Okinawa: 8 Day RV Road Trip (pt. 1)

November 1 – 8, 2020

As we neared the end of the year, Andrew had some unused PTO burning a hole in his pocket. When we moved to Japan, we had really big plans to take trips to tropical locations. Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia topped our bucket list. As we all know, those plans got torched. From their fiery ashes we hatched this (slightly more realistic) trip to tropical Japan. Roughly 400 miles south of the rest of Japan, Okinawa is as close as we could get to the tropics now that we’re all living in the COVID age.

Renting a Camping Car

For this trip, we rented a Japanese camping car – basically, a large van modified to include a small sink and fridge, sleeping/dining area, and storage cabinets. Our decision to rent the camping car instead of a normal vehicle was driven by several factors: convenience to eat/relax/change clothes/etc away from other people, remove the interaction/questionable cleanliness of hotels from our COVID equation, and most importantly (for Andrew) because it sounded cool.

Our camping car reality was, uh, different than we had hoped. To start, the company that we rented the vehicle from was a small, regional office of an already small company based in Tokyo. I’m not confident the people responsible for the vehicle are particularly knowledgeable about camping cars. When we got the vehicle, the grey water tank was full and the fresh water tank empty. The fridge REEKED of old food (so much so that we attempted to never open it during our trip because the stench was so potent). Pillows/blankets/sheets for the sleeping area were not provided, and the cooking equipment was pretty sus.

DESPITE THESE INITIAL RED FLAGS, we put on our game faces and planned to make the most of our giant-by-Japan-standards vehicle. Here are some hindsight realizations that we should maybe have considered more closely before we decided to drop ~$1500 renting this behemoth for a week:

1. November is a not a very popular time to visit Okinawa in a normal year. With COVID factored in, some of the campgrounds we researched along our route for vital life-enhancing activities like SHOWERING were super closed.
2. Public onsens are a really convenient place to shower and refresh throughout most of Japan. However, Okinawa is uh, already hot. So, I guess sitting in a hot bath just isn’t as popular there, or they just don’t have the geothermal conditions for an onsen? Unsure. But, as a backup plan for camping showers, don’t count on onsens in Okinawa.
3. The main island of Okinawa is small. Like, you can drive from tip to tip in about 2 hours. As such, the highway rest stops (michi no eki) very common in the rest of Japan as places to sleep, eat, relieve yourself, and relax are also pretty sparse here. So, like, if you’re planning to park your camping car for free at a rest stop in Okinawa… it isn’t necessarily convenient.
4. Have I mentioned the main island is small? If you’ve been to Japan, you’ll know the roads can be pretty narrow with treacherous drainage ditches that just DROP OFF to the side of the road. Having seen an SUV with its tire stuck in one of these ditches, can confirm it looks miserable. We had a HARD TIME navigating the camping car through some of the roads on our trip. Finding parking for the camping car was not always easy. Basically, this stinky van really slowed us down and threw off our groove.

IN SUMMARY, I would not necessarily recommend renting a camping can in Okinawa. I WOULD however recommend renting a camping car if you’re driving through rural parts of mainland Japan like Tohoku OR if you’re planning a road trip in Hokkaido, either place will have ample rest stops and onsens to keep you more comfortable. I think you’ll find a camping car most comfortable outside of the summer season. Idling in parking lots is discouraged, so don’t count on being able to run your vehicle for fans/AC everywhere you park.

Now that I’ve got all that off my chest, let’s get into the actual trip details!!

Day 1: Utsunomiya –> Ibaraki Airport –> Naha

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Ibaraki Airport has free parking. We flew direct from Ibaraki to Naha, a non-stop flight that takes ~3hrs. This was actually our first flight since moving to Japan the in December of 2019. Remember flying? The “before times” were cool. Ibaraki Airport is comically small, and I can say that because I’m from Columbus, OH home of John Glenn International Airport, where you can fly internationally as long as you connect in DC, Atlanta, Chicago, LA, or New York first…

From my paranoid, American perspective the security at Ibaraki airport is, uh, basically nonexistent. I don’t think anyone actually looked at our tickets or passports as we breezed through the metal detectors without taking off our shoes, belts, coats, or opening our bags. Honestly, it was REALLY PLEASANT. I’ll miss that. Also, the waiting area had a vending machine for fried chicken and hot dogs. I decided pre-flight was not the right time to test their quality.

