Okinawa Trip without Car: Part 1: Fly to Okinawa

[Introduction]

I traveled to Okinawa for four days and three nights. This time, I visited Okinawa Main Island, mainly Naha area. My concern was that I don’t drive, which might make my trip difficult, but I enjoyed the trip very much by using monorail and taking bus tours. In this article, I will write about flight to Okinawa as part of Day 1.

[Visit Places (series of articles)]
* Day 1: Fly to Okinawa [This article]
* Day 1: Surijo Castle Park
* Day 1: Surijo Castle Park (Light-up)
* Day 2: Naminoue Beach & Fukushuen Garden & Shikinaen Garden
* Day 2: Kokusai Street
* Day 2: Kokusai Street (Night Walk)
* Day 3: Kouri Island
* Day 3: Churaumi Aquarium
* Day 3: Busena Marine Park
* Day 3: Mihama American Village
* Day 4: Sefa-utaki & Mibaru Beach & Himeyuri Peace Museum
* Day 4: Ashibinaa & Chura Sun Beach
* Day 4: Senagajima Umikaji Terrace & Return Home

[Travel Date]
2017.07.01-04

[Main Part]

It has been three weeks since I posted the previous article about Taipei trip and now I will start a new series. I went to Okinawa for four days and three nights from July 1st to 4th. Although Okinawa had been one of the tourists destinations I would like to visit for a long time, I postponed visiting Okinawa. As I don’t drive, I was worried that I would have some difficulties in going around Okinawa without a rental car. When I did some research, however, I found I would be able to enjoy Okinawa if I mainly went around Naha city and took bus tours. So, I decided to visit Okinawa.

Haneda Airport

I arrived at Haneda Airport. I just found several cars of Mercedes-Benz were displayed on the first basement floor.

This was the departure lobby on the second floor.

It was before the summer vacation season, but there were more travelers than I expected.

Going to departure gate.

The departure time of my flight to Okinawa was11:30 a.m.

Naha Airport

I flew to Okinawa.

The flight was around noon, so I bought a small lunch box at Haneda Airport and ate it on the plane.

After one and a half hour, I reached Naha Airport. It was sunny.

The aircraft.

There was a logo about Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020.

The arrival lobby at Naha Airport.

Other snaps at the airport.

After I passed the arrival hall, I stopped by a stall of pork egg rice balls.

I bought a pork egg rice ball with Okinawa Tofu.

Go to Central Area of Naha City by Monorail

I moved to Naha Airport station to ride a monorail.

Here is a monorail of Naha (“Yui Rail”).

View from the platform.

I will go to the central area of Naha city by the monorail.

After ten minutes ride, I got off at the Prefectural Office Station. Then, I moved to Hotel Rocore Naha to check in.

I chose Hotel Rocore Naha for my Okinawa trip for the following two reasons. First, the hotel is located near the Prefectural Office Station, which is the central area of Naha city. Second, the hotel is famous for its breakfast – the hotel has been chosen as the “best breakfast hotel” in Okinawa for three years running by TripAdvisor. I will write about breakfast of Hotel Rocore Naha in another article.

Lobby of Hotel Rocore Naha

After checking in the hotel, I took snap photos of Kokusai street where the hotel was located

Kokusai street is the main street of Naha city and I will go around it on the second day afternoon

The first destination of my Okinawa trip was Surijo Castle Park and I returned to the Prefectural Office Station to move there. Here is a photo outside the station.

View from the platform.

I took a monorail to move to Shuri station.

[Closing]

That’s it for the article about flight to Okinawa as part of Day 1 of my Okinawa trip.

When I took the monorail from the airport, I felt as if I visited a country other than Japan, as Okinawa has different atmosphere compared with other areas in Japan 🙂

In the next article, I will write about Shurijo Castle Park as part of Day 1.

[Map]

[Related Link]
Visit Okinawa Japan – Official Travel and Tourism Information
Okinawa Labo
Naha Airport
Okinawa Urban Monorail
Hotel Rocore Naha

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