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

We woke up to a really gloomy day 2 in Okinawa. We found out the night before that the weatherman had forecasted a rainy day with plummeting temperatures. During the time we were there, Okinawan weather was really interesting. I remembered checking prior our trip that the temperature forecast was between 17 to 21 degrees. But the first day when I stepped off the airplane, I started sweating. And on day 2, despite a gloomy start, we still didn't require our jackets or cardigans. However, once it started raining, we were freezing despite being bundled up. I never really knew when to leave my jackets and cardigans alone during the trip.

Anyway, first stop of day: Nago Pineapple Park, a 40 minute drive away from our beach resort.

After parking, our driver directed us to the ticket booth where I exchanged our Okinawa Enjoy Passes for our tickets. Then we went on our second ride of the day and I felt like a kid again!

I mean, we take enough train rides to get around, but it has been a while since I'm on one that looks straight out of a cartoon. And OMG. There's this incessant Japanese tune about pineapple that keeps playing. I really felt like I was in some children's show.

And that's not the last of it. The train brings you to the main attraction building where we started queuing for our third ride of the day. Yup. Another cutesy one. A pineapple cart.

Honestly, the train and cart rides were so cutesy, I feared that this would be a kiddy attraction. Thankfully, it was just the train and cart rides. And in case you didn't realise, getting into the ride itself is a photo point. So if you want the final pictures, make sure you listen when they tell you where to look towards and pose.

And that's the pineapple cart that we got on. I did say cutesy right. My parents were quite impressed with the technology when they realised that the pineapple carts were driverless. The pineapple cart rides are included in the Okinawa Enjoy Pass.

The carts take you on a quick tour around the park and gives you an idea of the park routes. The park actually isn't very big. I'm quite surprised that we took 2 hours to cover the grounds, but we did stop quite a bit for photos and spent some time at the souvenir shop at the end.

There are 3 main segments to Nago Pineapple Park. Once we got off the pineapple cart, we started with the lush greenery of their botanical garden. There's also an aerial footpath that gives an lovely overview of the garden greens.

The garden paths will also lead you to a café where I got a really yummy pineapple soft serve to accompany me on the next segment, the pineapple fields itself.

We got bored of the pineapple fields quickly though. Although the brochure did say that there were about 200 varieties of pineapples that were grown in the park itself, we thought they all kind of looked the same.

So we moved on to the third segment of Nago Pineapple Park, their Dinosaur Adventure Tour. Which is essentially a lot of electronically moving dinosaur models. Kids would love this part of the tour. So did my parents who took quite a number of photos with the dinosaurs.

Those of you who are intending to visit around meal times, there is a restaurant within Nago Pineapple Park. However, as I had planned lunch outside, we headed straight to the souvenir shop.

Actually, the shopping is what I had been looking forward to for this part of the itinerary. Okinawa is also well known for pineapples. Since I'm in a pineapple park, it should be pineapple goodies galore! Heh. I was even crazy enough to match my holiday nails to pineapples.

The shopping definitely did not disappoint. We tasted everything from pineapple castella cake to pineapple cookies, pineapple pie, pineapple cider and even pineapple wine. I really loved the castella cake and the pineapple pie but I could only buy the pineapple cake home. The pineapple pie's expiry date was just too soon. I also contemplated buying one of the pineapple wine because the pineapple shaped bottle was just too pretty. Reason prevailed and I decided to save the luggage space for other things instead.

Don't misplace or throw away your tickets when you get them at admission. They also serve as discount coupons when you shop at the souvenir store! They punch holes in them to show that it's been used. As you can tell, ours are very well utilised.

Just when we thought we were done with the shopping, we walked into a second shop right after passing the restaurant. Yup. We looked some more and bought some more. There are also some food and drink stalls here. We chanced upon a sugar cane drink staff almost at the exit and I had one of the yummiest sugar cane drink ever. It was really refreshing end to our time at Nago Pineapple Park.

