Naha

Okinawa, Japan · City, Sea / Beach

This was the capital of a kingdom of its own: Ryukyu was a tributary state of China from the 15th century to the 19th, with a language, a religion and an architecture that were not Japanese, and that still explains the food, the music and the mood of the place. The main hall of Shuri Castle, which burned down completely in 2019, has been rebuilt using fifteenth-century techniques and opens to the public on 23 November 2026; until that day what you visit is the work in progress. Karate was born here, and after dark Sakaemachi market fills with tiny izakayas.

The essentials

Getting there

Plane — Naha International Airport, gateway to the Okinawa islands

Frequently asked questions about Naha

What to do in Naha: 34 activities

• Okinawa Karate Kaikan 2.5 h must-see booking

  In Tomigusuku, about twenty minutes away. Okinawa is the birthplace of karate, which grew from the fusion of Okinawan ti with Fuzhou kung fu and developed in Shuri, Naha and Tomari before reaching mainland Japan in the 1920s. The complex has a museum, a traditional timber dojo and trial classes for visitors by booking. 25 October is Karate Day, with a mass demonstration on Kokusai-dori.

• Sakaemachi market after dark 3 h must-see

  A daytime market that after six in the evening turns into a maze of tiny izakayas. Entirely local, with no mass tourism: the best night out in Naha.

• Shuri Castle 2 h must-see

  The former royal palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom, with a cultural identity of its own distinct from the rest of Japan. CRITICAL FACT, WITH A DATE: the main hall burned down completely on 31 October 2019 and is being rebuilt with 15th-century techniques and materials. The scaffolding came down in October 2025 and the opening to the public is announced for 23 November 2026, the day the entrance fee goes up from 400 to 1,000 yen. Until then what you visit is the work in progress, with a viewing platform, roof finials at eye level and behind-the-scenes visits with the craftsmen: something that will disappear once it is finished.

• The big eisa is not in Naha, and it is not the Obon weekend 5 h must-see Okinawa City (Koza) · 75 min only the weekend after the lunar Bon

  Okinawa's greatest eisa is not danced in Naha: it is the Zento Eisa of Okinawa City, and the first thing to correct is the date, because almost everything published gets it wrong. It is not the Obon weekend, it is the first one AFTER: the festival itself writes that it is held on the first weekend once the lunar Obon has ended, and another source says the same in different words. It falls in August or September depending on the year; the 71st edition was on 4, 5 and 6 September 2026. There are three days and they are not alike. Friday is the michi-june: the city's youth associations dance their way through the centre around the Goya crossing, from seven to half past nine at night, and it is free. Saturday and Sunday everything gathers in the stadium at Koza park, from three in the afternoon until nine, with groups selected from across the island. The organiser counts some three hundred thousand people over the three days and dates the first edition to 1956, when it was a Koza city contest with nine groups and thirty thousand spectators; the present name is from 1977. Watching from the grass beside the stage is free and unreserved; the stands are paid, from fifteen hundred to four thousand five hundred yen depending on the seat and on whether you buy in advance or on the day, primary-age children and under on a lap go free, and sales opened on 1 July. That price is worth confirming: the seating plan and the PDF on the ticket page are named for the previous year. The transport makes sense once you know one thing: Okinawa City is the most populous city in Japan with no railway. So you come by bus, getting off at Goya on the first day and at Sonda for the other two, ten minutes on foot, and the festival publishes between one hour and an hour and a half from Naha, though the same page says forty minutes by car on the expressway: the two figures do not tally. There is a shuttle from five points every twenty minutes on the two big days, running back until half past ten, and temporary parking at only two sites and only on those days; nobody publishes the shuttle fare or how many spaces there are. The festival warns it may be interrupted, postponed or cancelled for weather, and that is not boilerplate: in 2026, with a typhoon bearing down, they announced two days beforehand that it was going ahead. Drones are banned and so is photography for commercial purposes. None of the sources consulted gives eisa a heritage designation. The 2026 edition has already been held.