The flight was pretty unremarkable. As a safety measure, the airline required masks for adults. Our plane was about half full and the flight attendants went through to space out the seating after everyone boarded, so it felt relatively safe for a small sealed capsule during a global pandemic. At the time of our trip, case numbers were still very low in Tochigi, Ibaraki, and our destination, Okinawa.

On arrival in Naha, we took the monorail to the business hotel we booked for the night near Kokusai Dori Shopping Street. The weather had just started to get colder as we left Tochigi, so we welcomed the heat in Naha and explored the shopping street. For dinner we had the Okinawa staple food, taco rice, followed by street cocktails (no open container laws in Japan) and ice cream from Blue Seal, the iconic Okinawan ice cream chain. For a first day on the island, I’d give it 7/10 stars.

Day 2: Naha –> American Village –> Tataki Falls –> Itoman

On day 2, the first order of business was to pick up our camping car. That is, after the complementary buffet (??? truly no pandemic happening here) breakfast at the hotel. We took the monorail to the rental office to pick up the monstrous yet somehow also tiny camping car. Andrew signed our lives away for the pleasure of driving her for the week, and we hit the road.

Our next stop was American Village – a theme park, shopping mall, beach boardwalk-esque area designed to be…like America? Complete with a Red Lobster, Tony Roma’s, and lots and lots of shopping, I think it is a pretty accurate depiction. Thanks to the many American military bases in the area, we saw more foreigners and heard more spoken English than anywhere else we have been in Japan this year. Anyway, the point of this stop was to get lunch takeout from Pork Tamago Onigiri Honten, a small shop that specializes in Okinawa-style sandwich shaped onigiri. Once acquired, we quickly beat it out of there. Neither of us care for shopping, and I wanted to see a waterfall!  

We drove about an hour north to Tataki Falls for a hike and a picnic. Parking is 500 yen, and I strongly advise bringing decent water shoes. Andrew and I hiked in our trusty tevas sandals. The majority of the hike requires wading through the river to get to the waterfall. Once there, there’s a deep pool at the base of the fall where you can swim. We noticed A BUNCH of signs discouraging the use of rope swings. Andrew ignored those signs. Obviously. He had to try the rope swing. I mean, someone put it there for the purpose of fun, right?

We ate our onigiri by the waterfall (delicious, beautiful, highly recommend). Afterwards, we trekked back to the camping car to change clothes and make a game plan for the rest of the day. At this point, the cracks in our grand camping adventure were already coming to the surface. As mentioned before, the fridge was off limits due to the TERRIBLE SMELL. But we still had a really positive attitude at this point and the weather was great, so we had high hopes.

We decided to book a ferry to Zamami Island, one of the nearby Kerama Islands that make up Keramashoto National Park, for the next day. That meant we needed to come up with a plan for parking and sleeping that kept us relatively close to the ferry port. We landed on a michi no eki rest stop in Itoman, south of Naha, to sleep for the night. We also realized at this point that we didn’t have blankets or pillows for the trip, just two questionable-looking sleeping bags provided by the rental company. So, we located a Cainz (a chain of home improvement stores that also stock a lot of home goods and some groceries) nearby to pick up some things to make the camper more comfortable.

Lucky for us, there was also a Sushiro in the area. Sushiro is a chain of 100-yen (about $1) conveyor belt sushi restaurants that Andrew and I are obsessed with. We go to Sushiro in Utsunomiya at least once a month. Unlucky for us, this was maybe the worst Sushiro in Japan. After waiting over an hour to enter, the quality of the sushi did not meet expectations.

So, after an unsatisfying dinner, we settled in at the michi-no-eki for the evening. Our first problem of the evening was that we couldn’t figure out how to place the cushions to turn the dining area into a sleeping area. Maybe there was a cushion missing? Maybe we are bad at Tetris? Andrew also did some light finagling with the air vent in the roof, which was kind of damaged. Finally, the problem we would not escape for the rest of our time in Okinawa, wind. During the night, in the wide-open parking lot of the rest stop, the wind picked up.

Throughout the night, our van shook consistently from the wind. The wind also created a nice screaming howl through the windows we left open to cool us down. In addition to the shaking and howling of the wind, we were also treated to some LOUD NOISES from the local car and/or bikers zoom-zooming through the area. We didn’t get a lot of sleep.

