Okinawa is a beach vacation destination that many of my friends from Taiwan have frequented, only 1.5 hour flight away (3 and 2 hour flight from Tokyo and Osaka respectively). For some reason, I haven’t got a chance to visit until 2024 September with my husband and daughter. We spent four full days in Okinawa, renting a car to get around as my first time driving in Japan. Weather was unpredictable every day with ever-changing forecast, we went with the flow with flexible plans for rain and shine. In the end, we had so much fun at a pretty relaxing pace. Our highlights were at the beach, Nago Pineapple Park, and the Churaumi aquarium with some nap/break time at the malls.
Lodging at Moon Ocean Ginowan
As Okinawa is a vertically long and narrow island, many people choose to change hotels as they travel from the airport in the south to the north. For us, we prefer not to change hotels and decided to stay 5 nights at the same hotel at Moon Ocean Ginowan. It was 30-40 minute drive from the airport and under 150 USD per night. In our final itinerary, we just had one day driving farther north to Nago for around 3 hours total. Other 3 days, the drives were all within 20 minutes between places.
Location
We loved the location at a quiet neighborhood, but with lots of stores and places to go nearby. Within 5-minute walking distance, there is a Union 24h supermarket with takeaway food and an affordable baby/kids store Nishimatsuya in the same plaza that we didn’t get the time to go. Round One was walkable as a great rain alternative, and the Tropical beach was 5 minute drive without traffic or 17 minute walk.
Room
The room we stayed was “Deluxe One-Bedroom Twin Room – 3rd or 4th Floor,” on the fourth floor. Each room has an ocean view, and a patio with a table and two chairs where we had breakfast one day. The only part we had issues with was the bed arrangement. Maybe because we weren’t used to co-sleeping with our daughter, we found it hard to share the two twin beds among three of us. We tried the sofa bed in the living room, but it was not very comfortable for sleeping. The room came with a kitchenette, though we didn’t find the time to cook this trip other than preparing some fruit. Cookware and utensils can be rented at the front desk. Laundry on each floor was free of charge, with detergent available at the front desk for 50 yen per packet.
Pool
The hours were a bit limited from 9AM-7PM in September, we only went to the pool once during our 5 night stay. Towels were provided at the pool, with a few floating devices and pool toys on the side. They had a spa and a pool divided into two parts at different depths. There was no shower at the pool, and there was a dedicated elevator to use after the pool.
Naha airport
Arrival
International flights are more limited, with flights mostly to/from nearby countries in Asia. Since it was a smaller airport, the immigration and customs were pretty straightforward and efficient with the QR code screenshots from the VJW website filled beforehand. Now there was just one QR code per person for both immigration and customs. Everything took about 40 minutes for us.
Departure
When returning on a Saturday morning, the airport was not super crowded for international flights. We arrived 3 hours before, but the check-in counter for our flight (Peach) was not open until 2 hours before. There was quite some entertainment at the airport landside before security. We spent the hour playing piano with Pokemon display nearby on the 3rd floor, and lining up for a tasty pork egg onigiri at Pork Tamago Onigiri as our breakfast. On the 2nd floor, there were also stores like BIC Camera for last minute shopping and a UFO catcher area where we luckily got a Doraemon keychain on the second try. The security did not take long at this hour, and there was a Blue Seal ice cream store near our gate with a marked up price but was pretty popular.
Driving in Japan
During commute hours, traffic could be quite bad with almost double of the time. There was one morning at 8AM when it took us 10 minutes to just leave one block for the main road. For navigation, we used Google Maps on the phone via CarPlay that required a USB-A cable (Bluetooth didn’t work somehow). The built-in map app in the car might have more accurate road updates, but only in Japanese. Google Maps was misleading once where it indicated staying on two lanes for going straight, but in reality one lane can only go right. Having a backup camera with a top down view and sensors that detect nearby vehicles and lane markers greatly helped with my parking and drive.
