Things to Do in Okinawa, Japan

Junglia Okinawa

Dinosaurs, balloons and jungle rides in the Yanbaru hills

Okinawa's newest theme park, opened in July 2025 on a former golf course in the northern hills. A...

Yanbaru

Yanbaru: The Forested North of Okinawa Island, Home of the Okinawa Rail, Two Hours From Naha by Car

The hilly, forested north of Okinawa Island, spread over the villages of Kunigami, Ogimi and Higa...

Hateruma Island

Japan's Southernmost Inhabited Island, Reached by an Open-Sea Boat That Often Doesn't Run

The southernmost inhabited island in Japan: about 440 people, sugarcane fields, the white sand of...

Okinawa Peace Memorial Park

Mabuni, Where Everyone Who Died in the Battle of Okinawa Is Named

A park of about 40 hectares on the coastal plateau at Mabuni, at the southern end of Okinawa Isla...

Sefa-utaki

Sefa-utaki: Ryukyu's Holiest Forest, a Slippery Stone Path and a Rock Passage You Now See Only From the Front

The holiest site of the Ryukyu Kingdom: a forest on a limestone headland in Nanjo, where a slippe...

Iejima

Iejima: Climb the 172 m Tatchu Rock, 30 Minutes by Ferry from Motobu

A flat farming island off the Motobu Peninsula, 30 minutes by village ferry, with one steep rock ...

Zamami Island

Kerama Blue Water and Winter Humpbacks, 50 Minutes from Naha When the Boats Run

A small island of about 600 people in Keramashoto National Park, about 40 km west of Naha, with c...

Taketomi Island

Taketomi Island: Red-Tiled Village and White Sand Lanes, a Short Boat Ride from Ishigaki

A small, flat island 9.2 km around, where about 310 people live in a village of red-tiled houses,...

Iriomote Island

Iriomote Island: Jungle, Mangrove Rivers and a Ferry That Stays in Port When the Sea Is Rough

Okinawa's second-largest island, nearly all subtropical forest and mangrove, and part of a World ...

Kudaka Island

Kudaka Island: Ryukyu's 'Island of the Gods', 15 Minutes by Boat

A small, flat island about 8 km around off the south-east coast of Okinawa Island, revered since ...

Kumejima

Kumejima: A Sandbar You Reach Only by Boat, 100 km West of Okinawa

An island of about 7,000 people roughly 100 km west of Okinawa Island, reached by a 30-minute fli...

Shikinaen

Shikinaen: The Ryukyu Kings' Garden Villa Where Chinese Envoys Were Entertained, Quiet and Shut on Wednesdays

A royal villa and strolling garden on a hill in Naha, laid out in 1799 and used to host envoys of...

Nakijin Castle Ruins

Long, curving stone walls cross the wooded hills of northern Okinawa at the former seat of the Ho...

Katsuren Castle Ruins

Tiered limestone walls rise like a stone ship above the Katsuren Peninsula. The World Heritage ru...

Michi-no-Eki Yuiyui Kunigami

Last stop for supplies before the Yanbaru forest

The only roadside station in Kunigami, the northernmost village on Okinawa Island, on Route 58 ne...