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...
Naminoue Shrine
Naminoue Shrine: Naha's Cliff-Top Shrine Above the City Beach
A shrine on a limestone cliff at the edge of Naha, ranked first among the eight official shrines ...
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,...
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...
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...
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 ...
Michi-no-Eki Kyoda
Mozuku tempura where the expressway ends
Okinawa's first registered roadside station, on Route 58 just past Kyoda IC where the Okinawa Exp...
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...
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...
Nakijin Castle Ruins
Long, curving stone walls cross the wooded hills of northern Okinawa at the former seat of the Ho...
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 ...
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...
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...