7 Hidden Gems in Okinawa — Picks from a Local
7 Hidden Gems in Okinawa — Picks from a Local
Editor Sesoko Masayuki lives in Okinawa and shares the region’s charms through a variety of media. Here he selects seven of the most appealing places he has covered firsthand.
Words & Photos * Sesoko Masayuki
Translation Kim Soyeon, Park Seonghui
In collaboration with InPainter Global
* Sesoko Masayuki began his career as a magazine editor at a small publisher in Tokyo, then worked in book editing, event planning, and as a café manager. After moving to Okinawa in 2012, he went independent and now works across online and offline media, handling planning, reporting, editing, writing, and photography. He is the author of ‘A New Okinawa Travel Guide,’ ‘A New Guide to Japan’s Island Travel,’ and ‘A New Hokkaido Travel Guide,’ among others.
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Portriver Market
Portriver Market
The Minatogawa (港川) area, lined with foreign-style houses, is the most exotic corner of 1 Urasoe (浦添市). “Portriver” is simply the English rendering of Minatogawa. The owners added “Market” because they wanted it to be a lively place where, as in a marketplace, all kinds of goods are sold and people gather. Portriver Market’s owner, Mugishima Tetsuya, is from Mie Prefecture. He lives with his wife, Miki, and their son, Roichiro. They moved from Tokyo to Okinawa in May 2012 and opened Portriver Market in April 2013. It is a select shop that, true to its name, sells everything related to daily life, from clothing and food to housewares. Its shelves are full of goods that carry Okinawan character and could become distinctive keepsakes for travelers, along with sundries and clothing that might be a new discovery for locals. Tetsuya decided to move to Okinawa after the great earthquake. He had visited often and vaguely dreamed of living here someday. At first he searched for a shop space with an Okinawan feel, such as a red-tile-roofed house, in the city of 2 Naha (那覇), but he couldn’t find one, so he widened his search to Urasoe and Ginowan (宜野湾市). He viewed several properties every day. Then he came upon the Minatogawa street where the shop stands today, and he fell for it in the blink of an eye.
1 A city in central Okinawa Island that borders Naha to the south.
2 The prefectural capital of Okinawa. Naha Airport and Naha Port are located here, making it the gateway to travel in Okinawa.
After moving to Okinawa, they laid wooden floors in every room. Because the shop doubles as their home, they built a tiled entryway so that visitors take off their shoes before stepping inside. The dining table and sideboard are Danish antiques they already owned. To match the mood, they gathered shelves, tables, and other furnishings online. They asked a neighborhood café, Okinawa Cerrado Coffee, to create two original blends, one hot and one iced. The logo was designed by Saji Toshikatsu, a designer whose office is in the same area, with the shape of the foreign-style houses as its motif. There may be no other place where, within a single street and a single neighborhood, people can form connections and help one another so easily. “At first it was lonely to part from close friends, but in Okinawa your circle of relationships widens at incredible speed, so the emptiness was filled in no time. There is also a culture here of helping each other. Many people visit as travelers, so I’d be happy if this place became one of the reasons they come to Okinawa.” Under a clear blue sky, Minatogawa has an exotic atmosphere that is somehow reminiscent of Hawaii. Through Portriver Market, the couple hope the area will become even livelier.
Suien Bakery
水円
Park the car and walk a little way, and you will find Suien standing beside a big tree. The moment you open the door of this small bakery, you realize you have already stepped into the world of Suien’s story. Light pours down from the high ceiling, and the scent of bread and soup drifts through an endlessly happy space.
Suien is run by Morishita Soichi and Kaoru. Soichi came to Okinawa to attend university, and after graduating he visited a bakery in Ginowan called Munakatado (宗像堂). He was moved not only by the taste of the bread but by the dreamlike world, as if he had stepped into a picture book. Wanting to have a shop like that someday, he started at Munakatado by chopping firewood and gradually learned how to make bread. Kaoru, who had studied photography, wanted to photograph Okinawa and thought she would live there for a year to do it. “I felt that Okinawa’s nature and people suited me very well. There are many people I share a lifestyle with, and many who enjoy life, which is inspiring.” For a while she worked as a photographer and took a part-time job at a café.
Around the time Soichi finished six years of learning bread making at Munakatado and was preparing to go independent, she joined the effort to open the shop. They had always loved the Zakimi neighborhood in Yomitan (読谷), a village on the west coast of central Okinawa Island. Its abundant nature, the possibility of building a stone oven, and its accessibility from both Naha and the north were the reasons it topped their list of locations. A friend who knew their wish to “open a bakery next to a big tree” told them about a vacant space. When they visited early in the morning, leaves were falling from the tree in slow motion. At the sight, they felt strongly that they wanted to begin here. There were no blueprints. All they had was an illustration Kaoru drew of how the shop should look. Together with Sato Naomichi, who now runs the pottery studio BONOHO, they renovated the old hut based on that illustration. Their home is near the shop, where chickens and rabbits live with them, and a donkey named Wara lives next door.
