On the first day we arrived in Okinawa, the first destination we headed to was Okinawa World.
It’s a bit challenging to describe exactly what Okinawa World is, but there is a snake museum, the largest stalactites cave in Japan, a brewery, traditional Ryukyu arts and craft village, and a culture center on the premise. There are many activities for all ages to do and enjoy.
There are 4 different ticket packages visitors can buy (adult/child)
- Cave, Kingdom Village, & Habu Museum – ￥1,650 / ￥830
- Cave & Kingdom Village – ￥1,240 / ￥620
- Kingdom Village – ￥620 / ￥310
- Habu Museum -￥620 / ￥310
Okinawa World – Habu Museum Park
After entering Okinawa World, the first attraction we checked out was to the Habu Museum Park. What is Habu you might ask?
Habu is a venomous snake found in southwest islands of Japan. Besides snakes, there are other creatures inside Habu Museum Park such as tortoise, bats, and other types of snakes for visitors to view.
Warning: this section includes graphic images of snakes some readers may find disturbing. Please skip to “Gyokusendo 玉泉洞 – Okinawa Stalactites Cave”.
Okinawa World – Habu Museum Park “Habu Show”
The highlight of the snake museum is the Habu Show, which runs 5 times daily from 11 am to 4:30 pm and each show is about 20 min long.
The show introduces to the audience different types of Habu and cobra, and demonstrated how snakes sense infrared using balloons with different temperatures. The snake attacked the warmer balloon during the demonstration and popped it with its fangs.
Gyokusendo 玉泉洞 – Okinawa Stalactites Cave
After Habu Museum, we checked out the really cool Gyokusendo. Gyokusendo is a limestone cave formed over a coral reef 300,000 years ago. It is the largest stalactites cave in Japan at 3 miles (5 km) long with over a million stalactites. Currently, 890 meters of the cave is open for visitors.
If you can’t make it to Okinawa, you can tour the entire cave on Google Maps street view by searching “玉泉洞“. The cave is pretty amazing so we highly recommend you taking the virtual tour.
Tropical Orchards & Traditional Craft Village
When you exit Gyokusendo, you will actually end up at the east end of Okinawa world. As you head back towards the entrance on the west side, you will go past tropical orchards with various tropical fruit trees and plants.
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