Naha · Kokusai-doriNo.671★★★Open in map →
Kokusai-dori
— Naha's mile-long main street
A single straight street through the middle of Naha, lined with shops selling Okinawa to visitors and cut across by covered market lanes selling it to residents. It is the first thing most people see of the city and the easiest thing to walk.
- FromNaha Airport
- ~30 minYui Rail monorail, then a short walk
- Get off atKencho-mae Station (Yui Rail monorail)
- On foot
- Kokusai-dori
Where it is
41 more notes in Okinawa · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Kencho-kita crossingthe western end, in front of the Palette Kumoji building by the prefectural office
- Mutsumibashi-dorione of the covered lanes leaving the street on its southern side
- Tenbusu Nahathe city-run cultural hall about halfway along, with the tourist information counter
- Ichiba Hondori and Heiwa-dorithe two arcade mouths that lead back toward the public market
- Asato three-way junctionthe eastern end of the street, at the foot of Makishi Station
How to actually get there
- Naha Airport Station → Kencho-mae Station (Yui Rail monorail, 13 min, 290 yen).
- Kencho-mae Station → Kencho-kita crossing (walk about 3 min), the western end of the street.
- Walk northeast, turning into Ichiba Hondori or Heiwa-dori where the arcade mouths open.
- Finish at the Asato junction and ride back from Makishi Station.
- Yui Rail monorail from Naha Airport
- Naha Airport Station to Kencho-mae Station on the Yui Rail monorail, 13 minutes for 290 yen. Kencho-mae sits at the western end of the street and Makishi Station at the eastern end, so the whole length can be walked in one direction without doubling back.
- Return from Makishi Station
- Makishi Station stands at the Asato end and returns to the airport on the same monorail line. Trains run through the day and into the evening, and the last one leaves before midnight, so check the board if you stay out for dinner rather than assuming a late service.
About the place
Kokusai-dori runs about 1.6 kilometres through the middle of Naha, from the Kencho-kita crossing beside the prefectural office to the Asato three-way junction. The road was laid before the war as a prefectural route; the name it carries now came afterwards, from a cinema. What makes it worth walking rather than photographing is the set of covered arcades that leave it at right angles. Those market lanes run on for blocks behind the souvenir frontage, and they are where the street stops performing.
How to enjoy it
Every Sunday from 12:00 to 18:00 the roadway is closed to cars between the western crossing and Saion-bashi, and the surface fills with stalls and performances. On other days the last hour of daylight is the one to take: the arcades are still open, the neon has come on, and the heat has gone out of the pavement.
Background & history
Naha was flattened by bombing and then by ground fighting, and this road was among the first stretches of the city to come back. A cinema called the Ernie Pyle International Theatre opened on it in 1948, drew people to the street, and gave it the name it still carries. Because that recovery happened along a road close to a mile long, it picked up a second name: the Miracle Mile. The buildings have turned over many times since. The road and the two names have not.
Before you go
- Cash
- Walking the street costs nothing. Carry some cash before turning into the arcades — the small stalls behind the main road are not all set up to take cards, even where the frontage shops are.
- Before you go
- Shops keep their own hours and most do not open early, so the street is at its least useful before mid-morning even though it is at its quietest. Typhoons bring the shutters down along the whole length of it. The covered arcades stay walkable in rain.
- Another way
- City buses from Naha Bus Terminal stop at Kencho-kita, a minute from the western end. Coming from the other side, Makishi Station drops you at the Asato junction and lets you walk the street the other way, toward the prefectural office.
- After you get off
- From Kencho-mae Station take the north exit and walk about three minutes to the Kencho-kita crossing. The street starts there and runs straight to the northeast, so there is no turn to miss. Tenbusu Naha, the halfway mark, is roughly fifteen minutes further on foot.