Okinawa 2
18 October 2025
Okinawa has been one of my favorite travel destinations to date. Specifically, the Kerama Islands, which are off the coast of the island of Okinawa. The ocean is a beautiful blue, and below the surface, it is full of healthy coral and marine life. We visited one year and a week after our first visit, but this time we got unlucky with the weather.
Day 1 - Naha
- Heiwa Dori
- Kokusai Dori
In the morning, we woke up with plenty of time to get ready and packed before walking 20 minutes to the express train. The train was pretty full when we arrived, so we didn’t get seats. Not a big deal for most rides, but this one takes around 45 minutes, and my feet remembered they hurt from yesterday’s 33k steps after about five minutes of standing.
When we finally got to the airport (Terminal 1), I spotted some massage chairs tucked away in a corner. We still had a lot of coins and time, so it was perfect. We paid 30 TN for 15 minutes, and it was much needed. We all felt better afterwards. We got some airport food, which I liked more than I thought I would, but everyone else didn’t like it, and we ate while waiting for boarding to start.
We departed TPE at 9:45 a.m. and watched a little bit of K-pop Demon Hunters on the way. Indi fell asleep pretty fast, as usual. We arrived at Naha International Airport at 12:25 p.m. The customs line took forever – around an hour. After that, we took the train into town and then walked for 22 minutes to our hotel.
On the way, we found the first convenience store that Indi I ever visited in Japan. When I see that blue and white sign with the milk jug, my heart starts pounding with pre-diabetic longing. We memorialized the moment by buying stuff inside.
I thought for sure that it was a no-no to eat while walking in Japan, but Jonny said it’s fine. A quick ChatGPT search told me: “Short answer: yes, it’s generally considered bad manners to eat while walking in Japan.” Everyone ate on the walk besides me because I just prefer to be respectful to locals, I guess.
We checked into our hotel with Jonny’s help. He’s fluent in Japanese, which means we let him handle all the talking on the trip. The hotel room was cool – half western and have Japanese style. The girls immediately claimed the western-style beds. Jonny and I were stoic and happy to sleep on futons over the tatami.
Indi and Kaitlin were taunting us for preferring the tatami, but as you can see from this photo, Jonny and I were locked in and unfazed by their verbal abuse.
Here is photographic evidence of Jonny and me sorting out the logistics while the girls faffed about, refusing to help. I’ll tell the story later of how their only day by themselves went when we weren’t around to plan it for them.
We walked to the Tomari Wharf Ferry Terminal to buy tickets to the Kerama Islands for the following day. We decided on Zamami Island because the accommodation was easier and cheaper. It went really smoothly and didn’t take long.
I’ve exposed our ages by including the ticket. Right now, it seems old. In ten years, it will seem young; in 40 years, perhaps I will have forgotten what it felt like to be 31. Every five or so years, I look back and feel amazed that I could have been so dumb and clueless five years ago. I’ve been having that moment of epiphany since high school. If nothing else, I’ve learned that I should assume I don’t have everything figured out and to get comfortable with it.
We went to lunch at Indi’s favorite noodle place – Mazemen Mahoroba. We had stumbled upon it on our first trip to Okinawa, looking for a ramen shop.
It was a happy accident because their soba is seriously good. Indi said that their soba are her favorite noodles in the world.
Heiwa Dori
We went shopping on Heiwa Dori, which is the name for the labyrinthine covered streets perpendicular to Kokusai Dori street, as far as I can tell. One of my main quests on this trip was to buy cheap art to hang on the walls of my house. I bought some cheap, small prints that I quite like.
There is a vendor on the street that I remembered from last year. They’re a memorable couple. The husband is a quiet artist who paints cartoonish animals and people onto shells. His wife is a very enthusiastic and chatty saleswoman. I think buying a painted shell here may be the best thing you can buy on the street. I bought one. You can see his work on their Instagram @kaigara_kaiga. Although it seems that on Instagram, the main thing they post is sketching things they come across that kind of look like a person.
Kokusai Dori
We walked down the popular Kokusai Dori street. I bought some more prints and Kaitlin bought grapes.
Like other cities in Japan, Okinawa is even more beautiful at night than it is during the day.
