Okinawa Island Touring & Sightseeing

A road trip to discover the historical and world heritage site of the northern part of Okinawa.

Okinawa’s second-largest island of Iriomote is part of a Natural World Heritage Site that was recently registered on July 26, 2021. More than 90% of the island’s landmass is an uninhabited national park, with a mountainous jungle core, lush mangrove forests, and a subtropical climate that nurtures a unique ecosystem for a trove of endemic species.

On the northern Motobu peninsula, the Nakijin-jo Castle Site is one of the nine gusuku  Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu, collectively designated a Cultural World Heritage Site, representing five hundred years of Ryukyu culture and history. Built in the late 13th century, Nakijin-jo Castle was once the stronghold of Hokuzan, the nation that comprised the region of Northern Okinawa and beyond. After a military campaign finally unified the northern, central and southern kingdoms, the Ryukyu Kingdom was born in 1428.