Hello! Okinawa (Chapter.1)
- Observation at airport
- Family goals
- Naha：国際通り / 壺屋 / 泊港 / 首里城
- North：美ら海水族館 / 八重岳櫻花季
- Central：残波岬 / 美國村
- South：系滿 / 玉泉洞
1. Observation at airport
We have a family vacation to Okinawa during CNY (Chinese New Year) . This is our first time visiting Okinawa and also the first flight after the pandemic, so we can’t wait to take off. The exciting atmosphere was full of the Taoyuan Airport because Taiwanese was not able to travel abroad without restriction for 3 years. Fortunately, even though the government have eased most policies, the amount of travelers doesn’t grow dramatically.
2. Family goals
Every time, we set goals to complete in a trip to make the journey more meaningful. The trip to Okinawa contains two important missions: (1) Driving abroad. (2) See the whale.
Driving abroad is challenging, but I enjoy it a lot even I made mistakes. Japan’s driving habit is totally different with Taiwan: Japan is a right side driving country and Taiwan is the opposite, with which took me a day to be familiar. The Japanese drive quite slow and obey to rules all the time, and this makes driving a easy thing for foreigners. I think it’s the reason that many people recommend Okinawa as the first place to drive abroad.
However, our goal to see a whale didn’t go well as driving. The activity was canceled due to bad weather. We are not available to see the beautiful creature in the ocean, but I am sure we will meet them in Taiwan or Japan again soon.
3. Naha：国際通り / 壺屋 / 泊港 / 首里城
The 6 days trip started from the capital of Okinawa, the Naha city.
The most difference from Naha with other Japan capitals is population density. There are less people surrounding whenever I walked around the streets or visited restaurants and stores, and so comparing with Osaka and Tokyo, the distance between people is comfortable!
国際通り
The most popular street of Okinawa, is actually a street with lots of stores nearby. It’s always crowd with tourists, so even visitors can’t speak Japanese, the vendors are able to communicate with a little Mandarin and English. After the pandemic, some said that the biggest change at 国際通り is the English ability of stores owing to lost of visitors.
My favorite part of 国際通り is the extending alleys nearby. It preserved more local stores and restaurants that won’t show up at the main street.
壺屋
Ceramic is a well-known tradition of Okinawa, and there are still 40–50 stores collecting on a street in Naha to display this local features. Walking on the street, you will find a lots of ceramic lions, statues, cup, and tablewares, etc. The magic of the street makes you feel a slow moving time. My favorite features of the Okinawa ceramic is glaze color, Miyako blue. The local puts this feature on the ceramic and make it so unique that you can easily connect this little stuffs with Okinawa. I recommend every visitors to take a look at 壺屋 because it not only represents the culture of Okinawa but also attracts wide range of customers.
泊港 (泊(とまり)いゆまち)
Seafood is a must for every visitors to Japan, let alone my foodie family.
Okinawa is famous of 3 seafood market: 牧志, 泊港, 系滿. I highly recommend 泊港 among them for those willing to explore the local seafood market because it is nearby the local port and preserves most of the local feeling in the market. Although it is still localized, the market also offer multilingual service because of the increasing visitors, and this makes the whole visiting easier. We ordered a lobster and some sashimi, which is cheaper and fresher than Taiwan. If the weather is good, I suggest visitors to take a whale seeing event near 泊港, and have a meal there after it. This was our plan before the windy day.
首里城 (Shurijo castle)
The capital of Ryukyu stands in the heart of Naha, up on the hill that can overlooks the whole island. It might not be the best time to visit Shurijo castle due to the catastrophe at 2019, causing the main buildings under reconstruction. The castles and walls are magnificent, and I’m so impressed how this empire built up the castle. If you plan to visit here, make sure to choose a sunny day since it affect the view “a lot.”
