Best things to do in Okinawa, Japan.

Visiting Okinawa is a perfect side trip on your Japan holiday, and a great way to begin exploring Japan’s tropical islands and getting a taste of Ryuku culture. There are so many things to do in Okinawa .

Naha is the capital of Okinawa, and is chock-full of fun, cultural, family activities. It’s the launching spot for exploring Okinawa Island, and the Yaeyama and Ryukyu Island chains that stretch south across the Pacific Ocean towards Taiwan.

It’s easy to navigate Naha, especially the city centre and the main tourist street, Kokusai Dori. There are regular buses to take you further around Naha and a really great monorail which is worth a ride in itself. Some of the best things to see in Naha will need a taxi ride, or you can easily hire a car to get around the city and explore the rest of the island.

These are our top things to do in Naha, Okinawa with kids.

Explore Kokusai Dori – the main tourist strip in Naha

Kokusai Dori is the main tourist strip here in Naha – it’s a super fun street that runs for two kilometres through the city. It’s where you can find shopping, cafes, restaurants, the Naha markets and traditional restaurants with live music and shows. You can find any food here from fast food and western chains like Burger King and Starbucks to teppanyaki, sushi and shaved ice! You can also visit numerous shopping alleys and the undercover markets selling everything from food and drink to souvenirs and artwork.

We bought some gorgeous little Shisa from a store here and Emmie chatted with the artist who was painting them and learnt a little about the craft. It’s a cool place.

Sunday street fair

If you head down to Kokusai Dori on a Sunday you’ll find the street closed off and lots of activities for kids set up just outside of Starbucks. I sat and enjoyed my coffee while Em played with bubbles, fished with magnets and rode in toy cars. She had a great time and I got a bit of downtime.

Watch a Eisa dance and drum performance

On Sundays you can also catch really wonderful Eisa performances in the main street by local kids. Eisa is the traditional folk dance of Okinawa and uses drums and movement – it’s so flamboyant and energetic and the one we saw incorporated pop music into the performance. The three sizes of drums and the colourful costumes set Okinawa’s Eisa apart from other Japanese folk dances and make it unique to the Ryukyu kingdom.

Shuri Castle

Shuri Castle is a must to visit for a taste of Okinawa history – and it’s wheelchair accessible with chairs and lifts inside the castle if needed. Between 1429 and 1879 Shuri Castle was the palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom, which stretched from Okinawa down to Taiwan, with very close trading ties with China and Melaka. Although the castle was almost destroyed in 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa it has been rebuilt and is a really impressive site, surrounded by lots of greenery and little pathways to explore. Again the people who work here are so friendly and helpful, it’s a lovely place to explore.

Emmie had so much fun here because this castle is super smart and has stamps located all around for kids to collect during their visit. Just grab the stamp pamphlet from the information desk and fill it up at the many stations around the castle. If you complete it you get a prize – I’m not going to tell you what it is because it’s a really awesome little gift! Make sure to also bring your travel diaries to stamp as the glossy paper makes the ink a little slippery in the pamphlet.

We caught the monorail here and had a fabulous time exploring the castle. We loved the intricately detailed lunch boxes and learning about the interior workings of the castle in daily life. On the way back to the monorail we stopped at the Nepalese Kitchen for dinner for some curry, then we wandered back to the station and home.

Tip: It’s hot in the middle of the day so go on the morning or late in the afternoon, and make sure to take your travel diaries for the stamps!

Traditional Coral Art

Just a short walk from Shuri Castle is Shuri-Ryusen, a design studio, gallery and arthouse that runs workshops in traditional Okinawan craft, like the brightly coloured bingata fabric, and using coral to create fabric designs. We had booked into the coral craft and combined this activity wit our visit to Share Castle.

The process uses plant-based ink and huge pieces of coral stems as stencils to create beautiful artwork on t-shirts, bags and lengths of fabric.

