The music, weather, food...incredible (Okinawa)

Member Name: nepochan

Product:	Okinawa
Date:	18/07/09 (9 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Music, weather, food

Disadvantages: Traffic

I definitely recommend visiting Okinawa if you're in Japan, especially in winter.

It feels like Japan, but yet the pace of life is much slower and of course it has the fantastic tropical climate.

The main city, Naha, is very much like most built-up Japanese cities, so I would urge you to spend as little time here as possible. You should book a packaged holiday with a rent-a-car and head for one of the nice hotels to the north of the island. Try to go to a live house too.

Once you get off the plane, a mini-bus will take you on a 30-45 minute ride to the rent-a-car place which just happens to be next to an outlet mall. We did get some bargains here. The drive from here to the decent hotels is about one hour.

One thing I did not like about mainland Okinawa is the amount of traffic. On the plus side, the views are usually stunning whilst you're waiting - perfect blue ocean.

I preferred the small island of Ishigakijima. There wasn't much to do on this small island, but it is less crowded than the mainland island and more of a place to relax. You have to change planes at Naha, but the actually time to the hotel is probably the same as if you went to a nice hotel on mainland Okinawa.

Summary: I want to retire here