4 Days in Miyako Island, Okinawa: Scuba Diving, Golfing & Exploring Beautiful Beaches

4 Days in Miyako Island, Okinawa: Scuba Diving, Golfing & Exploring Beautiful Beaches

hey everyone Alex here and today I’m going to tell you how to visit one of okinawa’s remote Islands makako [Music] gima in this video I’m going to go over how we got there where we stayed and what we did and at the end of the video as always I will share a list of all the Google pins that I had saved on my maps for you to screen grab let’s get started on how we got there we flew from naha okanawa on J and the flight took a little bit less than an hour Mako airport also Services direct flights to and from Tokyo ngoya and Osaka there’s actually another airport called shimojishima that also offers flights to Mainland as well as one to Soul South Korea while there are a good amount of taxis and the DD app works on the island we decided to book a rental car in advance there are lots of companies to choose from but we chose to go with one called miy active if you’re looking for a rental car I would also go ahead and ask your hotel if they offer any as well ours did but I already booked the other one but we would have saved a little bit of money had we booked directly with our hotel speaking of that let’s talk about where we stayed so after watching the last tourist on Hulu I’ve been on like a real kick about staying at locally owned places whenever we go on vacation there are so many hotels and resorts and guest houses on on okanawa that it was a little bit overwhelming to try to do any research and see like which ones were locally owned or not and eventually I found Guest House KOA Guest House COA I think it’s called when the lady at the information desk at the airport asked where I was staying and I told her Guest House COA she was like oh I know him so I knew that it was going to be good it is actually classified as a hostel but we were able to book one of their private Huts which includes a small little room with a bed and a teeny little desk as well as a private bathroom and a private shower through the small garden there was like a little outdoor space we could use and then inside they had a shared kitchen and living room and that is where the fridge was where you had to keep all your stuff with like your name written on it we really like staying here because of its proximity to a beach and also is only like a 5 or 6 minute drive to the downtown I’ll call it the downside of this location was that there was quite a far drive to some of the major tourist spots like Johanna Beach or k Pig haki and since it’s only a few kilomet away from the main downtown part there was some light pollution that you could see making it so the Stars weren’t like as bright as they could have been okay well let’s dive into what we did for 4 days and what we ate on day 1 we arrived at 11:00 a.m. so we went to get our rental car and then drove straight to lunch I tried to go to this like famous Mako soba spot that I found online but it had a line like around the building so we immediately skipped that and searched for another SOA place and We Came Upon This cafeteria SL grocery store type of place and they had a nice little bowl of makako soba for us this soba is really similar to okan soba but the noodle is a little bit thinner and flatter after enjoying our nice little warming soup bowl we drove South to a Distillery called Tarawa this is where they make aamari on the island and aamari is like an ok sake passed down from the ryuku Dynasty and they learn the method through trade with Thailand aramori uses black Koji mold in its fermentation process which allows it to be produced safely in the hot and humid climate of Okinawa this specific Distillery is really cool because it was founded in 1948 and it was built on top of an underground river this River’s water has been filtered through coral and Limestone and it is rich in minerals and that’s what they use to make borei I saw online that for 00 Yen visitors can learn about the process get a tour of their underground storage caves and enjoy a nice aamori tasting tours happen every day at 11:00 a.m. 1:30 p.m. and 300 p.m. and I wish I would have really looked that up ahead of time because we missed the 1:30 tour and we didn’t want to sit around and wait for the 300 p.m. tour so because of that we made a little pivot and we decided to drive south to the Shira Hot Springs we did just go in there at first for the cafe so we sat down had some drinks by the pool and some little snack snacks but then kind of seeing what it looked like in there we decided that we all did want to pay the 2,000 Yen per person to get our little wristbands so we were able to swim in the pool and use the onson facilities in this jungle pool area which is like super cool and Lush you have to wear bathing suit and it’s coed mixed together and they are pretty strict about tattoo showing so if you have tattoos you are allowed to go in but if they’re like on your chest or your legs you need to wear a reef guard or like swimming pants to cover them and then and when they noticed my friend and I had like our little like girly ankle tattoos we had to buy this 500 yen like piece of Band-Aid paper or whatever that they cut up and we could stick on there and cover them while the jungle pool is super nice and has like a really nice aesthetic it is hot spring water so while it was like 90° it wasn’t the most refreshing thing to do but it was something to do so we’re glad that we did it but you couldn’t spend that long in there I also bopped around the female onson for a little bit and that was actually really nice they had three different pools one of them kind of like overlooks the ocean and the other one is down in this little Grove and next to this little waterfall and it was so peaceful and nice Shaga does offer private onson rooms for I think like groups of people even but we thought that was kind of