Sunbathing in a typhoon – Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands
kinawa is Japan, but not Japan, actually part of the Ryukyu islands it’s a prefecture of Japan, and a small one; only 11km wide and 106km long its got perfect road-trip potential. Firms like Otis Car rental make it pretty simple to rent a car and go, there are only two obstacles – driving on the left side (if you’re not used to it), and then the tricky issue that there’s not much to see.
Typhoons while dramatic, and beautiful make it a little tough to sightsee. Instead, you want to lay in bed all day and listen to the winds and downpour, it makes for a lazy, sleepy, but pleasant vacation.
Expectations; meet island life
I think I’m spoiled, my only previous road-trip was through the Lofoten Islands where you literaly have to pull over every 20 min to take photos of the most beautiful landscape you’ve ever seen – thatched roof houses sitting on arctic beaches with azure water and backed by snow-capped black mountains – you can hike up to an impromptu waterfall created by snow melt, or watch schoolkids kicking a ball around on an abandoned shore. Mind-blowing beauty.
Although Okinawa has its share of natural sights – Cliffs of Cape Manzamo (gotta-see), and some of the beaches in the north (Emerald and Kouri, are worth a peek). The rest of the island sometimes feels like a series of artificial attractions set up to keep the tourist busy. Even Shuri castle has been mostly rebuilt in the last few decades. There’s a pineapple farm turned merciless tourist attraction, American Village, and the Orion Beer Factory (yawn).
Compared to Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka – Okinawa is a world apart, a step back from the frenetic lifestyle of the main island. It does feel like a beach town, even in busy Naha – the further north or south the more you realize you’re on island time. I suppose I was hoping for the best of the Tokyo nightlife and food stall-love to be transported to a palm frond, white sand, beach-town setting… Alas.
Rock formation in a temporarily calm sea
When it comes to islands and beaches, what counts most is the weather. I got unlucky (or lucky – depending on how you look at it) to get hit by a typhoon during my visiting. So, out the window went my stellar plans to snorkel in Kouri beach and lay in the sun all day at Emerald beach under beach-brellas sipping Mai Tai in my bikini.
Instead, it allowed me to take photographs of a brooding sky, rough seas, and an overall moody island. It was admittedly fun huddling in beach caves during another downpour. Although I went in prime beach season – you never know – and in a way, I preferred it as I typically like to visit places off-season – just to get a different (and often quieter) perspective.
Another thing I didn’t take into consideration is low and high tides. A beach with some rock outcroppings can look stunning at high tide, but low tide you’re gaping at a field of algae on the shore and well, not as aesthetic. Regardless, every beach you go to – the coral is sharp so bring some roll-up swim shoes.
Feeling drenched but happy 😉
Blowing away…
Okinawa has rabbit-humans, you can pet them!
Naha staircase
Blowing grass at Cape Manza
Drink, shop, and party in Naha
Naha is the main nightlife, food and shopping district, there are a ton of souvenir shops selling t-shirts, magnets, Okinawan food, and keychains. Weirdly though, there was very little difference from one shop to the next – it seemed there were only so many versions of souvenirs to go around and all the shops had them. Most travel articles I read before the trip said to ‘get out of Naha and go to the beaches as quickly as possible’, but I rather liked it. There are enough food and bars to keep you busy and if you have a car you can easily do day trips to just about anywhere.
If I could time travel I’d go back in time and pet dinosaurs would have spent my entire trip based in Naha and made trips to the beaches, instead of relocating to a new hotel, mid-trip to the north of the island. Mainly because there’s very little (if any) nightlife in the north (more on that later) and I prefer colorful cocktails to listening to crickets.
Drinking in dive bar and playing darts – (I won!)
In Naha, I stayed at the Hotel Palm Royal Naha Kokusai Street. Right in the action, a big pool, comfortable rooms with everything you might need to recover from a night of hard drinking – soft bed, blackout curtains, and cold air-conditioning. As for the actual nightlife, although there were plenty of bars I ended up spending the night in a little dive bar with darts and foosball, the expat owner was cool and the bar was all but empty. Nothing like having a bar to yourself!
Naha also offered some go-cart tours where the participants dressed up in cartoon (furry) outfits and toured the city at night, weird or funny? And of course Okinawa continues Japan’s obsession with vending machines, it’s super convenient to have drinks offered at every corner, always interesting to see what’s on offer – ice cream, milk-cola, or new and often bizarre flavors to try. When I left Japan I missed them, it seems absolutely prehistoric to have to hunt a 7eleven to grab a drink when you’re thirsty.
Scary albino snake in liquor, are you brave enough to drink it? 😛
My humble list of visit or skip destinations on the island:
Emerald Beach – Visit or Skip
If you compare it to some of Thailand’s beaches you’ll scratch your head, but we’re not in Thailand, we’re in Okinawa and the beach looked pretty good, of course, there were absolutely zero humans on it the day I visited due to the typhoon. I’d imagine it can get pretty busy in good weather, it also came off as slightly artificial, which make sense as it’s man-made.
A moody typhoon-day at Emerald Beach – the sharks can take a break from eating Tourists!
Kouri Beach – Visit
Kouri Beach in the far north of the island had outcropping rocks shaped like a heart which makes for great photos, I heard the beach I went to offered the best snorkeling, but again, with the crazy heavy seas on the day I went, it would have been both useless and suicidal. I guess on clear days it might be fantastic? It’s a small beach down a rocky path – however, there’s a shop renting bikes and two vendors selling delicious ice cream up by the parking lot where you can pay for a shower or freely use the water to wash off the Okinawan sand that somehow sticks to your feet like glue.
