Days 4 to 6: Hotel JAL City Naha

Once happily sated with yummy ice-cream in our tummies, we headed to our hotel: Hotel JAL City Naha. I'd be honest. Given that we were to spend our last 3 nights in the same hotel, Hotel JAL City Naha was not my first choice. I had my sights on another hotel touted to have the best breakfast buffet in Naha city, but that one was fully booked. 

Nevertheless, by the end of our trip, we were quite pleased with the hotel's location and mom even expressed that the next time she returns to Okinawa, she would want to come back to this hotel.

Hotel JAL City Naha is situated right smack in the middle of Kokusai-dori Street, the main shopping street in Naha. There's absolutely no way you can miss it from the main street, at least not with that walkway boldly advertising the entrance. And if by any chance you do miss it, then look out for the display windows of the Coach outlet store. 

I had no idea when I made the booking that the hotel housed one of mom's favourite brands within its premises. Walk into the hotel via the main street entrance, turn and you'll be at the entrance to the Coach outlet store. In fact, the hotel reception was even further in from the store. Staying at the hotel also gave us an additional discount coupon which mom happily utilised later the next morning after our check-in.

By the time we reached the hotel, it started to rain and the winds were getting strong. Reception was however a warm, friendly welcome and staff were really quick to assist us in transporting our luggage from the vehicle and out of the rain. Even the interior of the hotel felt cozier and everything and everyone felt like warm sunshine amidst the grey skies gloom and cold.

Check-in was a breeze since the reception staff spoke English and in no time, we were in our room putting down all our bags and luggages. 

Our room unfortunately wasn't the biggest. We had to move some of the furniture around and that gave us just enough of a walkway with our luggage opened and shopping stowed away. Spacious enough considering the typical 'tiny hotel on prime land' models in Japan.

Other than space, there really isn't much else to "complain" about. Actually, nothing really. Even the space was managable. The room was really clean and we slept really well in those beds. 

Likewise, the bathroom was small but just spacious enough without feeling too cramped. The only complaint I really have, is that I have to climb into the bathtub just to shower. It can be quite hazardous for my elderly parents and clumsy me.

My mom is someone who insists on having breakfast in the hotels that we stay. She really loves her breakfast buffets. Hence even though we were on the main shopping streets where food (and breakfast) is aplenty to be found, we had our breakfast all in the hotel.

The breakfast buffet spread while not huge, was decent enough. We had the typical cold stations of hams and salads, then the hot stations with the eggs, sausages and local Okinawan dishes, the fruit section and beverages. Nothing terribly exciting to wow about in that sense, but decent and yummy enough to still sate the morning appetite.

What really pleased the parents with this hotel, was its location. Apart from the Coach outlet store (and hotel discount), mom was so happy to find out that her favourite Ichiran ramen store was just a few steps away. When we ventured out that rainy night we checked in, and upon her discovery, mom refused to let us move further and decided that dinner would be her favourite ramen. Subsequently, later in the trip, she even went back a second time just to have her fill of the ramen.

Apart from Ichiran, the Yu rail, Don Quijote, etc were all within walking distance of the hotel. In the short 3 days that we were there, my parents got confident enough to venture out on their own. In fact, my mom claimed that the street was simple enough with sufficient landmarks that she knew how to get around on her own. And that's precisely what she did one morning, walk out on her own to the market to get fresh fruits!

And like I mentioned earlier in this post, she's already decided that she'll be back staying in this very hotel the next time she's back in Okinawa for the Churaumi Aquarium. 

Tourist Information

Hotel JAL City Naha

Address: 1 Chome 3-70 Makishi, Naha, Okinawa 900-0013

Tel: +81 98-866-2580

Website: https://www.naha.jalcity.co.jp/ 

The Uncertain 7-day Okinawa Journey: Centurion Hotel Resort Vintage Okinawa (Part 2)

Apologies for the brief hiatus. No, I was not stricken with Covid-19. Instead, I picked up a new hobby during Singapore's Circuit Breaker (aka lockdown) and was spending the past few weekends with this new hobby. But ok, I do intend to finish the Okinawa posts so here goes.

Day 3 in Okinawa was a complete wash. I made a gamble that did not pay off at all. My original plan was to spend the entire day at Churaumi Aquarium but if you read my earlier posts, you'd have known how this became impossible. Given the original plan, I did not plan for driver at all for Day 3 and took the gamble that we could still explore the area nearby and would not need one. 

Oh well. The skies had a different opinion and thwarted my plans with an incredibly heavy downpour. So much so, even when we attempted to step out when we thought the rain was slowing, we were back in the hotel in a jiffy. It was just too wet and cold to be out. In fact in the short time that we attempted to walk to the beach, my shoes got so soaked, I had to change into another pair. We were essentially stuck in our hotel for most of the day, either in the lobby with the lovely view of the rain and sea bashing against each other, or within our warm, cozy room. 

Of course we ended up having all our meals in the hotel. Thankfully even thought there was only one restaurant which had a pretty simple menu, it was diverse enough that we didn't have to end up eating the same thing repeatedly.

