December 14, 2025
Day 103 — Naha again
Marilee here.
Back in town again after our brief island interlude, we had time on our hands. Our flight wasn’t for another two days, there didn’t seem to be a point in starting to pack up the bikes just yet. And although we’d explored a good portion of the city during our bike-box hunt a few days ago, we hadn’t visited any of the tourist sites yet. This was our opportunity.
Justin, our camping buddy from Tokashiki island, had spent two weeks in Naha, and was familiar with all the tourist attractions, and he’d given us his tips on what to see and what not to bother with. His biggest recommendation was to visit the Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters, an extensive system of tunnels and bunkers dug into a hill in the middle of town, and used briefly and tragically at the end of the Second World War.
It sounded intriguing, and after breakfast we set off. The predicted windstorm had arrived, and powerful gusts occasionally threatened to blow us over, which made biking more than usually exciting, but we made it. The museum housing the underground headquarters is at the top of a steep hill, surrounded by gardens and peace memorials. On this blustery Sunday morning it was quite lightly attended.
There is an above-ground entry hall with a free exhibit of period photographs and a video explaining the history of the bunker, and then you can descend below ground and walk through the maze of tunnels and rooms. In the waning days of the war, after the Japanese defeat at Midway, it seems that the Navy essentially became a land force because there was no fuel for the ships any longer. They were charged with defending Okinawa, and as it became clear that an American invasion was imminent, they started digging themselves into this hillside. All the work was done by hand, with pickaxes and shovels, and the dirt and rocks carried out in baskets. Thousands of men were crowded together inside the bunker in the spring of 1945, until the surrender in late June.
It was a great museum, but it made for a very somber morning. The devastation from the American shelling of the island (the Okinawans called it the “Typhoon of Steel”) was incredible — the photos showed a completely burned and blackened landscape. Most of the remaining population had taken shelter in caves in the mountains, and there were many photos and old film footage of US soldiers evacuating people from them: all of them either children or elderly.
We left the museum in very reflective moods, but also with lots of time left in the day. So, although it seemed a little odd, we decided to carry on to visit the big downtown tourist street (deeply poignant war museum, and then shopping! Why not?). It was block after block of souvenir shops, restaurants, bars, — and it answered a question that had been in my mind ever since we arrived in Naha: “why is everyone in our hotel wearing an Orion beer tshirt?” Orion is a local beer, and every souvenir shop on Kukusadori Street was absolutely packed with Orion branded items. While we didn’t load up on souvenirs, beer-themed or otherwise, we did both have excellent spam onagiris from a food truck, followed by Blue Seal ice cream cones (Blue Seal is a very popular local ice cream brand), so we felt like we met some of the Okinawa tourism expectations.
Today's ride: 10 km (6 miles)
Total: 4,859 km (3,017 miles)
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