Tourist Information

Nago Pineapple Park

Website: https://www.nagopine.com/en/
Address: 1195 Aza Biimata, Nago-shi, Okinawa 905-0005
DID: 0980-53-3659
Opening hours: 9 am to 6 pm, everyday.

The Uncertain 7-Day Okinawa Journey: Okuma Private Beach and Resort

Day 1: Naha International Airport --> Cape Hedo --> Daisekirinzan Park --> Okuma Private Beach and Resort

So I deliberately scheduled a really short Day 1 because I knew we would be wiped from the red-eye flight to Okinawa. And I deliberately chose a beach resort. You know, once rested, we might be bored enough to want to explore more. So what better than a beach resort right? 

Except that plan fell through a little. I'd write more about that in a bit. 

I was quite relieved to catch sight of the resort after a 30-minute drive from Daisekirinzan. By then I was developing a headache and so was really glad that some rest and respite was in sight. 

Check in at the resort was relatively easy even if (almost all) the staff we encountered at the resort did not have a very good command of English. Just enough to get by with the usual check-in procedures. Any other requests was a challenge, including trying to get them to reserve dinner at one of their restaurants. 

After reception had tried her best to explain the facilities of the resort to us, she called for a mini van to ferry us to our room. We understood why shortly and I was thankful for it. I had booked one of their triple bed Main Cottage. While the Main Cottage was a short stroll from the hotel lobby, I really wouldn't want my parents and me to drag our luggage to and fro. It would really have been annoying. 

If you take a look at the map we were given below, I've circled our cottage in red. It looks pretty far away from the front lobby (circled in blue) on the map right? But in reality it was a short stroll through pretty gardens and cottages; we typically took less than 5 minutes. Trust me, my parents and I walked that route up and down a few times just the 1 night we stayed. Pretty sure my mom would have complained like hell if it was a long trek. Instead, she quite liked the resort and asked if we could return in future.

The lack of English aside, I was pretty impressed with our receptionist's driving skills. To get us to our room, she drove on lanes that was exactly the width of the mini-van and there were some pretty tight corners since the lanes looked more like they were meant for walking. 

I've included a short clip below to let you have a sense of how the resort looks. Took it while on a buggy carrying our luggage back to the front lobby for checking out. We were on a buggy and already you can tell some of the corners were relatively tight. You can even check out the kind of mini-van I'm talking about at the end of the clip. Seriously these peeps have impressive driving skills.

And that's where we spent our first night in Okinawa: 21 Main Cottage, Okuma Private Beach and Resort.

Each floor houses about 4 units (if I don't recall wrongly) and fortunately, we were allocated a unit on the ground floor. I am not hauling all that luggage up those stairs. Ok, to be fair, someone would probably have helped but still, stairs are a concern for my mom. Actually, there may have been an elevator but honestly I was just so glad to reach our room that I failed to checked. Forgot to the next morning as well, so I really can't comment there. But you may wish to make it known in your booking if you do not want to be allocated rooms on higher floors in case there isn't elevators. 

We were really pleased with the room. It was really spacious and clean. Pretty well maintained too given the huge number of cottages around. The only cleanliness issue we had was with the air-conditioning. It kept blowing out huge pieces of black dust. 

I loved the living room space.  We could lay out all 3 of our luggage and still have more than enough comfortable space to walk or lounge around. Perhaps I was really too tired, or the headache really knocked me out, but I managed to have a good afternoon nap on the sofa. My parents too.

The beds were located right behind the sofas and they were decent sized and comfortable. I slept really well that night. 

I believe because of the Covid-19 situation, the crowd at Okuma Private Beach and Resort was super thin. We basically had the entire building to ourselves, so I honestly have no clue how sound-proofed the walls are, but man that place was really peaceful and quiet come nightfall. Mom even commented that we're city dwellers and so, she was not used to the darkness and silence. 

The washroom was very spacious as well. Sinks were located outside along a corridor. Toilet was the typical Japanese kind with all those buttons and a built in bidet. 