• Understanding why Okinawa is not simply Japan 1 h must-see

  It was the Ryukyu Kingdom from 1429 to 1879, a tributary state of China with its own language, religion and architecture, invaded by Satsuma in 1609 and annexed by Japan in 1879. Some 120,000 Okinawans died in the 1945 battle, around a quarter of the civilian population. American occupation lasted until 1972, and today Okinawa is 0.6% of Japan's territory and holds over 70% of its US bases. This explains the food, the music, the townscape and much of the local mood.

• Kumi odori at the National Theatre Okinawa 2.5 h booking Urasoe · 40 min

  Court opera of the Ryukyu Kingdom, created in 1719 to receive the Chinese envoys, with singing in old Okinawan, sanshin and dance. It has been Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2010, and the National Theatre Okinawa, which is in Urasoe rather than in Naha itself, is where it is preserved and taught. This is not folklore for tourists: it is the high culture of a kingdom.

• Awamori distilleries 1.25 h booking

  Awamori is Japan's oldest distilled spirit, dating from the 15th century, made with Thai indica rice and black koji; aged, it is called kusu. There are distilleries open to visitors in Shuri, one with free tasting and another by advance reservation only.

• Bingata and fossil coral dyeing 1.25 h booking

  Bingata is the polychrome dyeing of the Ryukyu court, reserved for centuries to the nobility. At a workshop in Shuri you can dye a piece of your own, and also try sango-zome, printing with fossil coral, a technique exclusive to that house.

• Eisa: three drums, a white-faced clown and the lunar Obon 2.5 h only the lunar Bon (August or September)

  It is the drum dance of the Okinawan Obon, and what is danced is a welcoming: the neighbourhood groups go out to receive the returning spirits of the ancestors, above all on the night of the ukui, the sending-off, though for some years now they have started on the unke, the night of arrival. There are three drums and they are worth telling apart: the ufudeku, half a metre across, the shimedeku at about thirty centimetres, and the paranku at some twenty with a single head, plus the singers with their sanshin. And there is a figure to recognise, the chondara, his face painted white: he plays the clown alongside the drummers and he is also the one who keeps the lines in order. Dancing your way through the district is called michi-june. The date follows the lunar calendar, around the fifteenth day of the seventh month, so it falls in August or September depending on the year. In Naha what you see is neighbourhood groups on those nights and scheduled shows out of season; the big festival is not here, it is in Okinawa City, and it is not the Obon weekend but the first one after, with a card of its own in this guide. None of the sources consulted gives eisa a heritage designation.

• Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters 1.25 h

  It is in Tomigusuku, fifteen to twenty minutes from the centre. There are 450 metres of tunnels dug out by pickaxe by the sailors, where Rear Admiral Ota and his staff killed themselves on 13 June 1945; grenade impacts are still visible on the walls. Ota had earlier sent a telegram asking for special consideration for the people of Okinawa.

• Naha Traditional Crafts Centre 1.5 h booking

  Next to Kokusai-dori, it brings short workshops in bingata, Ryukyu glass, pottery, lacquer and weaving under one roof. It is the best option if time is short.

• Okinawa soba 1 h

  Noodles made from wheat flour, not buckwheat, in a pork and bonito broth, with pork belly or ribs. Finished with koregusu, chilli steeped in awamori.

• Shikinaen, the royal garden villa 1.5 h

  A World Heritage site: the kings' 18th-century leisure residence, with a pond, Chinese-style stone bridges and a red-tiled pavilion. Closed Wednesdays and badly underrated.

• Shuri Castle Festival 4 h only late October to early November

  In early November, with a parade of the Ryukyu royal court in reconstructed costume. The 2026 edition is the one commemorating the completion of the main hall, so it will be exceptional.

• Tamaudun, the royal mausoleum 1.5 h

  A World Heritage site, built in 1501 and five minutes on foot from Shuri. It is almost empty while the castle is bursting with people.

• The cooking of Okinawan longevity 2 h

  Goya champuru stir-fries bitter melon with island tofu and Spam, the Spam coming straight from American rations, and the rest of the repertoire includes umibudo, the sea grapes that burst in the mouth, rafute, peanut tofu and the sata andagi doughnuts sold in the markets.

• The Eight Shrines of Ryukyu 5 h

  The eight shrines protected by the royal court, six of them in Naha, each with its own stamp. It is a route practically absent from Spanish-language guidebooks and is done on foot combined with the monorail.