expensive for the hour that they were charging for so we just skipped and did the public ones after all of this we booked it up to the hotel to check in because we had dinner reservations at 6 after visiting ishigaki last year and having like an amazing life-altering experience eating a shikaki beef I knew we had to find something similar in makako Jima we went to Yakiniku Kimi to try the makako beef this wagu comes from cattle raised on the island that benefit from the mineral Rich groundwater our strategy was to start with the selection of five different cuts for 4600 Yen and each one had the signature melt in your mouth texture of wagu and they were all really good from there we were able to choose our favorite ones and we chose to go with the sirloin and the Chuck flap until we literally couldn’t eat anymore if you can’t get a reservation here I did have two other places marked on my map for makako beef one of them is NAA and the other one is Tepanyaki steak Shu makako Jima after ishigaki we were hoping to go to a place where they cook it for you because Lord knows like I can mess up a Yakiniku situation put me in front of a fire you know but it was okay um but yeah it’s seems like most of the places in makako were more of a Yakiniku style and I had trouble finding places where the meat was already cooked for you after dinner we stopped by Family Mart for dessert of course and then we called a dee because we had to wake up early in the morning to go golfing day two was our first full day on the island we woke up early and went to go grab some Mickey D’s because you know that a MCG griddle before golf is really good it just hits different so we had to grab some of those and then we made our way down to Emerald Coast Golf Links our friend was able to make a reservation online ahead of time and had our tea time booked for 9ine their facility has a small Pro Shop a restaurant and club rentals our friends brought their own clubs and will rented his clubs for about $50 during the summertime it’s 19,000 Yen on weekdays and 22,000 Yen on weekends to play 18 holes I’m personally not good enough to pay that much money to play golf so I was passenger princess and DJ the four person golf carts were super nice they had a little iPad that tells you about each hole and how far you are from the pin and then as far as Refreshments go you get a cooler filled with ice water on the cart and then there are two places to stop on the course to get some drinks and snacks and take some pictures the Landscaping here is beautiful and the views on some of the holes are super nice hole 16 is especially beautiful with its backdrop of the Kima [Music] Bridge after golf we went back to the hotel so we could change and get some beach time in before dinner we walked to the nearby suyama Beach while the famous Archway was blocked off it was still a beautiful spot to swim it’s not a really nice place to snorkel but it’s a really nice place to swim there is a parking lot with bathrooms right nearby and on a Sunday afternoon it was actually pretty crowded here we still hung out for a while though we made it work and eventually we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner because I had reservations made for 7:00 I took us to Amari Zuma which I saw online as being a good isaka with live music we paid a cover for the live music and I will say it was not exactly what I expected so what happened was this really nice guy with a sandin came up to us and taught us a couple lyrics so we could like sing along in like a call and response type of way to him singing and that was the only live music we got he kind of just walked around from table to table but you know what it was fine he was super nice and it made the dinner memorable the food is pretty good and the favorite dish we got by far was the garlic fried rice that was really good after dinner we walked around a little bit because we didn’t realize that this was the part the island where all of like the bars and restaurants were so we had an early morning the next morning but we spent that night kind of just like wandering around getting a little dessert doing a little shopping and then scoping out places to have dinner the next night we had to get to bed kind of early though because we had another early morning on Monday so on our third day there we woke up early to go scuba diving our hotel recommended penguin scuba and so that’s who we went with I was initially interested in scuba diving the Great Barrier reath of Japan that’s found a little near makaku Jima but that was a boat dive and so that in that includes like a whole other cost on top of that and they didn’t have a boat like that so we decided to just keep it simple and do a beach dive he did have a motor powered kayak which made it kind of like a boat dive but definitely uh a little more interesting so I actually pretty bad scuba anxiety at the moment so I stayed back and snorkel my little life jacket on I felt super safe and the place he told me to go was really protected and very very beautiful I know that everyone else who Dove got to see some sea turtles and some cool wildlife and he said that there could have been sharks but they didn’t see any after diving we grabbed a smoothie nearby at a place called Blue Turtle their patio overl some gorgeous blue [Music] water we were still hungry after that so we went on Google Maps and found a spot called K’s Pit Diner and it was fabulous we all got the Mako beef burger or the Japanese blackberg and they were all super good the interior of this place is so like retro and cool and he had a TV right in front of us playing old music videos and just the vibe was really good I think that anyone who goes there would really like it we would highly recommend it and so backtrack a little bit before we left scuba we asked him where can we go to snorkel with sea turtles cuz we were still right in that Hive seing a sea turtle and he told