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.