We’d already chatted with another couple who had become our regular quiz partners on this cruise and decided that we wouldn’t take an organised excursion on this port stop. The choices didn’t really appeal to us and we thought it might be nice just to wander around with them with no set plan. This also meant we could leave the ship at a time of our own choosing and wouldn’t have to worry about getting to the tour meeting spot at a set hour.

After waiting for most of the booked trips to take their groups ashore we made use of the free shuttle bus service that would take us from where Diamond Princess had docked at Naha into the city itself. We were dropped off at a fairly busy intersection at one end of Kokusaidori Street, handed a map, reminded when the shuttle buses would return to the ship, and left to our own devices.

Architecturally, there was nothing really to set Naha apart from any modern city which was a shame, but the typically Japanese posters, electronic signs, and advertising everywhere was great to see and still brought home the cultural experience of being somewhere distinctly foreign even if instantly familiar at the same time. Even the traffic drove on the left-hand side of the road so there was no terror of looking the wrong way when crossing roads to contend with.

The large Maneki-Neko on the side of one building was a joy to see.

The four of us – my wife and I, and the other couple, Sandra and Ian – contented ourselves to just wandering along Kokusaidori Street and stopping whenever something caught our interest. Snakes in jars of alcohol certainly caught our interest but we figured there might be problems with getting them back on board the ship and even more flying them back home to the UK afterwards. I would eventually take a chance on getting something similar back home but that’s a story for another port in this cruise travelogue series.

Japan is famous for its vending machines and Sandra and Ian couldn’t resist buying some Pocari Sweat from one because of the name. We all had some afterwards and it was actually okay and not at all sweaty. A bit of a relief, naturally.

We came very close to buying a frog purse just because, well, it’s a frog purse.

Frog purses!

Okay, they look pretty effing cool.

We should get one. Nobody back home is going to have a frog purse.

Probably for good reasons. Are they real?

Not sure. But they are froggy.

I mean, I like frogs, but I don’t think I want to stick money down one’s mouth.

Plus you couldn’t really put one in your pocket, and those legs look like they’ll take up a lot of room in a bag.

And if they are real then we shouldn’t encourage the Japanese to kill frogs thanks to our tourist demand for them in purse-form.

They might have died naturally.

Yes, this feels like the sort of country where that would just happen and purse entrepreneurs would be close by to seize an opportunity.

As we couldn’t work out was whether the frog purses were real or not – the texture was very plastic-like and we were keen to have real ones just for the novelty and shock value, but not so keen to simply be getting a funny-shaped item made from modern materials – we decided in the end not to buy one.

Once we’d gone up one side of Kokusaidori and seen that most of the interesting-looking shops were starting to thin out we crossed over to the other side of the street to have a gentle amble back down that side. That was when we found a large, indoor market area, filled with shops and stalls. For the most part it was just like any low-cost, high-volume market place anywhere else in the world with plenty of places to buy cheap clothing or food or household items, but there were a few places that were a little bit different. Not having much Japanese currency on me I decided to try to spend it anyway and found a place with a range of small bottles of sake for sale. I found one that would eat up most of my money and tried to buy it. The shop owner smiled and bowed; I smiled and bowed back; he bowed again; I bowed again; he bowed once more; I had the sudden fear that he was obliged to bow after me and I was prolonging an activity that would only end when one of us died if I didn’t stop things so thrust the money his way. Transaction concluded. We still have the bottle, never having opened it. It might be wonderful, but we suspect we’ve waited too long now and it will have to remain a souvenir.

Outside and heading back to where the shuttle bus would stop to pick us up for the return trip, I decided to shoot from the hip somewhat at random as we continued back down Kokusaidori. That’s the explanation for heads being cut off, mystery focus points, and the Dutch Angle in many of the pictures. They present a sense of strolling down the street with little interest paid by the locals. The video amongst the selection of photos below includes some thrilling sounds of Japanese pedestrian crossing signals.

An odd thing we spotted and which I managed to capture a single shot of was that some young men wore one trouser leg rolled-up. We had no idea why they were doing it. Thoughts of gang memberships or local fashion statements crossed our minds but none of us felt like asking, and I really regret that now.

It didn’t take us too long to reach the spot for the bus and we didn’t have to wait too long for it to arrive and take us back to the ship. A few photographs and a little bit of video footage of the drive back to port follows.

As you can tell, we didn’t really see very much of Naha City on Okinawa at all, and certainly not enough to do it any real justice or present an accurate review of this cruise port stop. We enjoyed our walk and our first cultural interaction with Japan but we didn’t really think Okinawa as a whole was a good representation of the country. There was far more western influence in the city than we’d expected and we’d have liked to see a bit more local interest but none of the organised options from Princess Cruises seemed to offer much in the way of variety or value for money.

