December 13, 2025 – Kumejima to Onna, Okinawa – 41 kms – Best Western Okinawa Onna Beach

December 14, 2025 – Onna to Kouki Beach – 30 kms – Best Western Okinawa Kouki Beach

December 15, 2025 – Kouki Beach to Motobu – 35 kms – “Uncles House” house rental

December 16, 2025 – Motobu – 8 km day ride – Uncles House

December 17, 2025 – Motobu – 32 km day ride

total mileage cycled: 280 kms

Gordon:  If a tourist to Okinawa leaves the main city of Naha, his or her likely destination is the Motobu peninsula, located two-thirds of the way up the west coast.  The key draw here is the Churaumi Aquarium, but there are a number of other attractions, both natural and man made.

We spent a leisurely three days riding from Naha to Motobu, and then plunked ourselves into a Japanese house for three nights.

We spent half a day at the Aquarium.  The second largest in the world, its biggest tank has the capacity to accommodate a whale shark, as well as some manta rays and a variety of other sharks and rays.  It’s an amazing place to visit.  There are an enormous variety of sea creatures on display, with many specialized exhibits and adequate explanations in English.  The highlight, of course, is the main tank.  We were there for feeding time, when we were treated to manta rays doing tight vertical somersaults through the plumes of food, followed by the whale shark hoovering hundreds of gallons of water at the surface to get his or her lunch.  

Our new friends Tien and Thy from Seattle, together with their daughter Chloe, were at the Aquarium the same morning.  At lunchtime they took us to a highly regarded restaurant set in a reconstructed Okinawan village.  It was great to spend some more time with them, and enjoy a delicious meal in a beautiful setting.

After lunch we returned to the Aquarium to watch an open air dolphin show.  It incorporated several species of dolphins, including one that was shockingly large.

This morning we visited the town of Bise, located at the tip of the Motobu peninsula.  It is a 350 year old village that retains its ancient layout, with sand paths lined by 250 year old fukugi trees.  These are evergreen trees reminiscent of tall English laurels that provide protection from the wind and sun.  They are known locally as “happiness trees” and are very highly regarded.  It was delightful to wander through this charming village.

The last few days have been a bit cooler, with one day of high winds, so we had not been doing any snorkeling.  Today we got back into that groove with two trips to Gorilla Chop, a dive area near the bridge to Sesokojima.  It was our best snorkeling so far, with an enormous variety of hard and soft corals in a range of shapes and colours.  The fish made me think of our late housemate David’s butterfly paintings.  These were in a range of patterns and colours, few or none of them representing species actually known to science.  That was my impression of many of the fish; their shapes, colours and patterns were just too weird to be believable.  It’s hard to imagine what evolutionary advantage would be conferred by some of the patterns and colours.