• Tsushima Maru Memorial Museum 1.25 h

  The Tsushima Maru was a ship evacuating schoolchildren and was sunk by a United States submarine on 22 August 1944: close to 1,500 dead, some 780 of them children. Survivors were forced to keep silent under military secrecy. It is emotionally hard and not suitable for young children.

• Yachimun pottery workshop in Tsuboya 1.75 h booking

  Tsuboya has concentrated the kilns since 1682, when the kingdom grouped them here, and this is where the shiisaa, the guardian lions of the rooftops, come from. A piece takes a month to fire and shipping abroad is expensive.

• Beach Afternoon Near the City 2.5 h

  Quiet urban beaches just a short distance from downtown Naha.

• Kokusai Dori Street 1.5 h

  The main shopping and dining street of Okinawa's capital. It is called the Miracle Mile because it came back from nothing in an area flattened in 1945. It is very touristy and full of near-identical shops: the value lies in turning off into the side arcades.

• Makishi Public Market 1 h

  Tropical fish and Okinawan dishes rarely found elsewhere in Japan. The new building opened in March 2023 after four years in temporary premises. It works on the mochiage system: you buy the fish on the ground floor and they cook it for you upstairs for around five or seven hundred yen a dish. It closes on the fourth Sunday of every month.

• Naha Great Tug-of-War (Naha Otsunahiki) 2 h only mid-October

  A mid-October festival featuring one of the largest straw ropes in the world, pulled by thousands of participants along Kokusai Dori Avenue.

• Naha Hari, the dragon boat races 4 h only 3-5 May

  From 3 to 5 May in Naha port. They began as a fishermen's rite to pray for a good catch, and today they are free and come with concerts and fireworks.

• Naminoue Shrine 1 h

  Okinawa's most important Shinto shrine, perched on a cliff overlooking the sea next to Naminoue Beach.

• Ryukyu glass 1 h booking

  Its origin is postwar: it was blown from recycled Coca-Cola and beer bottles from the American bases, and that is where the colours and the bubbles come from. The large glass village is in Itoman, but Naha has small glassblowing studios.

• Taco rice 1 h

  A detail almost no guidebook gets right: it was not born in Naha but in Kin, next to Camp Hansen, in 1984, to feed the marines cheaply. In Naha it is served everywhere, but the pilgrimage is to Kin.

• The Yui Rail monorail 1 h

  It is Okinawa's only railway: the island's train was destroyed in 1945 and never rebuilt, hence the dependence on cars. Akamine is the southernmost station in Japan and the airport one the westernmost, both with a commemorative plaque.

• Tsuboya Pottery District 1.5 h

  Narrow lanes lined with workshops producing traditional Okinawan pottery (yachimun) since the 17th century. The district has gathered the kilns together since 1682 and partly survived 1945. Yachimun means pottery in Okinawan, and this is where the shiisaa come from, the guardian lions on the rooftops; stepped climbing kilns survive in the side alleys.

• Ura-Kokusai and Sakurazaka 2.5 h

  Independent bars, record shops and an arthouse cinema on the streets parallel to Kokusai-dori. It is the civilised alternative both to the tourist avenue and to the aggressive touts on Matsuyama street, which are best avoided.

• Fukushuen Chinese Garden 1 h

  A Chinese-style garden built to honor the historic ties between Naha and the Chinese city of Fuzhou.

• Naha Marathon 6 h booking

  Run in early December and now in its 40th edition, with a capped field and registration months in advance.

• Naminoue Beach 1.5 h

  Okinawa's only urban beach, literally under the motorway viaduct. It is more surreal than beautiful, but it is where the people of Naha swim.

• Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum 2 h

  A museum dedicated to the history, nature, and culture of the Ryukyu Kingdom, with an adjoining art gallery.

What only happens on specific dates

• Naha Hari, the dragon boat races 3-5 May
• The big eisa is not in Naha, and it is not the Obon weekend the weekend after the lunar Bon
• Eisa: three drums, a white-faced clown and the lunar Obon the lunar Bon (August or September)
• Shuri Castle Festival late October to early November
• Naha Great Tug-of-War (Naha Otsunahiki) mid-October

Ready-made routes through Naha

Chains well with

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