Suien’s bread is simple in style, baked in a stone oven with yeast made from wheat, sweet potato, brown sugar, and brown rice. Starting work after 5 a.m., Soichi makes all 20 to 25 kinds of bread by himself. “I want to make healthy bread. Yeast is a living thing, so you have to read its appearance, flavor, and condition carefully. I still have a long way to go.”
It has been 13 years since they opened. Customers never stop coming, yet the two still agonize over their baking and how they run the shop. Perhaps that is why you can feel a charm found nowhere else, both in Suien’s humble bread and in the space where a story seems to unfold.
Cafune
Cafune
“Ice cream is a peaceful food.” The words come naturally from Taira Aoi, owner of the popular ice cream shop 4 in Futenma (普天間), in central Okinawa Island, called Cafune. She loves bread and traveled to eat it not only in Japan but around the world, and she had also organized events and books. One day, while preparing to move to Okinawa, ice cream suddenly came to her mind.
“I’ve never formally studied it, but I love delicious food so much that I’ve tried all kinds.” Her accumulated experience and self-taught study of food allowed her to develop recipes with free-spirited ideas. Combined, these give Cafune’s ice cream its distinct delight, with seasonal fruit pairings and unexpected flavors. For example, the Cafune flavor, named after the shop, is a unique blend of coconut milk, turmeric (ukon), 5 shikuwasa (シークヮーサー) juice, and poppy seed sauce, with a vivid yellow color and an addictive taste.
Cafune is also home to her partner, Taira Hiro, and the shop dog, Leo. “I like sweets and I like coffee, so it feels less like working and more like just living my everyday life,” she says. During our visit, neighbors and regulars passing by greeted the two of them, and it was clear that Cafune is beloved by locals. Drawn to the charm of free-spirited Aoi and kind Hiro, not only customers but creators from many fields come by.
“I never set out to plan exhibitions or events. There’s extra space in the shop, so I just let friends and acquaintances use it freely.” She says it casually, but there is no doubt that she has created a place where people in the neighborhood can gather. In a town with a former U.S. military base, wouldn’t it be a rather hopeful story if round, sweet scoops of ice cream could bring peace and happiness to more people’s hearts?
4 A U.S. Marine Corps air base built by the United States after World War II. It is located in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture.
5 A type of citrus grown in northern Okinawa Prefecture and considered a local specialty. It is known for its strong sourness.
Nantouyaki
Nantouyaki
In a studio with its windows thrown wide open for a good breeze, a potter’s wheel turns contentedly. Nantouyaki, tucked into a residential neighborhood of Okinawa City, is a gallery and studio run by Catherine Lorimer. The simply shaped bowls and cups made here are painted with intricate, mandala-like designs. Both of her parents, who come from Ishigaki Island (石垣島)6, are potters.
The Lorimer family’s pottery begins with making the clay. They head into the mountains with a shovel and a sack of compost and dig into the earth. The raw clay they bring back is stirred and blended, then boiled for three days to become workable clay. The process has stayed the same even after she left her parents to open a studio of her own. “It’s the Okinawan clay my parents have always used.”
Depending on its consistency, she mixes three or four kinds of clay, sets it on the wheel and shapes it in a kind of conversation with the earth. She began painting mandalas thanks to a remark from Caitlin, a potter she met in New Zealand, her father’s homeland. Caitlin handed her a mandala drawn on paper and said, “Try drawing this.” Until then she had drawn motifs from Minamijima Yaki (南島焼), her mother’s studio, but after that she found a path of her own. Even now, meeting new people inspires her, and what she wants to make changes every day. “Isn’t changing a sign that you’re growing?” Catherine says, breaking into a broad smile.