us two beaches that we could go to he said especially around high tide to go to Y why Beach or aruku Beach we decided to drive down to aruku beach he warned us it’s pretty touristy and everyone knows about it and that was true so they have kind of a really small free parking lot right there next to the bathrooms but any overflow parking was shuffled into this parking lot that costs 2,000 Yen per car on the beach there are a couple snack stands there’s a drink place a rental shock and tables and umbrellas that you can rent for 2,000 Yen we just popped our stuff on the beach and jumped in to go try to find some sea turtles after searching for a little while will and I actually found one but it was swimming like it was booking it it wasn’t hanging out So eventually we lost it our friends went later and we kind of pointed them in the direction where our turtle was going and they ended up going that way and they found three of them and they were like eating and being chill so they had a really good experience and I can show you on the beach like kind of where I told them to swim so you can try to go find them if you go there just don’t touch them okay please don’t touch them from there we walk back to the hotel to get ready for dinner wo thank goodness we didn’t have any reservations for this night because we just needed to chill so we took our time getting ready and then we grabbed a taxi to go back into like the downtown area that we were at before we bopped into a couple different isaka restaurants and bars that we saw really just going off Vibes and everything was super super good there’s a lot of things to choose from down there I was kind of surprised I don’t know why but it was like a really nice little spot for nightlife and all the food was really good our fourth day we woke up early because checkout was at 10:00 a.m. and then we went to breakfast at a place called Cafe day M at breakfast that day we decided that we wanted to drive around to see all the bridges on makako gima before our 5:00 p.m. flight so Mako is actually connected to three other Islands to the north there is iima Island to the West arabu Island and then to the Southwest there is Kima Island we started by going north to iima Island the bridge there is 1 and 1 12 km long and it gives beautiful views of the ocean on both sides there are no stop offs along the bridge which is a little bit annoying but I get it so if you did want to get a picture like more in the middle of the bridge you would have to walk from either end and that would take kind of a long time once you get to the end of AA Bridge you will see an observation building deck off to the right this is on top of restaurant called kiru on Google Maps we thought we’d have to pay to go up there but nope anyone could walk up there to the roof and it’s a beautiful view of the ocean and the bridge this parking lot was super full with a line of cars waiting for people to leave if that’s the case when you’re here just drive like 100 ft up the road and there’s a dirt parking lot off to the right and you can easily find parking there and then walk to the observation deck you’re welcome we decided to drive around the island in a little Loop just to see what was going on most of it was kind of just driving through the forest with not really good views of the ocean I don’t know why I was expecting like us one in California but no it’s not like that we did stumble upon this dilapidated looking Park called monkey Park it has a cute little swing overlooking the water where you can get some cute instagramy pics there is also a pretty beach right there called Uzu Beach that was totally [Music] empty a little bit down the road is another Beach that I had marked but we didn’t get to go to called fuzu Beach it took like 10 to 15 minutes maybe to drive a circle around the whole thing and then from there we drove South we had already been scuba diving on aabu island so we actually skipped it on on this day but I do have a couple things marked there that I can share with you I had Mark Tor Pond the makako Jima Observatory nakano Shima as a good place to snorkel and shiratori misaki Park which is where we actually went scuba diving and our guide told us it is also a beautiful place to look at the stars anyways though the last bridge that we needed to visit was Kima Bridge there’s a teeny little village here with a couple little shops and restaurants you can Bop around to I really wanted to visit this gift store called hakona Karima but unfortunately it was closed on this day we did grab some mango treats at rakuin no kajitsu their fruit and ice cream looked really really good too from there we walk to this observation deck nearby to soak in these beautiful views one last [Music] time after that we dropped off our car to the rental agency and took the shuttle back to the airport the airport is pretty small obviously but it’s actually really nice they packed a lot of stuff in there there’s a good amount of little shops upstairs and we were able to get some last minute souvenirs and there is a sober restant restaurant up there so we were able to have Mako SOA one last time we thought that 4 days would be enough time in makako gima but actually we all agree that we think that 7 days is a good amount of time when we were talking about if we preferred is shikaki or makako gima since they’re so close together we all think that shaki’s like mountains in the landscape is really really pretty but the water in miyakojima is next level blue it is beautiful they both have their different charms okay but the water there was really really nice as promised here is a big list of Google pins that I had saved for my research that I want to share with you so get ready to screen grab in 3 2 1 thank you guys so so much for watching and as always please leave any recommendations that you have in the comments I will see you in the next video and until then Happy planning bye