What was interesting though, was the bath. The tub was actually sunken into the floor! Which mean it was a huge step down into the tub and another huge step to get out of it. And the only grip you had was to hold onto the door to the bath. I was concerned for my parents, especially my mother and reminded them to be careful, especially when wet. Thankfully there were no accidents. 

Anyway I apologise for the luggage and bags you spot in the photos. I was in a hurry to grab photos of the room because my parents were hollering to get out to grab lunch.

We had lunch and dinner at different restaurants at the resort. Lunch was a buffet at the Surfside Café. Thankfully we made it just in time before the buffet closed. The mains were decent but I've got to say, the highlight of the buffet has got to be the desserts. I loved those tiny cakes and pastries so much! And that tiny cup of jelly was so refreshing, I went back for a second and contemplated a third. Even mom, who always nagged at my gluttony, agreed that it was worth a second cup since it was small enough! Ha!

After lunch, we took a leisurely stroll back to our cottage. Heh. A really long stroll since we detoured here and there. Unfortunately, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, we didn't get to really explore the resort as much as I would have otherwise liked. Firstly, we were really quite tired and the stroll took the last of our energy reserves. Yes, even shopping couldn't perk us up enough. 

Secondly, the place was so quiet and empty, it felt like the zombie apocalypse has descended on us! This is one of the first trips ever, where almost everywhere we went, it was so quiet, I could easily take pictures without anyone photo bombing it! I have never seen an empty beach until March 2020. And I'm telling you, an empty beach is scary. It was like Jaws was in the waters or alien critters were going to jump out of the sand to devour anyone who dared to step on the pristine white beach. 

Ok. Maybe I do have an over-active imagination courtesy of Hollywood.

Other than the lack-of-people creepiness, the resort is actually quite picturesque. There are a lot of good photo points all around the resort and I had a good time taking photos. On the map that we were given by the resort, they also had a QR code that when scanned, would point you towards where you can get your Instagram OOTD shots. I can't be bothered about OOTDs but I definitely got some photos I liked. 

We also shopped for souvenirs at the few stores there. Most of the stores featured regional specialties such as glassware, Okinawan textiles and clothes, and local food stuff. We also approached the Aroma Therapy Salon to ask about the price of getting a massage. It was quite pricey so we decided not to and instead to head back to our room for a good rest. 

By the time we woke up feeling refreshed and re-energised, it was already dinner time. Since we couldn't get to reserve the teppanyaki restaurant in advance, we settled for traditional Japanese/Okinawan cuisine at the restaurant Iju.

The appetizers were really good. Our first taste of Okinawan tofu and we quite liked it!! Even dad who isn't a tofu fan at all.

Dad's fish and mom's pork set. Both of them weren't exactly impressed with their mains.

My beef set which was decent enough. And we also ordered a basket of tempura for sharing. However, we didn't expect our portions to be huge! Thankfully, mom had the foresight to get dad to just order a fish instead of the full set. We shared our appetizers and rice with him and even then, we were still extremely full by the end of the meal.

Breakfast the next morning was again a buffet spread back at the Surfside Café. Dad was disappointed that the desserts from lunch the day before were not offered. Nevertheless, he was appeased with the breads which were so soft and flavourful! I also had my first taste of the infamous spam onigiri that Okinawa is famous for. Well, spam just makes everything good! Mom liked the Okinawan noodles and went back for a second bowl as the broth was just comforting and delicious. 

And that was our last meal in Okuma Private Beach and Resort. Once we were done, we returned to reception to get help to carry our luggage back. However, I think reception forgot and I had to make another phone call from our room to get the buggy to come around. I got to say, I was quite amazed that the buggy could carry us and our 3 huge luggage. 

All in, we were quite pleased with our stay at Okuma Private Beach and Resort. Definitely one to consider if we were to return in future.

Tourist Information

Okuma Private Beach and Resort

Website: https://okumaresort.com/

Address: 913 Aza Okuma Kunigami, Okinawa 905-1412 

DID: +81 980-41-2222