We noticed that the pools were all closed off as we went to breakfast which seemed a little bit like overkill to us. I understand closing off the shallower, adults only pool in the Sanctuary area of the ship because the low water depth and even fairly mild waves can make for dangerous conditions but with the deeper pools this risk is mitigated quite a bit and there’s nothing more entertaining than being in a pool with the waves sloshing around everywhere. While eating breakfast in the buffet area we were captivated by the view of the horizon rising and falling as we made our way through the choppy waters towards Japan and you can see some of that in the video accompanying this post.

There was time to kill in the morning and we spent it watching some of the entertainment in the piazza, taking part in the trivia, and getting a little bit of reading in; all the elements of a typical, lovely, relaxing sea day but with a port arrival imminent!

As we neared the port city of Naha tug boats appeared to give us an escort to shore. Our balcony position gave us a good view of one of the vessels although it was not entirely clear what their main purpose was on the approach to Okinawa as they seemed to be neither really pulling or pushing the cruise ship. It’s possible they were there in a precautionary capacity in case the sea and wind conditions required the ship’s pilot to call for some assistance.

We didn’t spot many other vessels as we entered the harbour but one that stood out was the Star Cruises SuperStar Gemini cruise ship, formerly the Norwegian Dream. I love seeing these older ships operating for lines that are more localised, especially ones that have changed ownership several times, and it’s great to take a look through their deck layouts and cabin arrangements and entertainment offerings to see how they cater for the markets they target.

We eventually came alongside in Naha. We’d visited Naha before back in 2008 but on that occasion Diamond Princess had docked considerably farther north and had required us to use a complimentary shuttle bus to get from the ship into the city. Everything would be in walking distance this time around which also meant there wasn’t an unattractive (well, I don’t tend to mind them) commercial port for a view and we could instead look out at the outskirts of the city and towards where we would later be heading.

This video (temporarily removed) shows the sea conditions in the morning, some of the actions of the tug boats, and a little of the port of Naha from the top deck of Diamond Princess.

Japanese Immigration

There is never any point rushing to get off the ship as soon as it docks because there are formalities to be observed first. In many ports there is a brief customs clearance procedure for the ship and then an announcement is made and everyone is allowed off. In some places passports and/or visas and/or landing cards may need to be shown. And then there’s Japan where every single port of entry requires a cumbersome immigration process. You have to pass the thermal scanning to ensure you’re not running a temperature. You have to show your passport. You have to have filled in a customs declaration form. And this all needs to be scheduled because they don’t want three thousand passengers trying to do this all at the same time.

On the plus side you don’t need to do the scheduling; that’s all arranged by Princess and you get notified in your cabin the day before when you’ll need to gather in one of the lounges or dining rooms to be called ashore. Counter to that, though, is that you might want to get off the ship early but that’s completely out of your hands. If you have arranged an excursion through Princess, of course, then you’ll get scheduled early to take advantage of it but whether that applies to people arranging their own things I can’t say. Certainly something to consider if you’re thinking about private excursions while on a cruise hitting Okinawa.

We passed some time observing occasional passengers making their way along the dock beside the ship, having completed their Japanese immigration procedure. We did this to try to gauge just how long it was taking people based on when we saw them leave the ship and enter the terminal to when we recognised them coming back out and heading ashore but it wasn’t an easy thing to do.

It eventually came to our time to head to one of the dining rooms and wait to be called ashore. And wait. And wait. And listen to the apologies for the delay. And wait some more. And watch some people assume queues were for other people and jump them. And wait. And then get let through. A lengthy walk from the ship to the terminal then left us in a long, snaking queue of hundreds of other people with a sinking feeling that this would take forever but, fair’s fair, the queue moved pretty rapidly as there were a lot of immigration desks open. I passed through very quickly and had the opportunity to see the immigration desk computers from behind as my wife was being processed: lots of screenshots of not just her present passport photo page but previous ones too flashed up along with screens of additional information that I clearly couldn’t read. It was actually quite fascinating to see just how much data was being held on her and easily accessible to the customs authorities.

We finally stepped out of the terminal and onto Japanese concrete just over one hour after we’d been told to meet aboard the ship to pass through immigration. For a country that really, really, really likes putting people through immigration it could do with some projects targeting efficiencies in the process in our opinion.

In the next post I’ll cover our time ashore in Naha itself.

Upon leaving the dock there is an obvious, wide, straightish road heading into the city that we followed. Two dragon statues marked the start of it and we passed by them, knowing that staying on the road we were on would bring us to Kokusaidori Street in about 15-20 minutes.

Or it would have taken us 15-20 minutes if I hadn’t been distracted by the appearance of a block of greenery on our left that demanded a quick exploring. This turned out to be Matsuyama Park and we didn’t know it at the time but it continued on the other side of the street too and looks like it’s worthy of a nose around if you’re passing by; we certainly will if we return to Okinawa on a future cruise. The park contained an artificial pond and several statues and monuments, though to what we couldn’t tell. One sign did seem to indicate that the original hospital of Naha may have been in the area. With some schools for younger children and some playgrounds in the area I kept my camera away for the most part. The other thing of note in this park was a large gathering of people in similar attire with placards and bullhorns. They didn’t look the friendliest bunch in the world so we steered clear of this group too and decided against any inadvertent antagonisation by keeping the camera firmly down. As it turned out this wouldn’t be the last time we saw them.