Join me as I share our amazing 4-day adventure on Miyako Island, Okinawa! From breathtaking scuba diving and golfing with an ocean view to exploring stunning beaches and iconic bridges, we had the perfect long weekend getaway. I’ll walk you through how we got to the island, where we stayed, and the best things to do during your visit. Don’t forget to rent a car to make the most of your time on this beautiful island!

Timestamps:
00:00 Start
00:32 How to get to Miyako Island and rental car
01:15 Where we stayed in Miyako Island
02:43 What we did Day 1: foods to try, awamori
04:27 Shigira Hot Spring
05:50 Miyako Beef Restaurant recommendations
07:13 Day 2 Golfing at Emerald Coast Golf Links
08:10 Sunayama Beach
08:55 Local Miyako Food at Umarizuma Restaurant
09:47 Day 3 Scuba Diving with Penguin Scuba
11:15 Snorkel with Sea Turtles at Aragusuku Beach / dinner
12:58 Day 4 Miyakojima Bridges
13:23 Ikema Island Bridge and viewpoints
14:55 Irabu Island Recommendations
15:26 Kurima Bridge and Kurima Island Observation Deck
16:35 Outro
17:00 Google Pins to screengrab

Our other Okinawa Videos:
– 4 Day Okinawa Itinerary: https://youtu.be/9s7LScEDLOA
– WWII Sites and how to visit: https://youtu.be/9x6WBMbnews
– Thrift / Vintage Shopping Guide: https://youtu.be/IddV9gMerL0
– 1 Day in Yomitan Itinerary: https://youtu.be/yfpNQlk6kMc
– 5 Snorkeling Spots: https://youtu.be/wZB3m8EkbWQ
– 4 Days Ishigaki Island Itinerary: https://youtu.be/EXUv4K3Iz7I
– The Most Sacred Site on Okinawa: https://youtu.be/ICa2H6OXSrY

Affiliate Links:
– Hotels on Miyako: https://www.booking.com/searchresults.en.html?region=5197&aid=2163227&no_rooms=1&group_adults=2
– Where we stayed: https://www.booking.com/hotel/jp/guesthouse-koa.en.html?aid=2163227&no_rooms=1&group_adults=2
– Get 30 Days Free of Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/vfdgx7/
– Our Patreon Page: https://patreon.com/WillandAlexTravel?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator

Resources:
-Taragawa Brewery: https://taragawa.co.jp/aboutus/
– Brewery Tour: https://taragawa.co.jp/brewery-tour/
– Emerald Coat Golf Links: https://www.emeraldcoast.jp/reservation/

Have you ever visited Miyako Island? Let me know your favorite activities in the comments below!

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