Day 6 (July 6, 2026): Discovering Naha, Okinawa… in brutal heat and without a rental car!

As I start the blog entry for today, I must share a paraphrase of Lonely Planet’s description of Okinawa: if Tokyo were a pie, take a slice of that pice, plunk it on a South Pacific island, add a dollop of Florida, and you have Okinawa! Today proved that to be very accurate.

The reality of not having a rental car on such a large island really sank in when we woke with the sun this morning. At 106km long and with 1207 square kilometres, its sights are dispersed far and wide. With a rental car, our plan had been to drive south to Naha, the main city, and explore that area on day one and then drive north to explore the national park on day two. Using a mix of public transportation, taxis and walking, we are going to try to stick roughly to that plan.

We set out just before 9AM and caught a bus to the outskirts of Naha and launched into it all, taking in five major sights during the day. In contrast to the cloudy and showery weather since our arrival in Japan, today was a brutally hot, humid and sunny day, which made for great pictures but was not easy on the body! By the time we arrived back at the hotel at 4:30PM, we were drained. The hotel has a rooftop pool and lounge area, and we both fell asleep up there!

Shurijo Castle

Shurijo Castle was originally built in the 14th century and served as the administrative centre and royal residence of the Ryuku kingdom until the 19th century. During the Battle of Okinawa, the complex was mostly destroyed. After the war, what remained served as a university. In 1992, it was rebuilt and in 2000 was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2019, the main courtyard structures were again destroyed, this time by fire. A painstakingly meticulous re-construction effort is currently underway and is nearly completion.

The Shureimon Gate.

The Sonohyan-Italian Gate.

The formidable walls of the castle.

A bird’s eye view of the complex to show its massive size.

The Hoshinmon Gate provides access to the main inner complex.

The main hall of the castle.

Close-up of the detail on the facade of the main hall.

Across the tropical rooftops and street corners of Okinawa, you’ll find fierce yet friendly-looking creatures sitting in pairs, one roaring proudly, the other calmly closing its mouth. These are shisa, Okinawa’s legendary lion-dogs, which watch over homes, temples, and entire villages. They are part guardian, part good-luck charm. These are the shisa of the castle, which have been re-created following the 2019 fire and are awaiting rooftop placement.

View of the complex from the ramparts of the fortress.

The views of Naha are amazing from the ramparts of the castle complex.

Tamaudon

Tamaudun Mausoleum was built around the beginning of the 16th century as the mausoleum for the royal family of the Ryukyu Kingdom. It was restored after suffering extensive damage during the war. It included as one of the UNESCO World Heritage designated Castles of the Ryukyu Kingdom and Related Sites. The mausoleum consists of three closed chambers: the left one for kings and queens, the right one for princes and princesses, and the central one for storing recently deceased bodies before undergoing a ritual of bone cleaning a few years later.

Very macabre-looking trees, appropriate to a burial site!

Tsuboya Pottery Street

This street in central Naha has been a centre of ceramic production since 1682, when the kilns of Ryukyu were consolidated here by royal decree. Today, it retains the tradition, although it is purely touristic in nature, and the goods sold are more in line with household needs than what the needs of the Ryukyu royal family would have required. Almost every store has examples of the shiisa described above (lion-dog roof guardians).

A typical shop on Tsuboya Street.

A typical pottery shop on Tsuboya Street.

A pair of shiisa (lion-dog roof guardians) in a shop on Tsuboya.

“Hmm, I wonder if these shiisa will fit in Pam’s carry-on?”

A shiisa on watch on the rooftop of a typical home, just off Tsuboya Street.

Daichi Makishi Kosetsu Ichiba

When in Asia, one of the most fascinating things you can do is visit a seafood market. The best example of this in Naha is the Daichi Makishi Kosetsu Ichiba, a covered market in the centre of the city. On the second floor of the facility are a large number of seafood restaurants. We explored their menus, but it was all too intimidating and — as you will in one photo below —too terrifying to sample!

Such a variety of colourful fish. Note the blue parrotfish.

Lobsters, crab, and the most massive snails we have ever seen!

We aren’t exactly sure what all of these things were, but some of it is a variety of seaweed.

As mentioned earlier, the first floor is the market, and the second floor contains numerous seafood eateries.

One of the restaurants featured snake. We can’t be sure, but this looks eerily familiar to the deadly banded sea-krait, a sea snake found in South Pacific waters. Perhaps you can now understand why we found the menus at the second floor restaurants a bit too terrifying? ;-)

Playing it safer, we choose a ramen restaurant nearby, for some delicious pork and chicken ramen.

Shikinaen-en

East of Naha’s city centre , Shikina-en is a Chinese-style garden with stone bridges, a viewing pavilion and a villa, which belonged to the Ryukyu royal family. Everything you see below was painstakingly rebuilt after World War II. The site has been used by the Japanese for an underground hospital during the War.

The viewing pavilion.

The stone bridges.

The royal family’s villa in the background.

Odds and Ends from the Day

A stunning tree we saw in a neighborhood during our sweltering walk to the castle at the start of the day.

A dragon boat on display in the city centre.

A huge shiisa in the city centre.

School kids getting ready to play baseball in the sweltering 32C heat, with 74% humidity!

All over Japan — and Okinawa is no exception — you will see beverage vending machines literally everywhere. The variety of beverages is mind-boggling, from green teas to iced coffees to sodas. At any given moment, if you say, “Gee, I’m thirsty!” you will literally be able to find a vending machine within a few metres.

Three women were doing a kimono photo shoot in the city centre.

Let’s talk tiny vehicles for a moment! Japan has the tiniest vehicles imaginable. The smaller the better, given the parking scarcity. Here, you can see a Toyota mini van juxtaposed against a typical Japanese commercial van.

Signs of the Times

One of my most enjoyable aspects of visiting a country is to locate signs that reflect the uniqueness of the place. Here are four examples from today.