The Uncertain 7-day Okinawa Journey: Kouri Ocean Tower

Day 2: Nago Pineapple Park --> Ufuya --> Kouri Island (1 hr 15 mins) --> Nakijin Castle --> Centurion Hotel Resort Vintage Okinawa

After the superb lunch at Ufuya, we headed for our next destination, Kouri Island. Kouri Island is a 30 minute drive from Ufuya and you know you've reach when you start crossing the scenic Kouri Bridge. We were informed by the iPad in the car that the Kouri Bridge is 1960 meters long and is the longest toll free bridge in Okinawa. Unfortunately, as it had started raining by then, even though our driver offered us the option to get off at the entrance of the bridge, we skipped that. There's a very tiny parcel of beach there which really isn't much. However, the idea about getting off at the entrance of the bridge is to enjoy the sight of the bridge. It's a prime photo spot if you want to get a picture of the bridge really, especially if you're interested in a blue and white theme picture.

Anyway, I was primarily interested in the Kouri Ocean Tower although the entire Kouri Island is open for exploration. In addition, given that it had started raining, we asked our driver to head straight up to the Ocean Tower.

We used our Okinawa Enjoy Pass again to exchange for tickets and headed to yet another driverless cart ride in order to get to the Ocean Tower. Yup. Day 2 is just full of driverless cart rides. This one was definitely the most scenic of all, since the cart took us on a leisurely ride round and up the hill. We had a bird's eye view of the island and the bridge. 

Ok, because it was raining and mom was starting to feel a little unwell, I didn't stop to take as many photos as I liked. So I didn't get any of the exterior of the tower. And just FYI, mom was suffering from vertigo and not Covid-19. Different symptoms, but I digress.

Our first stop once we reached the Ocean Tower was the shell museum where we spent quite some time there. Even though she wasn't at her best, mom was still extremely fascinated by the wide array of shells we saw there! There were a lot of the usual shells that we know of, like conch shells, clams and cowries. However, some of the sizes we saw were amazingly huge! 

There were also some really colourful ones that I absolutely loved! It was like the rainbow painted them! My parents initially even thought that they were dyed until we were later informed that these were their original colours! Seriously beautiful! I took photos of the ones that I liked and there was even 1 set (second photo below) that looked like they could be a nail art set!

There's a small gift shop specialising in shells at the end of the museum. We browsed a little and marvelled at some of the creations, like this really pretty shell lamp (photo below). I actually considered a wind chime that was made from shells but eventually decided against it as it seemed really fragile and I wasn't confident about packing it into the luggage. Mom actually commented that it was a pity since it was really pretty.

Exiting from the gift shop, we then took the elevator to the second floor of the tower. The second and the third floors of the towers are indoor observation areas. We did a round on the third floor but the highlight has got to be the open roof observation deck. At a height of 82 meters above sea level, the rooftop observation deck offered an amazing panoramic view of Kouri Island and the Kouri Bridge.

As it was raining, the winds were really strong that day. While at the rooftop deck, there was another group of four guys who lost their hand held tickets and a head band to the winds! So if you have anything lightweight, make sure you hang on tight to them!

Seriously loved the view.

Dad insisted on a photo here and I can totally understand why. The photo turned out really good too!

After we exited the tower, we headed for our favourite thing to do. Haha, yeah, we shopped again at yet another souvenir shop. In fact this was where I had bought my shikuwasa cider that I had introduced in an earlier post. We bought more food stuff again here although I was a little disappointed not to have gotten anything pumpkin related. Kouri Island is also known for producing yummy pumpkins. There was a café that sold pumpkin cakes and pastries but we skipped it as we were too full from lunch. In hindsight, I don't know why we didn't just get it to go so that we could save it for later.

By the time we exited Kouri Tower, it was raining really heavily and mom was really unwell by then. Hence, we skipped exploring the island itself. Which was a pity because my research prior the trip indicated that it was a really quaint island with unique stores and cozy cafes and pop-up food trucks. In fact, there's apparently one food truck that was really famous for its shrimp.

On well. Another time I guess.

Tourist Information

Kouri Ocean Tower

Website: https://www.kouri-oceantower.com/en/
Address: 538 Kouri, Nakijin-son, Kunigami-gun, Okinawa
DID: 0980-56-1616
Opening hours: 9 am to 6 pm, last entry is usually at 5:30 pm

Admission fees: 

Adult	800 yen
High School	600 yen
Elementary School	300 yen
Pre-school	Free