Day 3: Itoman –> Onoyama Park –> Tomari Port –> Uh oh, PLAN B: Kaiholo Café –> Yagachi Beach –> Kouri Island –> Nakijin Castle Ruins –> Yagachi Beach

Ahhhhh, so, after our first not-so-great night in the camping car we were not refreshed and ready for the day! But we got going bright and early anyway! After some deep research on the port parking garage, Andrew determined that our camping car would not fit due to height restrictions!! So, he devised a plan for us to park the camping car at Onoyama Park, a wide open public park in the city, for the day. Then take the monorail from there to the ferry port, and just hope & believe it would all work out.

The weather was both wind and rain, which did not bode well for our plan but we continued on anyway! The first two steps of the plan went off without a hitch. However, after arriving at the ferry port, we quickly ascertained that all of the ferries for the day were CANCELED DUE TO HIGH WIND. But that’s okay right?? We are young, excited travelers on VACATION so we can FIGURE IT OUT, right?? Can you hear the desperation??

Luckily, I was able to throw Plan B together pretty quick. And Plan B included pancakes, so almost better than Plan A, right? We checked our weather app for the next best day to try and get to Zamami Island. If everything worked out, we might be able to make it there on Saturday, our final full day in Okinawa. Planting that seed of hope, we traveled back to our van and headed out to find pancakes.

Kaiholo Café is a Hawaiian-themed pancake café in Onna, around the mid-point of the island. I know this isn’t technically a “tourist destination,” but we haven’t been outside of Japan in a while so American-style pancakes were a special treat for us. After breakfast, we followed a lead from the internet to a beach-side camping area on Yagaji Island. We wanted to check out the camping area first to make sure it was open and could accommodate our giant van. Also, to check out the facilities and see if we would be able to (very importantly) shower.

Luckily, the camping area was BOTH open AND had hot showers (for a small fee). We booked a campsite, and proceeded onward on our adventure feeling happy and secure knowing we would have a beautiful and comfortable place to sleep (not subtle foreshadowing).

From the beach, we drove north across the bridge to Kouri Island. Kouri Island is “well-known” for its scenic, heart-shaped rock formation and the observatory, Kouri Ocean Tower. We drove to the scenic rocks first. They’re nice. Then, because we still had time to kill, we decided to check out the observatory. What a surprise and delight! After purchasing tickets, we (for some reason??) boarded self-driving golf carts. We received a lovely tour of the garden leading up to the tower, complete with fun facts blasting from some loudspeakers. Along the way, our cart stopped for bizarre photos!

After (of course) purchasing the souvenir photos from our ride, we explored the observatory. There was an extensive collection of shells and coral, a shop full of pineapple snacks to purchase, and a viewing tower. At the top of the tower, we struggled to keep our hair and clothes under control long enough to enjoy the views. But wow! Nice views!

After taking in the windy seas, we headed back down the island for shrimp. Kouri Shrimp serves up Hawaiian-style garlic shrimp, drenched in delicious garlic butter sauce, from their comfortable café. On site, you can still see the baby pink food truck where they got their start. 10/10 highly recommend these shrimps.

From lunch, we headed back over to the main island to check out Nakijin Castle Ruins. These ruins are part of the UNESCO World Heritage designated castles of the Ryukyu Kingdom. Built by the native Ryukyu people in the 1200s, the ruins are incredibly impressive. Located in a forested area away from any population centers on the island, the remote atmosphere and beautiful views are well worth the small admission fee.

After exploring the ruins, we grabbed some dinner before the gate to our campsite locked for the evening. We stopped for burgers on Yagaji Island at a small restaurant called Benjamin Burger tucked into a residential area. We were the only customers at the time of our visit…which usually doesn’t bode well… But the burgers here were much closer to a classic American burger than any other place we have visited. Honestly, not mind-blowing or anything, but a really solid dinner. After gorging on burgers and fries, we drove back to the campsite to settle in for the evening.

I don’t have enough nice things to say about the location of the campsite. We parked directly on a beach. A short walk from the shared bathrooms, with views of the ocean and full moon it felt like paradise. Well, it would have felt like paradise. If the wind wasn’t trying to blow us off the beach. After parking, it quickly became clear that we were in for another night of screaming winds. It was both impossible to comfortably keep the windows open due to the wind, and impossible to keep them closed due to the heat. A real lose-lose situation, you know?

We never did figure out how the cushions are supposed to be configured to provide a comfortable sleeping area. So, we had our choice of the low-height loft bed wide enough for two people to bang their heads into the ceiling at one time OR splitting up onto the narrow twin bunk beds. With thoughts of a hot shower in the morning, we resigned ourselves to another fitful night of sleep.

To be continued…