Car rental
We went with OTS for car rental, where we rented a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross for five days with a car seat, unlimited ETC for 5 days, and the maximum additional insurance. They go on sale the first three days of the month before the month of the rental. From Naha airport, it required a bus transfer for us at the domestic terminal, a five-minute walk from the international terminal. The shuttle bus to the rental office felt long, about half an hour with traffic at Friday 6PM but half the time for our return trip at Saturday 10AM. I didn’t realize the additional insurance wasn’t selected at booking, it’s always worth checking the rental details beforehand to avoid unexpected surprises at the rental desk.
Driving experience
For drivers who are used to driving on the right side of the road like in the US, it can be quite an experience. Panic could come from various sources: turning on the wipers when trying to put on the turn signal, struggling to change gears on the left side, checking cars from the wrong direction, drifting to the left side of the lane, and subconsciously planning to turn into the right side of the road. I was beyond nervous on the first night driving in the dark while getting used to the opposite driving habit. Driving involves lots of muscle memories, and it is a new set of habits that took me a few days to adjust. The frequency of turning on the wipers decreased over time, but I still triggered it once or twice per day in the last few days. Our car had a rental car & foreigners sticker to hopefully excuse our low speed. We were never honked at from driving and turning slowly for the whole time.
Sand handling
Just by walking near the beach, shoes can catch lots of sand. When we were running back to the car from a thunderstorm, we didn’t have time to dust off the shoes and got some sand in the car. It was challenging to remove all the sand easily, we did our best to clean it for a bit and then put a long towel on the floor. Later on, we also changed shoes before getting on the car and putting sandy shoes in a sealable bag. With a small amount of remaining sand in the car, the car rental did not charge us for extra cleaning.
Day 1
Onigiri breakfast by the Tropical beach
On our first day, we were still figuring out the weather forecast with a 40% chance of rain most of the time. The sky looked fine after we changed and we got onigiri from the Union supermarket, but it became dark and ominous quickly. We drove to the Tropical beach and started our breakfast, and it started drizzling and turned into strong rain within minutes. We changed clothes in the bathroom and had to come back another time.
Indoor playtime at Round One
After the rain, we drove to the giant Round 1 building for shelter. The parking lot was pretty full on a Tuesday 10AM right after it opened, and the spots were tight. We validated the parking ticket when we left Spo-cha at Round One, and it was good for 12 hours.
UFO catchers
It was our first time in Round One, and I was impressed by the first floor with rows of UFO machines. I’d played UFO catchers a few times in Taiwan, but the machines were quite different in Japan. Instead of a joystick, many machines just had two buttons to go right and in without a chance of correction. The 2 claws felt pretty weak from my limited testing, and they went down and up rather slowly. Picking the right machines that have items near the hole seemed like the best strategy, but we didn’t invest much in the tuition. When leaving the Spo-cha play area, the staff also gave us one UFO trial ticket and one 10-coin ticket for some machines on the second floor (we played a Dragon Quest machine) per person. Unfortunately, we didn’t get anything from Round One but it was a fun process and a lesson for our daughter.
Spo-Cha
They had two options, 90-minute or 3-hour play, and different rates on weekdays and weekends. All three of us had so much fun and found our own favorite play areas. For our daughter, she liked the playground with slides and trampolines. She also joined us for many arcade games, like a three-person pulling game, Luigi’s Mansion, air hockey, Taiko drum game, Shinkansen driving game, and driving Initial D without being able to reach the pedals. My personal favorite was the ping pong machine, where it fed the balls for a one-minute game each time. There were two paddles of different types and our daughter also joined me for a few games. In the central rink, they had alternating roller skating and car riding, but we didn’t get the time to try it when the 90 minutes went by quickly.
Curry rice lunch at Coco Ichiban
As the rain picked up again when we finished Spo-Cha at Round One, we decided to have a quick lunch at the Coco Ichiban curry restaurant on the first floor of the same building. The restaurant was family-friendly with kids’ meals and booster seats for our booth. They also had manga in Japanese like One Piece to read while waiting for meals. Our daughter had the hamburger curry rice kids plate, plus a hard-boiled egg and potato salad to share. The kids’ meal came with a voucher for gatcha machine in the restaurant, and she got a small octopus car that kept her entertained many times this trip.
