An Okinawan Tryst

Okinawa’s diverse fabric offers a delightful mix of seaside life, unconventional cuisine and a rendezvous with Japanese history

- Akanksha Maker

Picture pristine coastlines lined with cerulean waters. Stretches of unspoilt beaches sprawling across striking remote islands. Under-the-Earth caves, prehistoric stone citadels, and regal castles. Japan’s southernmost prefecture, Okinawa Island effortlessly transports you to an idyllic paradise. The birthplace of Karate and part of the erstwhile kingdom of the Ryukus (an independent kingdom that ruled most of Japan’s southern islands from the 15th to the 19th century), Okinawa is Japan’s very own natural oasis. It inhabits Japanese folk that boasts some of the highest life expectancies in the world, experience comparatively less cancer, heart diseases, and dementia — exemplifying the serenity and perhaps the sanity that can be experienced here.

Getting to Okinawa is easy; fly nonstop from Tokyo or Osaka on Japan Airlines or All Nippon Airways, or even low-cost carriers like Jetstar and Peach Aviation to reach Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture.

THE AZURE