for several hours — more if your tied to an ITT tour group. Another option is to book a hotel near the Festival Site. The Orion Motobu Resort & Spa is located right next to Expo Park and has amazing view of the fireworks. On a regular weekend, it costs  about ¥40,000 per night. It might cost more during Summer Festival and it looks like their already fully booked for next year.

Around the Expo Park, there were about a dozen food vendors, including KFC. There was also a slide and some activities for small children. Most people appeared to be relaxing. We spent around ¥3,500 on food and drink from the vendors and brought it back to our blanket to enjoy the show. A Japanese band played some mellow acoustic music. It was followed by what may have been a comedy performance. I’m not sure. A group of people spent about 20 minutes talking. The group on stage laughed a lot. None of the people around me laughed. It was followed by a 20 minute set by another Japanese band that had a awesome singer. The final performance was a DJ that seemed to get the crowd worked up. At some point in his set, “Funtime Productions”, an American group, had a performance that wasn’t quite as good as “Entertainment Worldwide.”

The Fireworks started exactly at 8:00 PM. After a 20 minute show, there was a 10 minute intermission to allow the pyrotechnic crew to reset their gear before the final 20 minute show. The beach was extremely crowded at this point and there is zero chance that you would be able to use the bathroom during the intermission. The show was set to music, including some popular english songs. Lots of bright lights and loud explosions. It is the largest Firework show in Okinawa and is one of the best firework displays that I have ever seen.

Following the grand finale at precisely 8:50 PM, there was a mass exodus of people. It was a slow moving herd that was a pre-cursor to the traffic jam to come. If you parked in the main lot, you would be about to stay parked in the main lot. We trudged along with the group heading to the overflow lot. Hundreds of them stopped to wait for the shuttle, but it was only a 2 km walk from the Park to overflow parking. 8 shuttle busses passed us as we walked to the overflow parking. That meant there was still hundreds of people waiting in line. Getting out of the overflow parking lot would have been easy, but further down the street you needed to merge. As we kept walking, we passed all of the cars waiting to merge on the road. We finally arrived at our hidden parking spot at 9:50 PM. As we drove back towards Nago, we somehow found ourselves behind the convoy of four ITT buses. I followed the convoy as they cruised down the Expressway. They were probably back on base around 11:30 while we went directly home.

If you wanted to take full advantage of the 1.5 hour drive each way, you could add the Churami Aquarium to your morning and make it an all day event.

It's a picture of the lighthouse!

A Short Afternoon in Cape Zanpa

Posted on by Greg

Ocean's Pizza Buffet

It’s noon. You’re hungry, but you still don’t know what you’re doing with the day, or with your life. Perfect. Grab a friend and head on up to Ocean’s Pizza in Yomitan. For ¥1,200, you’ll get access to an all you can eat pizza buffet.

Beautiful

Ocean’s Pizza sits on a cliff above the East China Sea. If you sit outside, it’ll easily be the best view you’ll ever have at a pizza buffet. Is the pizza good? It’s a Okinawan restaurant that’s attempting to offer an American style pizza buffet. Totally edible! You’re still going to eat to much.

Alright. Maybe it’s 1300 now. It’s time for activities. You’ve got two options a stones throw away: do you want to make pottery or blow glass?

In the same complex as Ocean’s Pizza is a swell pottery studio. For ¥2,500, the staff will assist you with a simple clay dish on a pottery wheel or a free form pottery creation. For the basic pottery wheel, expect to spend 10-15 minutes working on your creation — probably a small bowl. The staff provides lots of assistance and the project is suitable for small children. If you don’t want to use a pottery wheel, you can get a nice hunk of clay to make your own creation. Common projects include a Shisa dog or a plate. These projects are a little more complicated and don’t have the advantage of the pottery wheel. You could probably spend an hour here. After your complete your pottery, you’ll select the color of the glaze. It takes time for the pottery to dry and fire. Expect your pottery to be ready in about a month.

Instead of pottery, you could make a nice glass at the Ryukyu Glass Factory. They’ve got a nice facility, friendly staff, and lots of options to customize your glass. Expect to spend around ¥3,000 per glass. You’ll fill out a nice form to choose glass style, size, color, bubbles, dots, stripes, and highlights. The staff will set you up with protective clothing and prep all of the glass and molds. You’ll blow some air to expand the glass into the mold. The staff will heat the glass up again. You’ll use some sweet metal tongs to open up the mouth. Okay, so the staff does most of the work, but it’s still pretty fun and you’ll have an awesome one-of-a-kind glass! The whole process takes about 20 minutes and the glass will be ready for pick up the next day.

Besides Ocean’s Pizza, the pottery studio, and Ryukyu Glass Factory, there’s a dive shop, a gift shop, a “Salt Making Experience”, a stained glass studio, and an Ice Cream shop. The Ice Cream shop sells floats, but they don’t have any Root Beer. You can have a Cola float or an Orange Soda float. The Salt studio was full. I imagine they’re just heating up salt water. I suppose that could be fun.

It's a picture of the lighthouse!

Maybe it’s 1330 now. It’s time to head up to the light house! It’s a 5 minute, scenic drive from Ocean’s Pizza. The light house sits in a beautiful, rocky, cliff-face park with fantastic views of the East China Sea and Ie Island.

For ¥200, you can climb up 300 steps to the top of the lighthouse for a commanding view of the surrounding area.

Huh. I guess that’s it. Time to head home.

Churaumi Aquarium

Posted on by Greg
View of the Whale Shark Exhibit from the Cafe.