Aeon Rycom mall with Pokémon Center
First, I’d recommend stopping by the visitor center behind the Blue Seal ice cream and showing the QR code to get either a 500 yen coupon at select stores or a little gift (colorful star sand in a small glass bottle for us). It didn’t require a passport, but it might be safer to bring one for tax-free shopping at the mall anyway. We used the 500 yen coupon at the Pokémon Center, in addition to the tax-free discount. The mall was family friendly with free stroller rental and bathroom facilities. The aquarium on the first floor was fun to check out, they had quite a few eye-catching fish and stingrays to observe.
Floor 1
Pokémon Center had an Exeggutor guarding the store, and the store was not busy at all on a Tuesday evening. I also enjoyed browsing stationery stores like Loft. The mall had a big Uniqlo and Gu, with pretty good prices compared to the stores outside of Japan.
Floors 3 & 4
On the third floor, they had an Aeon supermarket in the Aeon Style area. All items within the Aeon Style, including the fourth floor, are tax-free.
Taco rice at Kijimuna
We all got an omutaco at a taco rice chain in the food court on the third floor of the mall. Our daughter had the kids’ meal, and we shared a sliced avocado topping. The rice was Japanese white rice and not Mexican rice, but we enjoyed this unique fusion dish. The portion was pretty generous.
Day 2
Originally, we planned to drive to Nago on two days. One day for the pineapple park, and the other for the Churaumi aquarium. However, our daughter wasn’t a fan of long car rides even for 30 minutes. Before reaching the pineapple park, we decided to combine the two destinations into one day to save another 2-3 hours of driving.
Breakfast at Komeda
To break up the 1.3 hour drive to the Nago Pineapple Park, we had breakfast at a Komeda Chibana location around the middle. The menu was pretty similar to the one in Taipei where we lived, with a special type of bread for the morning menu that comes with jam/butter and hard boiled egg/egg salad/red bean paste. Our daughter and I shared a morning set and a kids meal that comes with a juice in a cute bottle. The restroom was very clean and nice with a diaper changing table.
Nago pineapple park
Recommended by a friend for a rain option, we planned this on a day with high chance of rain (50%) that turned out to be mostly cloudy fortunately. After parking the car down a narrow road, we got the tickets (free under 4) and went on a pineapple train. During the train ride, we went past pineapple fields with English and Japanese introduction. It was the first time I saw small pineapples still growing up. When we arrived at the park entrance, we jumped on a self-driving individual pineapple car with rain cover when needed. It was fun riding the car for about five minutes, it had a driving wheel for kids to pretend drive. After the ride, we walked through the guided path seeing various plants and butterflies. On rainy days, it might require a umbrella on the walk. Toward the end, there was one unexpected part with moving dinosaurs that our daughter feared. At the end, we sat at the restaurant and enjoyed a sweet pineapple on a stick. The souvenir store also had some pineapple flavor cake and lemonade tasting. Overall, we spent almost two hours here and it was a lot of fun for us.
Conveyor belt sushi at Kura Sushi
After the pineapple park, we drove about 5 minutes to a conveyor belt sushi chain, Kura Sushi, that was not crowded on a weekday at noon. We still made an online reservation just in case. We have had Kura sushi many times in Taiwan, and preferred it to another chain Sushiro for its gocha game every 5 dishes. It was interesting to see their offer to charge 10 yen per dish for a gocha game every 3 dishes with some guaranteed win policy. We went with destiny, and luckily got one on our last third round with 15 dishes. The nigiri was pretty good, we had a few ones that we never had before. Our daughter enjoyed the udon, cucumber sushi, and tuna & scallion sushi the most. It had high chairs mounted on the booth table, but our daughter was big enough to sit on her own. The kids utensils and water were at the self-serve area, and the bathroom was clean and convenient.
Dolphin show & Churaumi aquarium at Ocean Expo Park
The drive from the pineapple park area to the Churaumi aquarium was about 30-40 minutes, and our daughter napped half an hour during the ride. We parked at P5 by the road, it was full but there was some turnover in the afternoon. There are also some parking lots closer to the aquarium down the hill, but the walk to the aquarium from P5 was just about 10 minutes.
