Anytime

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

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.