Okinawa Day 1

Our trip to Okinawa was fairly hastily organized, as are most of our trips. Prior to this, my knowledge of Okinawa was pretty minimal, limited to what I read from some group tour brochures provided by several travel agencies. That limited information, nonetheless, was enough to convince me that a self-drive tour was the way to go.

As we were travelling to Okinawa in January and water activities were out of the question, we opted not to stay in any of the seaside resorts, but in a single hotel in Naha, the capital city, instead. Our hotel was centrally located, on the city's main street Kokusai-dōri. The central location means there were plenty of choices of where to eat nearby during our five days there.

We took the monorail from Naha airport to Makishi station, which is less than 15-minutes' walking distance to our hotel. As we arrived in the afternoon, the first day was spent rather leisurely, exploring shops on Kokusai Street. A popular place of interest is Makishi Public Market, located on a covered pedestrian street lined with stores.

 Local catch on sale in Makishi Public Market

Showing off a porcupine fish


Night scene on Kokusai Street