Dolphin show
As my favorite sea animal, the dolphin show was one of our must dos here. The shows were free in the Ocean Expo Park, outside of the aquarium. At the time of our visit September 2024, the main dolphin theater was still under construction and it took place temporarily at Okichan theater without any shade. We went to the 3PM show, it was scorching sun and quite a few people opened their umbrella that could block the view as a cultural difference. Our daughter was excited to see the dolphins jumping, swimming, and doing tricks. The show was pretty short, just 10-15 minutes. The explanation was in Japanese only.
Churaumi aquarium
After the show, we walked about 5-10 minutes to the aquarium. There were a few ways to get discounted tickets like with Okinawa FunPass, at certain convenient stores, or through our car rental and hotel, but we just needed two tickets (free under 6) and bought them on the spot for convenience. The aquarium had a few programs, we watched part of the tropical fish feeding but had to miss the Kuroshio ones as the time didn’t align with our visit. Our daughter enjoyed the first tropical fish tank, and the tall large tank with the famous whale shark and huge stingrays among many other colorful fish. It was not super big like the Osaka Kaiyukan, but it was perfect for us as there were quite a few things to do outside the aquarium.
Emerald Beach
We didn’t end up going to the beach due to the unexpected weather with dark clouds hanging over, but we grabbed a drink from the vending machines and sat at a bench nearby watching at the waves at the sea. I scoped out the beach briefly, walking down the ramp. Rental and shower were available, I’d plan it with enough time (2-3 hours including all the cleanup) next time.
Okinawan dinner at Nagumagai
This was our only local restaurant this trip, and the most memorable one. The location was great as it was about 1/3-1/2 of the drive down back to the hotel. It wasn’t crowded at 6PM on a weekday, it was easy to park at their parking lot. We walked in from the side entrance with lots of interesting stuff on display, and sat at a wooden table. It was very family friendly, with low tables on tatami (no shoes) for bigger groups and families. There were also Japanese children books and entertaining items like a snake in a liquid container while waiting for the food. The restroom wasn’t big but clean. I shared the combo Okinawan soba (3 types of pork) set meal with a rice bowl with a variety of ingredients (“Kufa juicy”) with our daughter and everything was very tasty. We also got a local dish, bittermelon & tofu (“Goya champuru”) to share. The bittermelon dish was large and the mix with tofu and shredded egg was well flavored like fried rice. With a beer, two set meals, and the bittermelon dish, the bill was under 4000 yen.
Day 3
Beach morning at the Tropical beach
Facility details, and rental/water activities.
Finally a sunny day, we attempted the Tropical beach again. We got onigiri from Union 24h like usual, and walked to the store first to rent an umbrella and two lounge chairs with 1000 yen each without time limit (credit card ok). We gave the receipt to the lifeguard and he set everything up for us. People also paid cash to the lifeguard without going to the store. We loved the beach so much, our daughter alternated playing sand, at the shore, and went in the enclosed safe area with me. The water was warm and calm with occasional mild waves, I found the swim relaxing. The beach was low key on a weekday, it wasn’t big but perfect for small kids. The bathroom and shower were a bit bare, without chairs or platforms to change easily. We did 3 rounds of 3-minute 100 yen shower for our daughter and me, and washing sand off the swimwear.
American village
After the beach, we drove up to American village. There were public parking lots spread out the area free of charge. We parked at the lot near the Gigo/Blue Seal depot island, it was mostly full on a weekday at 2PM with some turnover. This was the most touristy place we’ve been this trip, and restaurants felt more trendy and pricier as well.
Lunch at Vongo & Anchor
Located at the Vessel hotel Campana, the entrance was on the walking path along the ocean outside. The cafe was half empty at 2 PM, with some people working on laptop. Our daughter and I shared a few tacos and a beet juice, and I also shared a salmon avocado sandwich with my husband. I loved the corn tortilla in the tacos, and the raw salmon in the sandwich was very fresh. This was the priciest meal we had this trip.
