Okinawa

Naha's main street runs for about a mile and a half through the centre of the city, and after the near-total destruction of 1945 it was among the first places to be rebuilt, earning the nickname "the miracle mile". Today it's a busy, slightly brash strip of souvenir shops, izakaya, awamori bars, live-music venues and shops selling purple sweet-potato tarts, and it's the natural place to begin finding your bearings. The covered arcades that branch off it to the south, Heiwa-dori and Ichiba Hon-dori, are more interesting: narrow, shaded lanes of old-fashioned clothes shops, pottery and snack stalls.

TipOn Sunday afternoons part of the street is usually closed to traffic and turns into a pedestrian promenade with street performers.

The First Makishi Public Market has been Naha's kitchen since the years after the war, when it began as a black market. Rebuilt and reopened in a new building in 2023, its ground floor is still a crowded hall of fish counters piled with blue parrotfish, lobsters and giant clams, butchers selling every part of the pig (Okinawans say they eat everything but the squeal), and stalls of sea grapes, bitter melon and island fruit. The tradition continues that you can buy seafood downstairs and have it cooked for a fee at one of the restaurants on the upper floor.

TipAsk the price per kilo before you choose a fish; the larger tropical species can be expensive once cooked.

For about 450 years this hilltop palace on the eastern edge of Naha was the seat of the Ryukyu kings, the centre of government, religion and court ceremony. Its curving limestone walls and vermilion halls blended Chinese and Japanese ideas into something distinctly Okinawan. The castle has burned several times: it was destroyed in 1945, painstakingly rebuilt in 1992, and in October 2019 a fire again gutted the main hall, the Seiden, and several surrounding buildings. The walls, gates and the grounds, part of the UNESCO-listed Gusuku Sites of the Ryukyu Kingdom, survived, and a reconstruction using traditional carpentry and Okinawan red-tile and lacquer techniques has been carried out in full view of visitors.

The rebuilt Seiden is due to open to the public at noon on 23 November 2026, with the park closed on 22 November and the morning of 23 November for the completion ceremony. From that date the adult fee for the paid area rises to ¥1,000, and entry to the inside of the Seiden needs an advance reservation for a 30-minute time slot; the rest of the paid area can still be visited without booking.

TipThe Yui Rail monorail stops at Shuri station, a walk of about 15 minutes. Check the park's website for the latest reservation details before you go, as the system is new.

In the spring of 1945, more than two hundred schoolgirls and their teachers from two Naha girls' schools were mobilised as nursing aides for the Japanese army, working in caves and dugouts as the fighting moved south. When they were suddenly dismissed in June, as the front collapsed, most were caught in the crossfire, and many died. The Himeyuri memorial stands over the mouth of one of the caves where they sheltered, and the museum beside it tells their story through photographs, belongings and the testimonies of survivors, quietly and without spectacle. It is one of the most affecting places in Japan.

TipThe museum opens daily, 9am to 5.25pm (last entry 5pm). Visitors traditionally buy flowers at the stalls outside to leave at the memorial; dress modestly and keep voices low.

On the cliffs of Mabuni at the island's southern tip, where the Battle of Okinawa ended in June 1945, a broad park looks out over the Pacific. The Cornerstone of Peace, rows of black granite walls fanning out towards the sea, is engraved with more than 240,000 names of people who died in the battle, regardless of nationality or whether they were soldiers or civilians: Okinawans, Japanese from the mainland, Americans, British, Koreans and Taiwanese. The Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum covers the battle, the civilian experience of it and the years of American rule. Around a quarter of Okinawa's civilian population is thought to have died, and the island remembers them every year on 23 June, Irei no Hi, its day of mourning.

TipAllow at least two hours for the museum. A car makes it easy to combine with Himeyuri and Sefa-utaki in a day.

The most sacred place of the Ryukyu Kingdom is not a building but a grove. Utaki are sacred spaces in the native Okinawan religion, presided over by priestesses, and Sefa-utaki, on a forested hill above the east coast near Nanjo, was where the kingdom's high priestess was inaugurated. A stone path leads through dense vegetation to a series of worship spots, the most memorable being Sangui, a triangular passage formed by two huge leaning slabs of rock, framing a view across the sea to Kudaka Island, where Okinawan myth says the gods first descended. It is a World Heritage site and still an active place of prayer.

TipTickets are sold at a visitor centre a short walk downhill, not at the gate. The site closes for a few days at certain times of year for traditional rituals, and the paths are slippery after rain.

The Kerama Islands, about 30 to 40 kilometres west of Naha, are the easiest way to reach water of a clarity people usually travel much further for. The whole group has been a national park since 2014, protecting coral reefs where green turtles feed in the shallows and, in winter, humpback whales gather offshore to breed. Tokashiki, the largest island and the closest to Naha, has the long white curve of Aharen Beach and its smaller neighbour Tokashiku, both with good snorkelling right off the sand, and is an easy day trip.

TipFerries leave from Tomari Port in Naha. Fast boats are quicker but smaller and more often cancelled in rough seas, so book ahead and check the day's sailing status.

Zamami is small, quiet and lovely, with a single village, a handful of guesthouses and some of the best beaches in Japan, Furuzamami among them, a crescent of fine sand facing a reef that drops away into turquoise water. Turtles graze the seagrass off Ama Beach, a short walk from the port, and viewpoints on the hills look out across the scattered islands of the group. From January to March, whale-watching boats leave from the harbour. It's worth staying the night here to see the islands once the day-trippers have gone.

