Naha

The main hall burned in 2019, so there is no interior to walk into; in its place a viewing corridor looks through glass at the rebuilding work. The walls, the Shureimon gate and the view down over Naha from the hilltop are all unchanged.

A straight 1.6 kilometres. On Sundays it is closed to cars from noon to 6pm and handed over to walkers. Souvenirs cost visibly less in the side lanes. Most shops on the main street stay open until ten.

Buy fish downstairs, carry it up, and pay a kitchen upstairs a cooking fee. That is how the market works. It moved into a new building in 2023 with wider aisles. The ground-floor counters empty out by 7pm.

Three hundred metres of stone paving lined with kilns and pottery shops. Shisa lions come as a pair, one mouth open and one shut; sellers will stop you buying just one. Kiln visits are mornings only.

The shrine sits on a cliff directly above Naha's only swimming beach, with an expressway viaduct threaded between the two. It is the one stretch of sea you can reach on foot from the centre.

An island off the south end of the runway, so landing aircraft pass low overhead. You drive in over a causeway. On the west side the terraced shops fill up first at sunset.

Three hundred metres of the old limestone road survived the war. The slope is steep enough that walking down is the sensible direction. Halfway along, a huge akagi has split the stone wall with its roots.

Still an active place of prayer, so signs ask for quiet and covered clothing. Tickets are sold only at the centre 200 metres away. The rock gets slick when wet, which rules out sandals.

On the cliffs of southern Itoman, arcs of stone carry the names of some 240,000 who died in the battle, with no division by nationality. On 23 June the prefecture flies its flags at half mast.

A garden built to mark the city's ties with Fuzhou, its stone and timber shipped from China. Closed on Wednesdays. The garden is downtown, yet the running water drowns out the traffic.

An aquarium on the Motobu Peninsula, about two hours' drive from Naha. Whale sharks and manta rays cruise the Kuroshio Sea tank, and a walkway above it looks down on feeding time. It sits inside Ocean Expo Park, beside the outdoor dolphin show.

A small island off the northern main island, reached by car over the Kouri Bridge, nearly 2km long. Turquoise water spreads left and right of the span. On the north shore at Tinu Beach a heart-shaped hollow rock draws photographers at low tide.

A limestone cliff on the Onna coast whose tip curls into the sea like an elephant's trunk. Legend says a Ryukyu king named it, praising a meadow big enough for ten thousand to sit. Many come for the sunset beyond the cliff.

A 15th-century Ryukyu fortress whose curving limestone walls survive almost whole, inscribed by UNESCO in 2000. Set on a ridge, its outermost wall looks over both the eastern and western seas.

The Ryukyu royal villa garden where Chinese envoys were entertained, with a hexagonal Chinese pavilion and arched stone bridges on the pond. Destroyed in the war and rebuilt, it is a UNESCO-listed site. Closed Wednesdays.

A Chatan shopping district modelled on an American street, with a Ferris wheel and brightly painted blocks. Sunset Beach next door faces the western sea and is most crowded as dusk falls. Visitors from nearby US bases mean English signs everywhere.

The royal mausoleum of the Ryukyu kings, built by King Sho Shin in 1501: three house-shaped stone tombs side by side. You can walk here from Shurijo Castle in a few minutes. Carved stone lions guard the roofline, and few visitors make it quiet.

Islands under an hour by fast ferry from Naha's Tomari Port, their clear Kerama blue water protected as a national park. Sea turtles often appear off the beaches of Zamami and Tokashiki. From January to March, boats go out to watch humpback whales.

A command post the Japanese navy dug into a hill in 1944, its tight tunnels and rooms restored. Shrapnel scars from the officers' suicides still mark the walls. The commander's last telegram, reporting the sacrifice of Okinawa's people, is on display.

A limestone cave inside Okinawa World in the south, 5km long with 890m open to walk. It is said to hold over a million stalactites. The floor is wet and slick, so wear flat shoes; outside, eisa drummers perform in the village street.