Walking around the village
After lunch, our daughter started her nap in the stroller and we walked around the American village. There were many stores and restaurants in beautifully decorated buildings, with a fusion vibe. We ended up at the Aeon Chatan mall, much smaller than Rycom with just two floors. I got a matcha milk and sat for a bit, then we played at the UFO catchers upstairs with some easier machines. When our daughter woke up, we had Blue Seal ice cream at the food court and our daughter did some rides at the arcade.
Dinner at Yayoiken
We wanted to check out the Mega Don Quijote on the way from the American village back to the hotel, and had dinner at the lot next to the Mega Donki. There was also a Hard-Off in the same lot as Yayoiken with second-hand games/toys among other physical items except for books, but we didn’t find anything to buy. We had Yayoi in Taiwan many times, it is a family friendly Japanese restaurant chain but the vibe was quite different here from Taiwan. We ordered at a machine upon entrance with English available. I shared a fish with Okinawan soba set meal with our daughter that we liked. Water was self-serve at the machine, with some settings with/without/just ice. The staff gave us kids utensils, high chairs were also available that we didn’t use.
Shopping at Mega Don Quijote
We liked browsing at Donki stores in different countries (also a few stores in Taiwan) for their fun selection plus some shopping. They had souvenirs and a bunch of halloween costumes at the front. The store was quite big, we spent some time finding what we were looking for. Tax free was available. They had carts with a child seat at the front, though our daughter was a bit too big with feet touching the wheels.
Day 4
On our last full day, we just had an easy day around the hotel area. We woke up to sunny weather like the previous day, and decided to spend the morning at the beach again and try the hotel pool after lunch & stroller nap in the Urasoe PARCO CITY mall.
Another beach morning at the Tropical beach
We considered checking out another beach Araha 15-minute drive away, but thought to revisit the beach near the hotel to save time reacquainting ourselves given our fun time yesterday. The weather was even nicer today with a clear sky, and we had so much fun at the beach in and out of the water. It was a bit quieter today, we didn’t see military planes practicing in the sky nor the preschool kids marching at the beach and high school kids playing and BBQ.
Lunch with ocean view at Urasoe West Coast PARCO CITY
After driving 10 minutes on the road over the water, we parked our car on the third floor of a huge parking lot at PARCO CITY. We took the elevator to 2F that connects to the main mall with the food court and a baby store chain Akachan. The food court had a view of the sea, the tables by the window were the most sought for and we got one after a group left. I shared two grilled meat dishes with our daughter. Like other Aeon malls we went to, they offered high chairs, towels to clean the table, and iced water at the food court. We enjoyed the lunch with the relaxing ocean view.
Dinner at Danbo ramen
We went to the hotel pool late afternoon, and drove 15 minutes to the popular Kyushu ramen chain Danbo at the Nakagusuku branch. It had a parking lot with just few spots on the front. When we arrived 7PM, the restaurant was full. The process was to order and pay from the vending machine first. We put our name on the waitlist paper, but the staff just kept track of the order themselves and didn’t use the list. We waited for about 15 minutes, and the staff fixed the vending machine with uneven bills when our order had some issues. After being seated, we wrote down the noodle hardness/spicy/soup options for the ramen for the staff to collect all the tickets from the machine. Our daughter and half order of extra noodles on the side, while I had the scallion ramen with bamboo topping that I shared some with her. We also got 8 gyozas and fried rice to share. The gyozas were the smaller kind, and the fried rice was not strongly flavored which was nice for our daughter. The food was very good and the restroom was convenient. There was a Union 24h super market diagonal to the restaurant, but it was pouring rain and we just headed back.
Wrap
Compared to other cities we’ve visited in Japan, Okinawa certainly had a different vibe that was more relaxing. There was a noticeable American presence spread out the island but most places still felt very Japanese. Our favorite was the toddler-friendly beach, and the variety of kids-friendly sights, malls, restaurants, and neighborhoods to explore. There was so much more to see and try in Okinawa, we started thinking it could be a place we come every year. Next time, we will probably stay at a different part of the island. Planning for rain was necessary, and we were grateful for more than half of sunny days with a typhoon the week before.
Here is the full itinerary and lists of places that we considered for the Okinawa trip: