Okinawa | Scooter adventure around Zamami Island

Mar 18, 20225 min read

Updated: Sep 18, 2022

Date I went: 03/26/2020

Youtube video:

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Finally my life long dream of traveling to one of the outer islands of Okinawa. It's like a childhood Pokemon fantasy for me to go to a small town island like this. It was recommended to me by Baldo, the Airbnb host in Naha I stayed with.

Zamami Island: https://www.env.go.jp/park/kerama/

Getting to the island is fairly easy. You can reserve ahead of time or purchase your ticket at Tomari Port in Naha, There are multiple boats leaving everyday as well, and you can bring cars and bikes on the boat. Many islands are accessible from Okinawa, and others by plane as well. Zamami is definitely one of the more popular outer island destinations to go in Okinawa.

Zamami island (座間味島)

In all it took about 1 hour to get to the island. The ride was smooth and relaxing as well since the weather was good.

Tomari Port (とまりん)

From the city of Naha you can easily access Tomari Port. From my Airbnb it was only a 5 minute bike ride away, but there are buses going to the port as well.

Setting sail now can't wait to hit the wide blue ocean! Japanese boating is splendid. Many Japanese like taking naps on the open deck. The ride over was not very crowded at all (maybe because there was Covid and it was a holiday on the island).

You can see many rock formations in the water and really small uninhabited islands from the boat ride over. It's very unique to Japan.

Whale monument (クジラのモニュメント)

As you pull into Zamami Port you can catch a view of this whale monument. The island is apparently a well known whale watching spot!

Zamami Port (座間味港)

The Japanese are very efficient with disembarking from boats, so the whole process only takes a few minutes.

Rental Charinko Bike Ishikawa (レンタルちゃりんこバイク石川)

I can't remember how I decided to rent a scooter, but somehow I stumbled upon this shop and rented one for around 4,000 yen for a few hours. they have daily rates as well and I'm pretty sure you can rent them for multiple days. The Ojichan who helped me out at this shop was really chill and pretty much had no serious rules for where I could and could not go. Just make sure to have an international driving license to rent out the scooter. They also had bicycle and e-bike rentals, but to make the best use of my time and energy the scooter was the way to go.

Furuzamami Beach (古座間味ビーチ)

My first stop was Furuzamami beach! I could zip around on the scooter really easily! It only took a few minutes from the port to the beach. You could definitely walk there too as the roads have hardly any cars going on them. It was deserted here as well so nice! Most of the beaches had some nice snorkeling spots as well judging by the coral reefs seen in the water.

I passed through this other small town located in between Furuzamami and the Chishi observatory. It felt a bit run down, but had this interesting forgotten time period feel to it.

Chishi Observatory (チシ展望台)

I then zipped to Chishi observatory in only 15 minutes from Furuzamami beach. It would take much longer walking or biking I think due to the hilly terrain of the island. The cliffs and water views are quite magnificent for this tiny island.

Touma beach (唐馬の浜)

The furthest point I traveled to in the day was Touma beach which only took about 25 minutes by scooter to reach (6 kilometers/4 miles). It's more known as a diving/scuba diving spot though and the beach was quite rocky. Still a nice serene fee from the end of the island.

I then headed back from the end of the island stopping along the way at the Uhama Cottage.

Uhama Cottage (大浜{ウハマ}コテージ)

I then made my way to Uhama cottage passing through a beach access road. The cottage area looked pretty empty as well.

Ohama Beach 大浜(ウハマ)

Ohama beach was located right behind the cottage and was also deserted. The beach seemed a bit rocky so not sure if I'd go swim here.

I decided to make my way back to explore the other end of the island. On the scooter you can go between both ends of the island within 20 minutes. The roads are so nice to drive with hardly any cars, and the fresh ocean breeze is abundant on the island.

Unaji-No-Sachi Observation Deck (女瀬の崎展望台)

Unaji-no-sachi observation deck was a wonderful! It's just a short walk on this path to get to it. Wish I had brought a picnic here.

After Unaji-no-sachi I made my way to the Inazaki observatory. I was determined to see all the observation decks!

Inazaki Observation Deck (稲崎展望台)

Although the island is small each observation deck really provides a unique viewpoint of the island.

The last observatory I checked out was Takatsuki-Yama, definitely my favorite observatory! You take this cool mountain hiking path to get there. Only took a few minutes on the scooter, I would guess about 10 minutes walking.

Takatsuki-Yama Observation Deck (高月山展望台)

You could see Amuro island from here and another small island called Agenashiku island. You can really see how vast the islands stretch out in Zamami.

I ended up carrying the scooter down the hiking trail, only took 20 minutes or so and highly do not recommend doing this. I was just really curious to see what was on this hiking trail though.

Ama beach (阿真ビーチ)

The last beach I checked out was Ama Beach, it was the closest to Zamami port. It's still a 20 minute walk away though. On the scooter it took about 5 minutes.

Zamami Village Peace Monument 座間味村平和之塔

I decided to see what was behind the village and found this Peach Monument for the island. I learned it was a memorial for the day the U.S. invaded Okinawa. The invasion first started in Zamami on March 26th, 1945... yes I was there on the same day. View from behind the village. It's hard to imagine any kind of war making it's way here.

Here is a link to some more information about the history of Zamami Island and World War 2

https://zamami-peace.net/en/map/

Zamami Dam square 座間味ダム広場

It seemed like a quiet place behind the village that not many tourists come to.

Looking through the town it really doesn't seem like much has changed over the years. It's very quiet and people are just living a relaxing life here. There's a school that looks like the newest building on the island, and a few other restaurants/hotels in the town. The hotels are not resort level.

Most of the shops and restaurants were closed this day for the memorial. There was also a film crew here as well to make a piece about the day the U.S. invaded Okinawa on this day; you can see them pictured in the top left photo below.