Churaumi Aquarium has the 3rd largest Aquarium in the world! But, you already heard that. Churaumi is probably one of the first things that was recommended to you when you arrived at Okinawa. So, I’ll just add a few recommendations. It’s an aquarium and there are lots of cool fish, but do they really matter? If you’ve got kids, or you’re planning on spending all day here, sure, look at every fish, read the sign, look at the fish again. It’ll be great. But the only exhibit you really care about is the main exhibit with the Whale Sharks. Aim to arrive at the Aquarium about 30 minutes before you want to have lunch. It’s best if you eat lunch at a slightly non-standard time. 1100? No one eats that early. It’s perfect. Walk briskly past the other exhibits. Mentally acknowledge that those fish are cool too as you walk by, but avoid eye contact with them. Arrive at the Whale Shark exhibit, proceed downstairs immediately, and head to the cafe. Get your name on the wait list to have a seat right by the window. If it’s really busy, the wait may be impractically long, but on both occasions we’ve been there, our wait was about 15 minutes. You can spend this time standing and admiring the whale sharks. When it’s time, you’ll be escorted to your table. It’s small, hopefully you didn’t bring too many kids. Then, you get it line and order your food. It’s nothing special. It’s pretty cheap, around ¥800 per plate, but don’t expect steak. Sit and admire the whales as you eat your cheap food. The real victory here is that you get to be right next to the tank without a huge crowd encroaching on you and you get to sit which is great if you don’t like standing.

While your sitting, check what time the next Dolphin show is. You can lolly-gag around the rest of the Aquarium and Expo Park while your waiting for the show to start. This is the other attraction that you must see while you’re at Churaumi Aquarium. I don’t speak much Japanese, but the dolphin show was a lot of fun and I felt like I understood what the narrator was trying to convey. The dolphins do tricks. It’s a reasonably sized tank with lots of room for dolphin tricks. There are normally three dolphins and one not dolphin. Behind the tank, you have an amazing view of the South China Sea and Ie Island.

This is not a dolphin.

 

Okinawa Bucket List: Northern Tip

Posted on by Greg

There’s a lot to do in Okinawa! If you’re only here for a few months, you won’t have time to do it all, but you can do a lot! I’m going to be here for a while, so I plan on doing everything. I’m breaking our bucket list into sections based on the specific area of Okinawa. Let’s start with the Northern Tip. I’m defining this as everything North-East of 331, between Taira Bay and Shioya Bay. There’s some cool stuff to do up here, but if your only here for a couple weeks, or even a few months, you probably won’t make it this far.


View Larger Map

Based on some extensive Googling, this is the Top 15 things to do in the Northern Tip. I’ll update the list as I complete my bucket list:

  1. Cape Hedo
  2. Kayauchi Cliffs
  3. Yambaru Discovery Forest
  4. Okinawa Rail Ecology Center Kuina-no-mori
  5. Hiji Great Falls
  6. Daisekirinzan
  7. Taminato Ugami Plant Community
  8. The Looking-Glass Mangrove Trees of Kawata
  9. Mt Yonahadake
  10. Ibudake
  11. Nekumachijidake
  12. Mt Nishimedake
  13. Onishidake
  14. Aha Damn
  15. Okuma Beach

Whale Watching in Okinawa

Posted on by Greg

Every December, Humpback whales migrate to the warm waters off the coast of Okinawa. Many humpback whales can be found near Kerama Islands and Naha. The whales will hang around until April-ish. That’s it. January to March is peak Whale Watching Season in Okinawa.

We booked our whale watching adventure through ITT, but there are several companies in Naha that offer whale watching services. We boarded the ITT tour bus at Kadena at 7am and had a peaceful ride down to Miegusuku port near Naha. It was a nice, calm day. I popped a couple of dramamine tablets and spritzed my exposed skin with some sunscreen before we boarded our whale watching vessel.

At the beginning of the day, it seems as though all of the different charter companies zip off to different sectors around the Kerama islands to search for Humpback whales. 30 minutes into our cruise our guide found a solitary humpback whale in an empty section of the South China Sea. I climbed up to the second story of the boat to get a better view and to ensure I could really feel the boat rocking back and forth. We remained stationary and rocking for a while as the guide tried to figure out where the whale was going. Every few minutes we’d see a new spout off in the distance as he swam around. He wasn’t really headed in any particular direction.

Fun fact: The Humpback whales don’t eat anything the entire time they’re visiting Okinawa. Normally, the migrate to procreate. I guess they’d rather start a family in a tropical paradise than in frigid Alaska.

The boat operator got a call from another guide that had found a family of three whales. We changed course and sailed away from our solitary friend. When we arrived at the new location, it was already quite crowded. There were four other charter boats in the area. This must have been the best find.

There were a lot of different boats.

All of the boat operators were very professional and executed a seamless dance, constantly shifting position to ensure every boat’s passengers had equal opportunity to see the massive whales. The two parents swam about like reasonable adults and would surface at regular intervals to breath. They already had a calf, so I’m not sure what they were doing fasting in Okinawa, but the young calf seemed to be having a blast. He didn’t so much swim as he did jump, spin, and fall. We probably followed the family for a full hour and he jumped the entire time. I’m sure his parents were just waiting for him to fall asleep.

It’s a little guy!

After 2 hours at sea, and very successful whale sightings, we headed back in to the port. I’ll not that it’s possible that you won’t see any whales at all. There is a lot of water in the ocean. But since I saw whales and had a good time, it was definitely worth the trip.