Huhuhu – no swimming in the typhoon today.
The Okinawan ice cream man at Kouri Beach serving up cold yumminess…
Cape Manzamo – Visit
Cape Manzamo is stunning, it holds its own with the Cliffs of Moher. (155m) I went in a short lull between the typhoon rains and being able to stop and watch the long grasses blowing violently from the wind was mesmerizing. The cliffs themselves are remarkable at only 20 meters high and with an elephant-shaped outcropping. Because it’s Japan they have everything laid out orderly for you – the one-way entrance taking you along the path and then depositing you back in the parking lot. There were large white walls while I was there I guess to keep you on track… The parking lot said it’s a 5 min walk, but I think they meant 5 min sprint. It’s more of a 15 min walk up a low grade with multiple places to stop and take photos of the cliffs towards the end. Though there are small guard rails to keep you from getting close to the edge, it’s just too tempting to step out on the cliffs themselves for a more dramatic photo, this is one of those places where I felt the annual 43 selfie-deaths (and rising) could occur if you got unlucky.
Looking out over the East China Sea on a stormy afternoon.
Hacksaw Ridge – Visit
My travel partner is into all things WWll, we watched the Hollywood film: Hacksaw Ridge, before visiting, giving the account of Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector who managed to save 75 men off the ridge in a single night. The account was harrowing. Visiting the site is very easy if you’ve got a car rental. It’s a quiet park (just you and the pit vipers) and a great place to go to sit quietly and write or meditate. You can read my account of Hacksaw ridge.
By the Desmond Doss sign on Hacksaw Ridge
American Village – Skip
The guidebooks and hotel brochures relentlessly recommend the American Village – after visiting I’m not sure why – other than there’s not much else to see on the island. It’s a decommissioned American base that’s been transformed into a sprawling mall of expensive American-ish shops, eateries, and bars mixed in with a handful of expensive Japanese shops eateries and bars. Most of the shops seemed to have an extra 0 attached to the price tags – yikes. But mostly it’s American stuff you wouldn’t want to buy – like bins of sew on patches that had been removed from gas station uniforms and welding shops? The shop decorations were cool with old Americana – but the stuff for sale – not so much. There’s also a Ferris wheel out front, probably this alone should warn you what you’re in for.
I ended up buying exactly nothing. But got a workout from walking around some of the shops. If you visit the whole complex be prepared – it’s sprawling. I did see a sign for Nathans Hotdogs – from Coney Island, and wanted to try one – but after wandering around for 45 min could never find the restaurant – maybe it was just a vintage sign. Overall, it was sort of like a confusing-mess-of-outdoor-shops married a theme-park-with-no-budget.
I’ve read it’s better at night, lit up, while barhopping. But since Japan has such strict drunk driving laws and I didn’t want to hire a driver to haul me back to my faraway beach hotel – so, not an option. There’s surely a case for staying in a hotel near the American village if you want to go barhopping, as it seems that outside Naha the options drift into the minimal to nill zone.
Add enough old Americana and it’s cool… Right?
Is there nightlife north of Naha?
After leaving Naha – I stayed in the north of the island at Emerald Beach. It seemed like a good jumping-off point to get to Kouri beach via the bridge and other northern beaches. The resorts all seemed to be reasonable, had swimming pools, appeared to be a good deal. In reality, the resorts while busy were about as fun as an Ibiza club for centurions. When the clock struck 9 pm all the restaurants, bars and activities shut tight and everyone disappeared into their rooms like vampires at sunrise. Some even earlier – like you had to have your order in at the hotel by 8 pm to get served. And no room service! 9 pm until 8 am was a dead zone.
One night I drove around for over an hour looking for ‘anything’ – I came across a small ‘town’ about 20 minutes away consisting of a main street crossing and again – everything was shut tight except for one soup shop where the workers seemed to be enjoying a late-night (9:30 pm) dinner in a closed restaurant. What a party!
Additionally, although I went in September a lot of the restaurants in the north just seemed to be closed, I thought I was on the edge of the tourist season, not totally outside of it – but the north feels a bit like a ghost town.
This seems strange, as every other Japanese city seems to love to party; they indulge in it – with maze-like streets devote to eating and drinking all night long.
Alas, the resorts are pretty, but sometimes pretty soulless, at least at night – no parties here ;(
Okinawa, the little island that could… almost…
So, combined with the typhoon and lack of drinking establishments – my stay in northern Okinawa became more of a place just to sightsee as much as I could in the day – then crash early in the evenings and rest up.
The typhoon both ruined and made my stay a lot more interesting. I’m sure if you visit in perfect weather with clear blue skies and clearer water it can be an enchanting island. I guess I was expecting more nightlife, food, and well…. fun.
You can read more about things to visit or skip in my article – Skip the myriad of tourist traps – Okinawa Japan.
I wish everyone could visit Okinawa once, it’s such a beautiful island – even during a typhoon!
7. Tips
I think you just need to know what you’re going to Okinawa for, and to set your expectations. Booking far in advance when you have no control over the weather isn’t ideal. If you’re looking for mad nightlife maybe stick to Naha, if you’re seeking sun and sand some of the more secluded beaches offer this. However much of what I saw were big resort type facilities, not quiet bungalows on empty beaches.
