During my trip in Okinawa, I have visited 3 theme parks: the Ocean Expo Park, the Okinawa World and the Nago Pineapple Park. I went twice at the Ocean Expo Park, the second time as part of my second Okinawa Bus tour destinations together with Nago Pineapple Park. My first Okinawa Bus tour includes the Okinawa World. 

 Ocean Expo Park

Located at the north of the main Okinawa Island, the Ocean Expo Park is a large park stretching about 3 km along the coast. It was built in 1976 to commemorate the Okinawa International Ocean Expo held there a year earlier. The park is consists of the Oceanic Culture Museum, the Tropical Dream Center and the Churaumi Aquarium which required entrance fee and the free Okichan Theater, Dolphin Lagoon, Sea Turtle and Manatee Pool and the Native Okinawan Village. The Emerald Beach is also located nearby.

I entered the Churaumi Aquarium on my first time there. It is widely considered Japan’s best aquarium and as for all the aquariums I have visited, I ranked it second to Georgia Aquarium.

Similar to Georgia Aquarium, the Churaumi Aquarium possess huge whale sharks and manta rays as their highlights contained in the massive Kuroshio Tank, one of the largest in the world. They also have the world’s first large scale exhibit of living coral. Aside from the Okinawa marine life, there is also a big aquarium containing different types of sharks. 

 Even if you don’t enter the aquarium, you can still enjoy the outdoor pools with dolphins, sea turtles and manatees free of charge.

As I was just on a strict schedule due to the availability of the bus, I went back there as part of the Okinawa Bus tour to see the Native Okinawan Village. There are over twenty native houses from different time periods and regions of Okinawa.

 
I have just visited the entrance of the  Oceanic Culture Museum where I saw a big double-hulled canoe on display. It was designed based on historical documents, and was reconstructed by the people of Tahiti. I don’t have much time so I couldn’t enter the museum.

 

 

Okinawa World

I haven’t heard of the Okinawa World until I went there during one of my bus tours. It is a theme park about the Okinawan culture which includes a massive natural cave, a craft village and a snake museum. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to enter the snake museum known as Habu Park.

It was nice to see the Gyokusendo Cave, the longest of the many caves in the south of Okinawa. There are walking paths inside the cave to see the amazing stalactite and stalagmite formations.

Outside the cave is a replica of a traditional Ryukyu Village called the Kingdom Village. It features various traditional Okinawan crafts, such as weaving, dyeing, paper making, pottery, making of musical instruments and glass blowing. I also have a chance to watch their traditional dance performance. 

 
  

 Nago Pineapple Park 

 I booked the Okinawa Tour bus on my last day in Okinawa to visit the Nago Pineapple Park. Pineapple is one of the agricultural products in Okinawa, thus a park was created to promote this fruit. The park is small and actually was a shop masked as a park to lure the visitors to buy their products. Upon entry to the main shop, there are lots of free tasting of pineapple wine, pineapple juice and other pineapple products. The most interesting part of the park for me is the pineapple-styled car.