Travel Destinations in Okinawa

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...

Ryukyu Mura

Old Okinawan farmhouses, eisa drums and a buffalo-turned sugar press

A village of red-tiled farmhouses moved here from around Okinawa, eight of them registered cultur...

Michi-no-Eki Kadena

A rooftop view over Kadena Air Base

A four-story roadside station beside the fence of Kadena Air Base, the largest US Air Force base ...

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,...

Katsuren Castle Ruins

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

Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum

Okinawa's Nature, Ryukyu History and Modern Art in One Naha Building

Okinawa's prefectural museum and art museum share one building in Omoromachi, Naha, opened in 200...

Himeyuri Peace Museum

The Student Nurses of 1945 in Their Own Words

A museum beside the Himeyuri Monument in Itoman, founded in 1989 by the alumni association of the...

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...

Nakijin Castle Ruins

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

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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...

Tamaudun

Tamaudun: The Stone Royal Tomb of the Second Sho Dynasty, a Few Minutes From Shuri Castle and Far Quieter

The tomb of the Second Sho Dynasty kings, built around 1501 by King Sho Shin: a walled courtyard ...

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...