Japan Guide
Okinawa
Okinawa-Hontō
Once the centre of the Ryūkyū kingdom, Okinawa-Hontō, or Okinawa Main Island, is a strangely ambivalent place. Locals are fiercely proud of their Ryūkyū heritage, and yet the competing cultures of Japan and America are far more prevalent. To some extent, the island still feels like occupied territory, especially central Okinawa-Hontō, where the American bases and the nearby "American" towns, with their drive-ins and shopping malls, have become a bizarre tourist attraction for mainland Japanese, who come to soak up a bit of American culture.
Fascinating though all this is, it doesn't make Okinawa-Hontō the most obvious holiday destination. However, if you're drawn by the more appealing outer islands, the chances are you'll spend some time on the main island waiting for plane or ferry connections. Okinawa-Hontō's chief city and the former Ryūkyū capital is Naha, whose prime attraction is its reconstructed castle, Shuri-jō, the ruins of which were awarded World Heritage status in 2001. There are also some interesting market streets and a pottery village to explore, and you'll want to take advantage of its banks – not to mention excellent bars and restaurants – before heading off to remoter regions.
Long and thin, Okinawa-Hontō measures just 135km from tip to toe, so you can drive the whole length in a matter of hours. The best way to get around is to rent your own car or motorbike, particularly if you want to explore the northern hills. But be warned – the speed limit on many of the narrow roads that wind around the island is 40 or 50kph, and the roads around the southern and central strip are gridlocked during rush hour, so allow plenty of time for your journey and take the expressway if you're in a hurry. Otherwise most places are accessible by local bus – eventually.
Diving
With scores of dive sites around Okinawa-Hontō – and many more around the outer islands – one of the best reasons for visiting Okinawa is to go diving. There are plenty of dive shops, but only at a few will you find instructors who speak English. A useful website is 
www.divejapan.com , which includes links to operators, articles, dive-site maps and photo galleries.
Plenty of sites suitable for beginners lie within close reach of Okinawa-Hontō. Among the best sites are Sunabe seawall, where you'll find great soft corals, and Onna point, known for its hard corals and fish life. The Kerama Islands offer fantastic hard corals, more reef fish than you could count in a week and lots of big fan corals: head to Zamami-jima, a particularly laid-back spot from which to organize a dive with the instructors at Joy Joy
Experienced divers will want to take off for the islands further south, which provide some unsurpassed locations. Note that here you must speak Japanese if you wish to get detailed instruction. There are over fifty different dive spots to choose from around Miyako-jima, with cave dives being particularly popular: start off by hooking up with Good Fellas Club ( 
0980/73-5483, 
fellas@cosmos.ne.jp) or Sugar Cane ( 0980/72-6259), where Matsumoto Fujio speaks some English.
Dotted around the Yaeyama Islands are 360 species of corals and sea anemones, including the rare Ao (blue) and Hama coral reefs off Shirahonoumi on Ishigaki-jima. Among the thousand-odd species of fish you can expect to swim with are barracuda, butterfly fish, redfin fusiliers, spadefish and manta rays in the waters between Iriomote-jima and Kohama-jima. Try Aqua Marine Ishigaki ( 0980/83-1558) in Ishigaki City or Diving School Umicoza ( 0980/88-2434, www.umicoza.com/english ) in Kabira. On Iriomote, both youth hostels can put you in touch with local diving operations, or contact Miyamoto Yasu at Enysea ( 098/085-6568, www.enysea.com ), who speaks good English.
For the ultimate dive experience consider lugging your gear out to Yonaguni-jima to see sea turtles and hammerhead sharks and to explore the enigmatic rocks that some claim are the remains of a sunken civilization.