Okinawa in December — Subtropical Japan, Ryukyu Culture, and a Quiet Year-End

Okinawa was my first real introduction to Japan. Most people start with Tokyo and Kyoto. I started with the subtropical southern islands, in December, with Natha. It was the right way around. Mainland Japan came a few months later , Tokyo, Taiwan, the world tour for my 50th birthday, but Okinawa is the trip I think about more often.

If you have already done Japan and you want a different version of it, this is the one.

Okinawa Is Not Quite Japan

The Ryukyu Kingdom was independent from Japan until the late 19th century. The islands have their own dialect, their own architecture, their own music, their own martial art (karate started here), their own food traditions, and their own slower pace. Today they are politically and administratively Japan, but the cultural atmosphere is distinct.

You notice this within a day. The pace on the streets of Naha is closer to a Southeast Asian island than to Tokyo. The temples and shrines have a different look — red tile roofs, more colour, more Chinese influence. The food is heavier on pork, on bitter melon (goya), on ingredients you do not find on the menu in Osaka.

This is the appeal. If you have done Japan and you want to step half-out of it, Okinawa lets you do that without leaving the country.

December: The Right Month to Go

December in Okinawa is one of the best-kept secrets in regional travel. Mainland Japan is cold. Bangkok is dry but starting to warm up. Okinawa, in December, sits in the high teens to low twenties Celsius — sweater weather in the morning, t-shirt weather in the afternoon, sunny most days. The summer heat is gone, the typhoon season is over, and the tourist crowds are mostly Japanese on short domestic trips.

Five days, December 8–13, was an ideal length. We had time for the city, the cultural sites, and a few of the islands without rushing.

Naha and Shuri Castle

Naha is the Okinawan capital. It is small by mainland Japan standards but it is the cultural and political heart of the islands. Kokusai Street is the main shopping spine — touristic, crowded, fine for a couple of hours. The First Public Market, a few blocks south, is more interesting: wet market downstairs, food court upstairs, where you can buy raw seafood from the stalls and have it cooked for you on the second floor.

Shuri Castle was the residence of the Ryukyu kings for 450 years. It was destroyed in World War II, restored in the 1990s, and tragically burned down again in 2019. We visited the year before that fire. The reconstruction is now ongoing again. If you go now, you see the castle in the middle of being rebuilt. The site itself is still extraordinary — the walls, the gates, the views over the city — and the small museum at the base does a good job of explaining the kingdom that once ruled here.

Churaumi Aquarium

The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, on the northern part of the main island, is the kind of attraction I would normally skip. I am glad we did not. The main tank — one of the largest in the world — holds whale sharks and manta rays in a volume of water that makes you stop talking when you walk into the room. The aquarium overall is well-designed and the day trip up the coast to reach it is worth the drive on its own.

Allow a half day for the aquarium. Combine it with the surrounding Ocean Expo Park if you have time.

Goya Champuru and Awamori

Okinawan food is its own cuisine. The defining dish is goya champuru — bitter melon stir-fried with pork, tofu, and egg. Goya is genuinely bitter. People who say “it is not actually that bitter” are lying. It is bitter. It is also good in a way that becomes addictive after the first few bites. After 21 years in Thailand, I have a high tolerance for bitter melon (mara) — Okinawan goya is the same thing, prepared with a Japanese sensibility.

The other Okinawan staples worth ordering: rafute (slow-braised pork belly), Okinawa soba (thicker noodles, distinct from mainland Japanese soba), umi-budo (sea grapes — a kind of seaweed that pops like caviar), and any of the pork dishes which the Okinawans have built a cuisine around.

Awamori is the local distilled spirit, made from indica rice, aged in clay pots, served on the rocks or with water. Stronger than sake. Smoother than shochu. The good aged ones are excellent. We bought a bottle to bring back.

The Quieter Northern Beaches

The southern parts of the main island, around Naha, are developed. The further north you go, the quieter it gets. Onna village, the Cape Manzamo cliffs, the Kouri Bridge across to a smaller island, the long northern coastline — there is a slow-driving, beach-hopping version of Okinawa that you can do on a self-drive day.

The water is clear. The reefs are still there. December is too cool for serious swimming for most people but the beaches themselves are at their best — empty, calm, photographable.

Why I Still Think About This Trip

Okinawa was a quiet trip. Five days, a relatively new partner, a country I had never been to, a culture I had not researched in advance. The combination of those things — a calm relationship in a place where neither of us had any baggage — is the version of travel I keep trying to repeat.

It was also the year that ended a difficult chapter for me personally. The previous decade had been domestic Thailand, marriage, work, and the slow accumulation of a life. 2018 was a reset. Okinawa was a soft, generous, not-quite-Japan way to close the year. I came back to Bangkok with a clearer head than I had had in a long time. That is not what most people associate with Japanese travel — Japan is normally a place you visit for the sharp aesthetics, the precise food, the temples. Okinawa was none of that. It was warm, slow, and quietly different.

Practical Information: Visiting Okinawa

• Best time: November to early March — mild, dry, low typhoon risk, fewer crowds. April–May also pleasant.
• Avoid: June–September — typhoon season, hot, humid
• Get there: Direct flights from Bangkok (~5 hours) and most major Asian hubs into Naha (OKA)
• Length: 4–5 days for the main island. Add 2–3 days for one of the smaller islands (Ishigaki, Miyako)
• Stay: Naha for a base; northern coast hotels for a quieter half-trip
• Eat: Goya champuru, rafute, Okinawa soba, umi-budo, sea-grape rice bowls; awamori with dinner
• Don’t miss: Shuri Castle (under reconstruction post-2019 fire), Churaumi Aquarium, the First Public Market in Naha, a self-drive day along the northern coast
• Rent: A car is the right way to see the main island. Public transport exists but is slow.
• Budget: Cheaper than Tokyo. Mid-range hotels 8,000–15,000 JPY; meals 1,000–3,000 JPY per person

Of all the trips I took during the late 2010s, Okinawa is the one I would repeat first. December is the right month. The Ryukyu version of Japan is the right version to start with. And five days, with somebody you like, in a place where you do not need to perform, is one of the best forms travel still takes.