Note that for the autumn of 2026 the Queen Zamami fast boat is out of service for dry-dock maintenance until 3 December, leaving the slower car ferry, which takes around two hours via Aka Island.

TipRespect the reefs: don't stand on coral, use reef-friendly sun protection, and give turtles plenty of space.

On the west coast north of Naha, the rocky headland of Cape Maeda hides a sea cave whose entrance glows an electric blue when the sun is high and the light reflects up through the water. It's one of the most popular snorkelling and diving spots on the main island, and dozens of operators run guided trips, often with a boat ride round to the cave mouth; outside the cave the reef is full of fish. The cliff-top itself, with steps down into the water, is a fine place to watch the sunset.

TipGo with a guide. Entry to the cave depends on the sea, and the north winds of winter often make it impossible; mornings in summer are calmest and least crowded.

A grassy limestone headland on the Onna coast ends in a cliff that the sea has worn into the shape of an elephant's head, with its trunk dipping into the water. The name is said to come from an eighteenth-century Ryukyu king who remarked that the meadow on top was big enough for ten thousand people to sit. A short loop path runs round the top, with views along a coast lined with resort hotels and, on clear days, out to the islands to the west.

TipThere's a small entry fee. Late afternoon light is best for photographs, and it's an easy stop on the road north.

The star attraction of the Ocean Expo Park on the Motobu Peninsula is one of the largest aquariums in the world, built around the Kuroshio Sea tank, a vast wall of acrylic behind which whale sharks and manta rays glide past shoals of tuna and smaller fish. The building follows the sea from shallow coral reef to the deep ocean, with excellent displays of living coral and of the strange creatures of the depths. Outside, there are free dolphin shows, turtle and manatee pools, and Emerald Beach, a sheltered swimming beach within the park.

TipThe aquarium usually opens 8.30am to 6.30pm (last admission 5.30pm), with longer hours in summer. Arrive at opening or in the late afternoon to avoid tour groups, and catch a whale shark feeding if you can.

Before Okinawa was unified in the early fifteenth century, the island was divided between three rival kingdoms, and Nakijin was the stronghold of the northern one, Hokuzan. Its outer walls, built of rough limestone without mortar, snake for about 1.5 kilometres along the contours of a hill, looking out to sea, and are among the most beautiful in the islands. It is part of the same World Heritage listing as Shuri Castle and Sefa-utaki. In late January and early February the castle's dark pink Okinawan cherry trees bloom, the earliest cherry blossom in Japan, and the walls are lit up at night.

TipCombine it with the Churaumi Aquarium, about ten minutes' drive away.

A long, low bridge of nearly two kilometres sweeps across shallow, startlingly blue water from Yagaji Island to Kouri, a small round island of sugar cane, sandy coves and seafood restaurants. Local legend casts it as Okinawa's own Garden of Eden, home to the first man and woman. The beaches either side of the bridge are good for wading, and on the north shore Tinu Beach is known for a pair of rocks eroded into heart shapes, which have made the island a favourite with couples. The drive across the bridge, best on a sunny day, is the real highlight.

TipTry to drive across around midday, when the sun is high and the water at its brightest.

The northern third of Okinawa Island is called Yanbaru, "the mountain wilds": steep hills covered in dense subtropical forest, with few people and narrow roads. The forest is home to animals found nowhere else, including the flightless Okinawa rail, the Okinawa woodpecker and the Yanbaru long-armed scarab beetle, and in 2021 it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List together with the islands of Amami-Oshima, Tokunoshima and Iriomote. Walks include the trail to the Hiji Falls, and the road north ends at Cape Hedo, the island's northern tip, where waves break on jagged limestone and Yoron Island in Kagoshima Prefecture is visible on clear days.

TipDrive slowly: road signs warn of rails and other wildlife crossing. Stick to marked trails, and carry water.

About 300 kilometres south-west of Okinawa Island, Miyako is flat, rimmed with coral and famous for beaches of powder-white sand and water that turns improbable shades of blue. Yonaha Maehama, seven kilometres of sand facing Kurima Island, is the best known, and Higashi-Hennazaki, a long, narrow cape on the east side, ends at a lighthouse above crashing surf. Bridges link Miyako to its neighbours, among them the Irabu Bridge, more than three kilometres long, which leads to the island of Irabu and the swimming holes and cliffs of neighbouring Shimoji. The snorkelling is excellent from many beaches.

TipPublic transport is limited, so rent a car or scooter. Direct flights connect Miyako with Naha and with several mainland cities.

Ishigaki, the hub of the Yaeyama Islands near the far end of the chain, is a lively little town surrounded by mountains, mangroves and reefs. On its north-west coast, Kabira Bay is one of Japan's most celebrated views: small green islets scattered across a lagoon of jade and turquoise water, where black pearls are farmed. Swimming isn't allowed in the bay, but glass-bottom boats run out over the coral. Ishigaki is also the jumping-off point for the other Yaeyama islands: the ferry terminal in town serves Taketomi, with its sandy lanes, stone walls and red-tiled houses, and Iriomote, an island largely covered in jungle and mangrove, part of the same World Heritage listing as Yanbaru.

TipKabira Bay is at its most vivid in sunshine around midday. Allow at least three or four days for Ishigaki and the islands around it.