🇬🇧 Newcastle → 🇯🇵 Okinawa · 2 weeks

Book a day ferry from Tomari Port to Zamami Island in the Kerama Islands (50 minutes, ¥3,200 round trip) — the coral at Furuzamami Beach has visibility exceeding 30 metres and you'll snorkel alongside sea turtles without a guide needed. Go on a weekday to avoid weekend crowds from Naha.

Visit Shuri Castle at 8:30am when it opens — by 10am tour buses fill the grounds. The vivid vermillion structures show Chinese architectural influence you won't find anywhere else in Japan, and the surrounding Shurijo Castle Park with its banyan trees is free to enter even when the inner castle charges admission (¥400).

Eat Okinawa soba at Daichi Makishi Public Market (First Makishi Market) — the covered market near Kokusai-dori sells bowls of the region's signature thick wheat noodles in a pork broth with rafutee (braised pork belly) for under ¥900. Arrive before noon when the morning seafood is still on display.

At Churaumi Aquarium, arrive exactly at 9am when it opens — the Kuroshio Tank (the world's second-largest single tank) is dramatically lit in the morning and the whale sharks feed at 10am and 3pm. Allocate three hours and buy tickets online to skip the queue (¥2,180).