Shuri Castle

From our hotel, we took a 5 min walk to the bus terminal where we took the Okinawa Sightseeing Bus that will fetch us to the Shuri Castle.

The Naha Sightseeing City Loop was a real life-saver for us. As we were travelling with our elderly mum, we wanted to minise the walking around. I found out that it was quite complicated to get to the castle by monorail as it involves some walking and transfering of bus. The city bus however, was able to bring us right to the entrance of the castle !

Timings of bus are depicted at the bus stop

Here's the link to the website with info on the loop service. For only Y660 we enjoyed unlimited rides for the day.

And here's some highlights of our castle visit :

The castle is a world heritage site as well

The Throne 

We had a good lunch comprising traditional Okinawa food at the restaurant within the compounds.

Okinawa Day Tour

As this is a free and easy trip, we need to find a day tour company to bring us around. We opted for Okinawa Bus Tour as they do not require pre-payment, unlike JTB sunrise and other companies. It was easy to do the booking online via email. The customer service is pretty good as they will respond within a day with confirmation and even called our hotel to remind us of the meeting time.

Jetso Tip : Don't waste money renting the English audio guide, which was Y500 each. As per all day tours in Japan, the language of communication is English so we rented the English audio headsets. However there was limited information provided and the narration was very brief. Unlike the day tours in Hokkaido, where the narration would follow the entire course of the journey, even the city sights, the narration was limited to just the sights were were visiting. Not much insights and not very comprehensive.  

Tour Itinerary 

The first stop was Cape Manza,  a 20-meter high limestone cliff which looks like an elephant's nose and a wide expanse of lawn on top. It was too cold, we didn't venture all the way in and stayed around the stalls peddling all sorts of souvenirs.

Jetso Tip: Don't buy the seashell accessories here, they are marked up way too high. We saw the same item selling at much lower price the next day at the shopping street. 

We had buffet lunch at the Chisun Hotel Churaumi Okinawa, next to the Expo Park. We opted for the Tropical Dream Centre rather than the Aquarium. 

Next up was the Nakijin Castle, which used to be a castle of feudal lord of the Hokuzan Kingdom, however, conquered by King Sho Hashi of Chuzan in 1416. 

Quite a long walk to get to the top, but we enjoyed the scenic view

The last stop for the tour was the Nago Pineapple Park. 

Look how tiny the pineapple is ! 

All kinds of pineapple foodstuff, skincare available here. Lots of samples too ! 

The Pineapple wine tasted like dessert wine ! Sweet and fragrant.

Okinawa Outlet Mall Ashibina

A taxi trip from hotel to the mall costed us less than SGD$10. One thing to note is that the standard of living in Okinawa is generally lower than other cities in Japan. For the first time, I was able to get around by taxi in the land of the rising sun!


The mall was a disappointment. Although there were many international brands available, the prices were not competitive. My sister bought a coach bag and that's about it.


As we had a early flight and were not able to check-in to the hotel yet, we took our lunch at the mall. Here's what we had :

Taco Rice Rolls were amazing ! Simply delicious ! 

Japanese crepe are simply to die for ! Too hungry didn't take photo of the crepe. 

Had home made soup as well. Very tasty full of natural ingredients. 

Secret Garden - Tropical Dream Centre

A highlight of our trip was the Tropical Dream Centre, a secret garden tucked inside the Expo Park. As part of the day tour package, we had lunch at the Chisun Resort Kinawa Churaumi.

Instead of opting for the Acquarium visit, we decided to check out the greenhouses with over 2000 orchids. The Tropical Dream Centre is about 10 min stroll from the hotel. Tram rides also available but it seems to be travelling on opposite direction from the hotel. 

Entrance leading to the Dream Centre

There is also a greenhouse for trees. Jackfruits, chiku and even durian trees can be found here ! 

Tranquil surrounding area as we walked out of the garden. 

Don't forget to bring home some souvenirs made of flowers on your way out. And do check out the ceiling of the shop !

Jestso Tip : If you are visiting the Acquarium, you will enjoy 50% off admission for the Tropical Dream Centre. 

Ryukyu Onsen Senagajima Hotel 琉球温泉

As this was mummy's first trip to Japan, we wanted to let her experience onsen. After scouring through the net, I found that Ryukyu Onsen Senagajima Hotel is the only hot spring hotel in Okinawa.

We booked the free shuttle from the hotel website from the newly opened international terminal. The hotel is about 15 min ride away.

Hotel is located on a small island of Senagajima, home of the god of the Ryuku Kingdom. 

Newly opened last year, facing the ocean

The beautiful sunset from our room

Balcony to lounge and watch the world go by

View of hotel swimming pool from our room

Admissions for the onsen were included in our package and offered unlimited use of the facility up till 10am on the check-out date. Regular admittance is JPY1,200 per use. There is an outdoor and an indoor onsen. It was simply too cold to go outdoor so we stayed indoor. The "Salt Sauna" is a must try as well ! Very relaxing ! After onsen, we had our massage done at the spa. Heavenly ! Prices were reasonable, around SGD$60 for an hour of massage.

Outdoor Onsen. Photo courtesy of hotel.

Like other hot spring hotels, there is not much to do other than onsen. We took a cab to the Okinawa Outlet Mall Ashibina where we had lunch and did some shopping. Check out my next post for details.