You just place your fabric over the coral, choose your colour and rub the dye over it – you can create beautiful rainbow patterns and designs – it’s so much fun. We spent ages here perfecting our designs – I made a beach bag which we have used most days since, and Emmie dyed some fabric that we will have framed for her room when we return home.

LINK TO: http://www.shuri-ryusen.com/en/exp.html

Blue Seal Ice Park – design and create your own ice cream!

From ice cream to ice dream is the motto of Blue Seal, a company that’s been making ice cream in Okinawa for more than 70 years. It was established in 1948 to make sure the American soldiers got their fill of ice cream, and in 1963 it opened to the public.

This concept is the best! It’s super, super fun here for everyone – especially those of us who have dreamed of designing and building, and of course eating, our very own ice cream! Our friends Hannah, Eden and Clio from Fun Flying Four took us here and Emmie and I both made our own creations which we took home to eat.

First of all you can jump into an ice cream freezer to feel just how cold it is! Then you join your table and have briefing about the ice cream making process.

Next! Sketch our your design and select your ice cream flavour, chocolate coating flavour and your toppings from so many yummy things like m&ms, jellies and sprinkles. You collect your toppings, pick up your ice-cream and a helper will bring over your melted chocolate coating. It’s very important to follow the instructions as you dip, and then once hardened you’re ready with your icing glue to create!

Here are ours!

Once finished you pack your ice creams away in a dry ice pack and go grab a soft serve!

There are many Blue Seal ice creameries all over Okinawa so make sure to try some of the special Okinawa flavours like beni-imo – sweet potato, Okinawa salt cookie and shikuwasa – Okinawan lime sherbet.

LINK TO http://icepark.blueseal.co.jp/

Minihama American village
Minihama is an entertainment precinct located nearby a couple of US bases so it’s filled with restaurants, entertainment, cafes and has a big car park – kind of like a big outdoor mall and quite American in style – you can get hot-dogs and hamburgers here or buy American brands at the stores. It’s right next to Sunset Beach which is nice for a picnic  and there’s a movie theatre and a giant ferris wheel. I had my best shaved ice here (mango and mango), we ate pancakes overlooking the beach and our friends showed us these angel wings for a nice pic.

Parks with roller slides

Parks in Japan are really awesome – they have so much wooden climbing and play equipment that stretches kids physical capabilities,  and they also have these crazy fast roller slides. Instead of burning your bottom on a hot metal slide you get to give it an intensive massage (and possibly a friction glow) as you slide down on moving rollers. For extra speed you can bring something smooth to sit on  – like cardboard – but beware that will make you go even faster and potentially shoot off the end.

This park is Tobaru Koen and it also has a netted climbing area, sand play and some smaller playthings for kids. There are also vending machines for water and drinks.

Eat shaved ice

Shaved ice is the best! Make sure to try it out while you’re in Okinawa – my favourite was from the America Village – mango mango ice…I think it was a double mango cause it has flavouring plus pieces of mango on top. Delish. Em’s favourites are always rainbow ice with as much syrup as she can convince people to pour on.

Make some pearl jewellery at Mother Sea
We stumbled upon this little shop when walking into Kokusai Dori one day. It’s just down from Starbucks on Okiei Odori. The shop is set up like the ocean with sandy floor and blue walls and decorated with shells and nets and the staff are so sweet.

Kids get to select, clean and open their own oyster shell to discover a pearl! After the excitement has worn off  from this amazing piece of luck, they can choose to create a piece jewellery with the pearl – a bracelet or earrings or a necklace. This costs a little extra but it’s a really fun kids activity. Prices start at 500 yen (46 AUD) for the pearl discovery plus more for jewellery.

We stayed at the Aqua Citta Hotel Naha which was a great place to stay. It’s breakfasts were massive – and included wine! – it has an incredible rooftop pool that is a little freaky all one side is glass overlooking the city, plus its amenities were so great – they even have welcome gifts for kids and a little play area. It’s about a 10 minute walk to Kokusai Dori and five to the monorail and Oriz Car Hire.