Again, as you can see from the picture, we basically had the entire place to ourselves. Over lunch and dinner, we tried quite a few dishes: Okinawan noodles, pizza, tonkatsu curry, chicken yakitori, chicken karrage. Mom's verdict: Skip the yakitori, the rest all ok.

But you know what the best part was? Free-flow yummy gelato! All you can eat ice cream in cold weather! Between meals, we tried all the flavours. Of course, there were flavours that featured Okinawa's best like brown sugar, purple sweet potato (which I found a little weird).  

Thankfully breakfast the next day was a buffet spread else my parents and I really wouldn't know what else to order. And the spread was decent too. I had at least 3 helpings of some of my favourite items.

And I've got to say, I was impressed that even with very little people, the hotel continued to put out a decent spread. And even replenished items!

Even though I have no complains about Centurion Hotel, I don't think I will be returning anytime soon. Well, I definitely want to return to Okinawa and have the chance to visit Churaumi Aquarium, but given how much time we spent in the hotel, I'd like to try the newer one beside Centurion.

The Uncertain 7-day Okinawa Journey: Centurion Hotel Resort Vintage Okinawa (Part 1)

Day 2: Nago Pineapple Park --> Ufuya --> Kouri Ocean Tower --> Nakijin Castle (cancelled) --> Centurion Hotel Resort Vintage Okinawa

Day 2 kind of went downhill after Kouri Island. Because of her vertigo, mom got really car sick on the way to Nakijin Castle. In addition, it started to really pour and I knew that there would be little shelter at the castle ruins. Hence we decided to cancel Nakijin Castle and instead head straight to our hotel.

I knew mom was really glad to see the hotel when we reached. The thing I do like about traveling free and easy on our own is that we can decide and make changes to our itinerary when needed. Unlike joining a group tour, where you are forced to adhere to the itinerary whether or not you like it.

Walking into the lobby was a relief. Day 2 was when we realised that the winds at Okinawa can be brutally cold. Mom actually stood in shock for a moment when she alighted from the car and then ran into the lobby to get out of the winds.

Thankfully check in was simple and again fuss free. We were again informed by the receptionist that the Churaumi Aquarium was closed. What I liked was the follow-up touch, when the receptionist realised that the aquarium was the reason why we checked into this hotel, she offered to assist us in our itinerary if we didn't know what to do.

If you see my photo above, you'd spot the shadows of a corridor to the left. That's where our room was, just much further in. I usually don't like rooms that are the same floor as the reception as it can be really noisy but this round was ok mainly because it was further in and the hotel was a little deserted. Another time where there was very little people around because of the Covid-19 situation. 

My apologies for the quick snaps of the room. I didn't want to hold up my mom taking a rest but neither did I want photos of a messed-up room later. 

When booking the hotels for this segment of the trip, I had a few options and eventually decided to go with the one nearest to Churaumi Aquarium. In fact, Centurion Hotel had a direct path into the aquarium which would have been perfect if the aquarium was open. However, the next time I'm back for the aquarium, I'm going to try the other hotel next to Centurion. Only because it looked newer and more modern than Centurion.

Centurion Hotel Resort Vintage Okinawa isn't too bad, but its exactly like its name - a little old. The room was clean and well-maintained. My only complaint was the third bed. When I booked the room, it was advertised as a triple room. My third bed was a sofa bed and the springs were really too old. one night would probably had been fine, but the second night was a torture on the back.

My parents didn't have any issues though with their queen bed and mom recovered enough after 2 nights of rest here.

The toilet and bath was decent sized but lacked hooks or shelves to separate your clean and dirty linen when cleaning up. As there were 3 of us, we had to be really creative with hanging up our towels and clothes. 

The awesome view from our hotel window. One of the rare times that mom wanted to keep the curtains open. By the way, the path to the aquarium is down this pool.

What really saved us while staying at Centurion Hotel Resort Vintage Okinawa was the 7-11 that was a short stroll away from the hotel. We ended up being really stuck in the hotel the next day and haha, one of the highlights was to walk to the convenience store to get snacks. 

Upon exiting the hotel, turn left and just stroll down the road until you spot 7-11. It's a really short walk, definitely less than 5 minutes away. My only gripe is that it's not a very big one.

My initial plan was to have our dinners 2 nights in a row at the hotel. However, seeing that we were going to be extremely stuck, my parents and I instead decided that for our first night at Centurion, to just settle dinner with whatever we could find at 7-11. 

The wonderful thing about convenience stores in Japan is that you can really get a full and nutritious meal there. My parents settled for bento boxes and some fried chicken while I went for the onigiri. We also had our pick of drinks. I picked a packet of coffee flavoured milk which I always enjoyed in Japan while my parents went for apple tea. We also stocked up on water and the Calbee potato crisps that my mom loved so much. 

Thankfully we headed out to the 7-11 early enough because the minute we stepped back into the hotel lobby, it started pouring. In fact, during that short journey to and back from the 7-11, mom was already shivering from the cold blasts of winds. The light drizzle on the way back just made it worse but we were especially relieved that we missed the rain.

And that marked the end of a short Day 2.

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