Leaving the park we continued approximately southeast along the road we’d been walking on with the only landmark of any note being when we crossed over one of the tributaries feeding into the Kokuba River, alongside which were the elevated concrete rail pillars we remembered fondly from our previous visit to the city.

This then brought us to the large four-way road junction with its diagonal pedestrian crossing markings that signified the start of Kokusaidori Street and it was here that we encountered a wonderful surprise: the street was entirely closed off to traffic so we would be free to wander along its length and cross over to view shops at leisure. We didn’t know if this was just something they did on a Sunday (it was a Sunday when we were there) but it meant there was a gentle pace to exploring that could be shared by both locals and tourists alike.

It was great to see some people really making an effort and enjoying the pleasant temperature of the late afternoon on Naha’s main shopping street.

We then discovered the reason that Kokusaidori Street had been closed off. Our visit to the city of Naha had coincided with a large, public martial arts demonstration. Within many of the city blocks there were one or two red carpeted areas on which either a demonstration of moves was taking place or had already done so by the time we arrived. Groups were either engaged in their moves or milling about awaiting their turn. People in white martial arts outfits ranged in age from the youngest of children to the oldest of men and women. We saw some with sticks and some with other weaponry but the vast majority were unarmed. Some signs on poles along the street seemed to indicate that karate was the main martial art on show although I can’t say for certain that every person demonstrating to the onlookers was definitely performing just that skill.

The sun getting lower in the sky made for some lovely long shadows along the street.

We’d been making our way slowly along Kokusaidori Street in a roughly easterly direction all this time as we’d been entertained by the martial artists along its length when we spotted something very familiar to us. During our first visit to Naha we’d very much enjoyed finding an indoor market area and had picked up some souvenirs at the time. Guarded by an odd-looking sculpture of a creature playing a musical instrument we saw the arched entrance of the market again and decided to pop in for a look to see if anything would entice us to part with our wallet of yen.

Emerging back into the noticeably fading light but without any goodies we endeavoured instead to head back down Kokusaidori Street and check out some of the many shops we’d passed on the way up. The martial arts demonstrations had come to an end at this time and we could see some of the children being warmly congratulated by proud parents while adult practitioneers seemed to be drifting away in groups too.

It was strange to see so many Japanese schoolchildren around with it being a Sunday but not quite so strange as seeing a few of the schoolgirls taking photos of their sausages on sticks in the middle of the emptying road.

We ducked into several shops and started to spend our money. We like trying to use local currency when we’re travelling because it gives us a chance to pick up small change and keep it as a memory of our trips. Importantly, though, if you are travelling to Japan then it really helps to have yen on you because while it’s a very advanced country technologically in many ways we’ve found that the use of credit cards is not as widespread as you might expect; many businesses will only accept cash so if you’re looking to spend in Japan then keep that in mind. You can read more about this tip and others by looking at mistakes to avoid when planning a trip to Japan.

As we got closer to the junction that would mark the end of Kokusaidori Street and the point at which we would be turning back towards the direction of the cruise ship the low sunlight that had been creating such lovely long shadows along the concrete disappeared behind distant parts of the city and with that darkening of the evening the lights of the buildings became more prominent.

Dusk cast the evening sky over Naha City into gorgeous shades of pinks, purples, and dusty blues.

Now, you may remember me mentioning the group of people we’d stumbled upon who’d been preparing placards in Matsuyama Park when we’d paid that area of greenery a visit on our way towards Kokusaidori Street. On our walk back towards Diamond Princess we encountered that same group only this time they were in full protest mode. Slowly marching down the road they were accompanied by vehicles travelling at the same pace and one person inside one of those to which was attached a huge megaphone was yelling slogans to the sound of heavy drumming. Our grasp of Japanese is as close to zero as makes no difference so quite what this group were upset at was and still remains a complete mystery.

The remainder of the walk towards the cruise port took place in suddenly very dark conditions. It’s quite weird to look back now and see just how quickly the sky turned from twilight to pitch black. A few buildings were eyecatching enough in the dim conditions to photograph and the most interesting places included a building with a giant lobster on its exterior wall and public toilets with twisted industrial decorations outside.

Eventually we reached the dragon sculpture marker that signalled we’d reached the end of the urban part of Naha and the start of the port area but with this being night and with Diamond Princess being lit up and impossible to miss we didn’t really need any help identifying the location.

This then was our last moment at a port of call on our second cruise aboard Diamond Princess ten years apart. Following our departure from Okinawa we would have two relaxing days at sea before our cruise would end where it started, in Yokohama, and where we would sadly have to leave Asia and head home.