I couldn’t wait to get sushi, so we went to the nearest place. I’ve found that it is difficult to find bad food in Japan. It happens occasionally, but it is rare. The sushi was good, as expected.
To end the night, we walked back to the hotel. Indi recognized places from the last time we visited. Inside our hotel was an onsen. We all went to our respective gendered bath rooms. Jonny and I scared away a man who was bathing, and then we had the place to ourselves. We finished before the girls and sat in the lobby watching a local tv program about exploring lost historical areas now covered by modern buildings. After, we played a card game we brought called Flip 7 and went to bed.
Day 2 - Zamami Island
- Furuzamami Beach
We got up and packed, and began our walk to the Tomari Ferry Terminal. On the way there, we stopped by a bakery. We all got curry pan and other baked goods. The curry pan was really good despite being room temperature. The melon bread was also good.
We took a ferry to Zamami Island at 10:00 am. We sat upstairs on the top deck because it was pretty warm inside. It was nice outside at first, but it got really windy when we set off. We ended up moving to a slightly more protected area, but stayed outside for the whole ferry ride. The weather was grey and overcast.
Upon arrival, we checked into our hotel, which was quite nice. We got lunch at a place that was better than I had expected. In my previous experience, the food on the island wasn’t very good. I got the daily special of pork cutlet and liked it, although it was pretty plain.
After that, we decided to rent bikes to get around the island. After a few false starts from faulty bikes, we found a place, rented four bikes, and set off to the west side of the island. We went to Ama beach to see if we could rent a kayak to get to the small uninhabited islands nearby, but the rental shop was closed. Maybe because the weather wasn’t great. It was gloomy and very windy for pretty much our whole stay. We decided not to get in the water at Ama Beach and moved on to greener pastures.
One of the best parts of our trip to Zamami was exploring the charming town on bike and on foot.
The Kerama Islands are a small group of islands west of Okinawa, known for their clear waters, coral reefs, and marine life. There are three main inhabited islands: Tokashiki, Zamami, and Aka, with ferry services connecting them to Naha.
Furuzamami Beach
We rode our bikes to the other side of the island, to Furuzamami Beach. To get there, you have to ascend a steep road, and none of the bikes have gears. The electric bikes were too expensive. So, we walked up the hill and rode down the hill to the beach. We made a pact that no one could use the brakes the whole way down, but everyone broke their vow and chickened out except me.
The beach doesn’t look like much in these conditions, but that’s how it goes on beach days. The weather affects the experience in a big way. Here is what it looked like when we visited 1 year and 1 week ago:
At the beach, the rental shop was closed. Luckily, my foresight is nearly limitless, and I brought my swimming goggles from home. So, Indi, Kaitlin, and I took turns using the goggles. The snorkeling was good, but not quite as good as I’d remembered. Jonny lay on the beach in the fetal position, thinking thoughts unfathomable. It was freezing getting out of the water because of the strong wind. We delayed getting out for as long as we could.
We repeated the slog up the hill and then rode back down it into town. I bombed the hill, and everyone was super impressed and later congratulated me.
We watched the sunset with some snacks we bought from the store.
We had made a reservation for dinner at the same place we got lunch. I ordered an eel bowl this time and thought it was just okay. Everyone got mad at me for insisting we eat at the same restaurant we had for lunch but I don’t listen to the haters.
We were supposed to watch a supa sugoi anime before bed, but I was really tired and a little sunburned, so I fell asleep early. Indi was nice enough to finish drying our laundry before going to bed, which is why I married her.
Day 3 - Zamami Island/Naha
- Furuzamami Beach
We weren’t interested in biking back to the beach. Instead, we decided to take the bus. I don’t think many people are aware of the bus because it only runs intermittently. We got some snacks at the store and hopped on the bus, which was empty except for one other guy.
Furuzamami Beach
We hung out at the beach until the rental shop opened. We all got snorkel gear (which was expensive), except for Jonny, who once again preferred to lie alone on the beach, allowing insipid thoughts to bubble up from his subconscious.
With better gear this time around, snorkeling was more fun. We saw all kinds of cool stuff. No one took any photos except for Kaitlin’s photos of shells she collected.