6 An island of about 49,000 people in the Yaeyama Islands, in the west of Okinawa.
Shokudo Faidama
食堂 Faidama
Step from Ukishima (浮島) Street7 into a side alley, and you will see a white wall lettered in 8 Yaeyama (八重山) dialect with the word ‘faidama,’ meaning ‘glutton.’ The interior is simple and bright, quite unlike the old-fashioned restaurants so common in Okinawa. Even so, it carries a distinctly Okinawan atmosphere and ease, probably thanks to the earnestness of owner Takaesu Tsuyoshi and the warmth of Misa. Tsuyoshi, from the main island of Okinawa, and Misa, from Ishigaki Island, met at an Okinawan restaurant in Tokyo. Tsuyoshi, a former aircraft mechanic, had made a hobby of cooking with local ingredients wherever he was transferred, and eventually threw himself into the culinary world. The Okinawan restaurant in Tokyo where the two met used plenty of Okinawan ingredients. He first built up a thorough knowledge of cooking, then trained for two years, from how to handle a kitchen knife to how to cook rice. The two returned to Okinawa and opened the restaurant they had long dreamed of. They deliberately avoided Okinawa’s signature dishes such as champuru9. Wanting to share the appeal of vegetables grown on the island, they cook with seasonal ingredients and let the produce speak for itself. Every ingredient is grown by Misa’s father himself. Because of the precise knowledge and cooking skill underlying it, the Okinawan food at Faidama has a quiet elegance. “We get by, somehow, with everyone’s help.” Their modesty, along with their bright smiles, is the restaurant’s greatest charm.
7 One of the back alleys off Kokusai-dori (International Street) in central Naha. Shops showcasing the work of local artists cluster here.
8 An archipelago stretching across southwestern Okinawa. It maintained its own distinct culture until it was incorporated into the Ryukyu Kingdom in the 16th century.
9 An Okinawan dish of vegetables, tofu and various other ingredients stir-fried together. Chanpuru is an Okinawan dialect word meaning to mix things together.
Coffee Cart Hibariya
珈琲屋台 ひばり屋
It is certainly in the middle of the city, yet it is full of green. Light spills down through the plants, and benches sit scattered about. At the cart, Tsuji Sachiko is brewing coffee. Here you can easily find her chatting happily with customers. More than 20 years have passed since Hibariya appeared in Okinawa. Sachiko, from Chiba Prefecture, worked at an advertising agency and had always longed to work in food and drink. So she boldly quit her job. She spent her days agonizing, vague about what exactly she wanted to do, until one day an idea flashed: ‘With a food cart, I could do everything I want myself. And in Okinawa, working outdoors would feel even better!’ She didn’t even know whether she could get a license to operate a cart, but, seized by impulse, she sprang into action. She bought a handcart and, with help from friends, built the cart herself. Only four months later was ‘Coffee Cart Hibariya’ born. Once she began, the work turned out to be quite hard. Still, the Okinawan breeze felt wonderful and the people were gentle, so within a week or so she had gotten used to it. Living through rough waves day after day, she found a place to live somewhat later. It was a secluded corner, surrounded on all sides by buildings and never visible from the main street. When she saw Midorigaoka Park (緑ヶ丘公園) in Makishi (牧志), Naha, she thought, ‘This is the place!’ People told her it was unsuitable for business, but she trusted her instincts and pressed on. At first she wanted to run a cart selling breakfast. But health regulations and the size of the cart forced her to scale back. So she chose a coffee shop instead. After moving twice, she settled in her current location. No matter how many times she moves, Hibariya remains Hibariya. “Naha is a place where not only locals but many tourists come and go, so whenever people visit for travel or business, many of them look out for me. Coffee you drink outdoors feels a little different. You can also soak up the fresh air of nature in the middle of the city. I think that in Okinawa, a food cart can make the most of its strengths.” The road she has traveled is a little unusual, but the space she has created is undeniably special.
Atelier SOU
Atelier SOU
Deep in the village of Kyan (喜屋武), at the southern tip of Okinawa’s main island, concrete houses with red tile roofs stand in the sea breeze under a blue sky. In this old residential neighborhood is the atelier and workshop of Nakama Hideko, Atelier Sou.
“I make accessories using traditional craft and metalworking techniques.” Born in Gunma Prefecture, she dreamed as a child of becoming a fashion designer. On her father’s advice, however, she became a hairdresser, and after marriage and pregnancy she moved to Okinawa, her husband’s hometown. While raising her child and selling clothes she made herself, she met En, a handmade jewelry artist, who awakened her to the appeal of accessories. Encouraged by En, she began making accessories under the name “Sou Craft Jewelry” and started down the path of an artist.
The charm of accessories, she says, lies in how they lift your mood just by wearing them, awakening senses dulled by daily routine and stirring new feelings. Hideko wants to share that joy. She wants to make accessories that bring happiness when someone is feeling down. She sometimes asks herself, “Why am I doing this?” but it isn’t that she simply wants to make things. What she wants is to offer what she herself loves and to see others connect with it and enjoy it.
In 2022, she opened a new space next to her workshop, “Sou Gallery,” where she displays and sells accessories and clothing she has selected. “Twenty years from now, even if my body fails me and I can no longer make accessories, it would be wonderful if I could still meet customers here and share something with them.” That something might be a piece of work, a conversation, or simply time. While steadily building up her time here, she imagines the not-so-distant future and hopes to move one step closer to the people in front of her.