Location: Urasoe
Top Things to do in Urasoe
The 10 Best Things to Do in Urasoe, Japan
Urasoe is a city located in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The neighboring municipalities are Naha to the south, Ginowan to the north, and Nishihara to the east.
Restaurants in Urasoe
1. Urasoe Sports Park
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 28 reviews
Reviewed By BB100 - Hong Kong, China
A must-go for any family with children. Amazing, fun park with lots of climbing and sliding for children (and adults)!!! The roller slides are long and fun- there's even one for my 1-year-old! The kids spent so much time just climbing and playing on the playground, trying out the slides and playing in the sandbox. We will definitely play here again the next time we visit Okinawa. From the Ritz Carlton Okinawa Hotel, it's around a 50-minute (71km) drive.
2. Urasoe Castle Ruins
Overall Ratings
4 based on 21 reviews
Reviewed By MaxYourLife - United States
Definitely stop in the visitors center for 100 yen each. Watch the video about the royal tombs and see the replica of King Eiso's tomb. The staff here are incredibly friendly, although their English is limited. You can get a map, which may help.
There is no charge to walk up to the castle, ridge and Needle Rock.
We left the car here and walked, but you can also park closer.
From the closer parking lot, the castle is up the path to your left. The path to the right (again chained but walk through the opening to the right of the chain) goes up to the Hacksaw Ridge as well, just a different route and passes a monument commemorating the building of the road to Shuri Castle.
Visit the Urasoe Castle and royal tombs and continue up the hill. There is a beautiful Buddha statue on the right, and another tomb in a cave on the left.
Proceed up to the pavilion. To the right of this begins the actual ridge. You can follow the path along it, down the steep steps, and on the right is a peace memorial and Japanese military monument.
Walk away from this keeping the graves on your left, go to the far end where you will see the road going down to the left. Take this, but take the first right up the hill. Go all the way up, and through a wire gate, up the stairs to the right. Behold the Needle Rock. We missed it the first time because we walked down through the graveyard without taking the first right up the hill.
Go back down the way you came and turn right to take the road to the exit of the graveyard to the main road. Turn left and follow it past the last grave. On your left, you will see a paved road --chained off so cars can't go on it but you can. This will take you back up the hill below the castle (good photo shot) and back up to the parking area.
3. Urasoe Yodore Site
Overall Ratings
4 based on 26 reviews
Reviewed By richdjing
An awesome castle with an awesome view, there are two parts to the site
4. Minatogawa Stateside Town
Overall Ratings
4 based on 24 reviews
Reviewed By trvkaki - Singapore, Singapore
We came for the tarts and ended up eating at a neighbouring restaurant for lunch. Tarts became our desert and we enjoyed the short tour around the neighbourhood.
Wrapped up the trip with some stuff from a vintage shop run by an American.
Nice place to drop by for lunch or desert.
5. Urasoe Yodore Hall
6. Urasoe Park
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 12 reviews
Reviewed By DDD999 - Hong Kong
The playground is part of the bigger Urasoe Dai Park, situated near the summit of a hill. We had a bit of difficult in locating this as the GPS in our car gave us directions which led us to another part of the park.
Once there, our daughter simply refused to leave. Not only is there this long slide, there is a multiple-storey castle where children can burn off lots of energy.
One word of warning though, the slide is constructed in such a way that the speed is limited by rollers. As such, even at steeper sections children would not go too fast. But then for adventurous adults, sitting on these rollers can be a very painful experience (my tail bone was still hurting after 3 hours). Some people in earlier posts suggested buying a 'seat' just to play the slide but the city council purportedly made it 'illegal' since October 2016.
7. Urasoe City Art Museum
Overall Ratings
3.5 based on 30 reviews
Reviewed By kobekko - Kobe
Many tourists to Okinawa may be reminded for the first time, by visiting Shuri Castle, that Ryukyu was the name of old kingdom in Okinawa, and Shuri was its capital. The castle is, however, a modern reconstruction to showcase the island’s past history, and very little else remain today to remind the kingdom’s history or culture, perhaps with the exception of a few defensive stonewalls that used to surround gusukus (mening “castles” in Okinawan language). This reflects the thorough destruction that the island and its people suffered during the World War II. Fortunately, lacquer-wares are just too small and numerous to suffer total destruction, and this museum has collected many of such remains and displays them, to show us why and how this artisanal work thrived in Ryukyu, in spite of the fact lacquer is not an indigenous product.
The importance of lacquer-ware to Ryukyu reflects the kingdom’s history. Ryukyu had maintained its independence as a suzerain state, with tributary relationship to both China and Japan, before its incorporation as Okinawa prefecture of Japan in late 19th century. The economic mainstay of Ryukyu kingdom was trade, taking full advantage of its geopolitical position, as the effective intermediary between China and Japan, both of whose government wanted to guard the nations from foreign influence, and tightly restricted foreign trade. Yet, as a tributary state, Ryukyu must offer some valuable products of its own to the overlords, and linen-like textile made of banana fiber and artistic lacquer-ware developed as such products.
Lacquer-ware production is hardly unique to Ryukyu. It has been widely practiced all over East and Southeast Asia for centuries, primarily for production of waterproof or durable utensils. In the region, China has long been the center of artistic craft production, and this also applies to lacquer-ware production. Ryukyu may have learned the craft from China, but in due course it started to feature some production techniques, such as the wider use of red color lacquer, or of mother-of-pearl inlay, besides that of local distinctive motifs of Ryukyu. Ryukyu is, however, credited to have developed a new technique, called “tsuikin,” which applies thick layer of lacquer that is mixed with pigments, and crafts cameo-like carvings on the layer. Interestingly, the island’s climate helped this technological innovation. Lacquer dries and hardens rather quickly, particularly in high temperature. However, the island’s highly humid climate slows down this drying process, and gives craftsmen time to work on lacquer layer.
The museum nicely displays lacquer-wares to illustrate such development and crafts, and also provides English audio-phone, free of charge, on top of very reasonable entrance fee. Public bus service is available between this museum and the commercial centers of Naha City, and the visit by bus will make a pleasant half-day diversion to your stay in Okinawa.
8. Urasoe Tedako Festival
Overall Ratings
4 based on 10 reviews
Reviewed By のんびり巡り - Minato, Japan
「てだこ」とは、昔浦添が琉球王国の首都であったときの王「英祖王」の父が太陽であったという伝説があり、それにちなんで沖縄の方言で太陽を意味する「てだ」と、その太陽の子どもを意味する「こ」がくっつき「てだこ」といわれているよう。
浦添市の浦添運動公園及び、牧港漁港で行われる祭で毎年7月下旬に三日間に渡り行われているようです。
本祭の前日には、同市の屋富祖大通りを歩行者天国にし、前夜祭が行われます。
浦添市を代表する祭であり、沖縄県内でも有数の大規模な祭であって、毎年、市の人口を上回る約15万人の人々が訪れます。
祭りの二日間に渡り、老人カラオケ大会から青年エイサー、ちびっこ相撲大会等
子供から老人まで楽しめる市民祭りです。
祭りの両日とも花火ショーで、閉められます。
9. National Theater Okinawa
Overall Ratings
4 based on 14 reviews
Reviewed By zukum - Tokyo, Japan
建築物として見に行った。バブル全盛の頃の往年の高松氏の建築とは全く違う。どちらかというと、おとなしくなってしまった感じだが、美しいファサード。植物的と幾何学の中間的なフォルムがコンクリート素材にあっている。けど、白い縁取りが、なんとなく要らない感じだなあ～。
10. Minatogawa Foreign Settlement
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