Probably the coolest thing that I saw was this large fish being cleaned by cleaner fish. My GoPro gave up the ghost right after I took this video.
We took the bus back to town after getting out of the water and realizing that the bus would be arriving in just a few minutes. We went back to the hotel where the girls showered, we picked up our bags, and headed to the ferry station.
Indi and I shopped in the store for art that’s right next to the ferry. Jonny and Kaitlin secured a spot in the first-floor area where there’s just carpet and no seats. It’s. Great place for kids and is often used by people who want to lie down and sleep.
We had other ideas, however. In case you, reader, are unaware, and most likely you are, the four of us spend a lot of time playing games. We spend a lot of time playing a particular board game called Munchkin. It takes 2-3 hours to play on average with four people, so it was perfect for the ferry ride. Our last game had been in the Seattle airport. Sadly, Kaitlin won in a dirty and underhanded way. But she’s only won a handful of times, so in a way, it felt charitable to let her have the W. However undeserved it might have been.
The game ended right as we were pulling up to the ferry port in Naha. We disembarked and began walking to our next hotel. It ended up being a cool spot, and the view of the city from the lobby on the 17th floor was sweet. Our room was on the 10th floor. The place was nice. It had a faux tatami sitting area like the first hotel in Naha.
We decided on Japanese BBQ for dinner. Fortuitously, there was an all-you-can-eat BBQ place across the street from our hotel. When I arrived, I didn’t feel hungry at all and thought I’d only eat a few orders of meat before tapping out. The table decided on the highest level of all you can eat, which included quality domestic beef. The food was great. As I was eating, a strange thing happened: I felt that the more I ate, the hungrier I became. Some favorites were the sesame cucumber and thinly sliced beef. We had 90 minutes to eat our fill, and somehow Jonny and I were ordering up until the last minute. It was amazing.
After dinner, we went to Don Quijote by Kokusai dori so Indi could get sweets for her coworkers. After that, we wandered the streets a bit before heading back to the hotel.
We hung out there for a while. Indi wanted to get some late-night ramen, not because any of us were hungry, but for the experience. I was ready to fall asleep, so I told her it was now or never. We walked to a place that I had saved, and it turned out to be a place that Indi had already been. Indi and I shared 1 bowl of ramen and 1 order of gyoza. It was good! On the walk back, we had some Nigerians try to tempt us with illicit activities. Kaitlin and Jonny were interested, but Indi and I pulled them away.
We got back to the hotel, and I was out like a light.
Day 4 - Naha
We had a slow morning. We took time to get ready and pack our things until check-out time at 11:00 am. At checkout, we walked to a Nepalese restaurant. Jonny and Kaitlin are big fans of Indian/Japanese fusion. The food was amazing. Indi and I shared a 3-curry taster platter. We also ordered a few appetizers for the table and a mango lassi. Everything I tried was so good. My favorite was the mutton curry. The size of the naan was astounding. Each was bigger than two dinner plates together. Again, at the end of eating an ungodly amount of food, I somehow felt great, which disturbed me much more than if I’d felt sick.
After lunch, we went right to the airport because our airline wasn’t allowing us to check in online. It seems that that was the case with all passengers because check-in took about an hour of waiting in line – it was a good thing we arrived early.
The flight to Seoul got bumpy towards the end, which made me feel a little sick.
Going through customs went smoothly. In the airport near the train station, there was a digital art museum exhibit. There was an information booth, so I went up and asked what it was. He handed me a thick piece of paper and told me that I could get it stamped if I went to different stations. I was blindsided by this and decided it would be kind of funny if I did it. Jonny was in the bathroom, so I felt like I had time. I did it and got all 5 stamps. It was just me and a 5-year-old boy doing it and he beat me by a little, but he had a head start.
We took the slower train because the express train had just departed. The train ride was pretty long, so I did something despicable. I sat in the priority seating reserved for pregnant women, the elderly, and disabled people. In my defense, the seats were open, and no one ever got on that fit the bill, so I got to sit most of the ride. Indi found a seat halfway through. Jonny and Kaitlin obstinately stood for the whole thing, which made their feet ache. It just goes to show you don’t get ahead by playing by the rules.
Next time
On our next adventure, we get Botox in Seoul.
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