Travel Tips: Ins and Outs of Okinawa

Upon arrival at Kadena:

Once you get to the terminal at Okinawa, the MPs will put you (and other travellers) in vans and drive you to Customs and then to the immigration office where you will be stamped into the country. You can not drive yourself because the MPs have to escort you; plus, it would be a $40 cab ride!

Military members do not need to be "stamped in" or out since you can travel with your ID card. They get extremely confused if you show them your ID or orders. So to avoid a 1/2 wait, only show your family's passports (unless you have a passport and want to be stamped in). If your spouse and/or children do not have an AMERICAN passport, they MUST have a VISA! The immigration folks made us wait for 3 hours while they figured out what to do with one family and almost made them leave!

Once immigrations is done, the MPs will drive you back to the terminal and you will need to have your passports stamped by the Kadean Customs officers! After you get that done, you can call the base lodging shuttle at 632-1010 to pick you up and take you to the lodging office. There is a car rental agency right in the lodging reservation room.

Lodging:

We stayed at the Shogun Inn on Kadena. To reserve a room, go to the the Kadena Services lodging website to reserve a room. I got emails from the hotel right away, confirming our reservations. If you are not going to have a car, you will want a room closer to the BX food court area. We stayed in bldg 437 next to a small food court and behind the BX and across from the library. Unforuntately, the last day we were there, they tore out the playground that was there.I am hopeful they were putting a new and improved one in. It was right at Bldg 437 so it was handy for antsy kids.

When making your reservation keep in mind:

• There are no elevators at the lodging so pack lightly or ask for ground level.
• The suites are large with a full kitchen set up.
• There is no WIFI or computer connections in the rooms! They have WIFI in the lobby of the lodging reservation office only! They will tell you that they have free WIFI on the 3rd floor of every building, but it is not connected yet and they are having issues. You can get WIFI at the community center, library and the Banyan Tree (NCO Club open to all ranks).
• The Banyan Tree sells the best Yakosoba on the island!

Other things to keep in mind on Kadena:

• Currently, the base pools are closed except for one lap pool.
• You will need a card to get around on the base and especially off or really deep pockets. The fares start off at $5 and the base is huge!
• I would advise you to go to ITT in the community center and check on trips. They have some good ones. We went to "Manas Beach" one day and it was worth the money. We had an excellent time. They have a cool "glass bottom" boat which is actually more like a submarie that does not fully submerge. When you get to the beach, you will each get $1,000 yen ($10) to spend on some of the things and you will get a free ride on the glass boat and free BBQ lunch. Their idea of BBQ is not ours! They have a lot of things that looked very Korean...no burgers/hotdogs nothing like that! However, amongst the kim bap and rice and noodle and fish dishes....they did have french fries (but soggy) . But they had kayaks, canoes, aqua bikes, snorkeling. It was wonderful.

Some more tips about Okinawa:

• Food and drinks in Okinawa are expensive! We mostly ate on base. Downtown, a beer was 8,000 yen and water was 5,000! You can buy drinks on the many vending machines downtown so take yen if you walk around....cheaper than in the restaurants.
• We also highly suggest you make reservations at Okuma Resort which is a military resort. You will need to drive a couple of hours to it but you can get directions and it is very easy to get to. You will need 7,000 yen (each way) for the toll booth ($7) and they take credit cards but not american cash! Make reservations early. Tell them you want the "Suites Plus" (or better) but not just the suite...too small for a family. They run about $70 a day and they are not glamourus but since you will be sandy and sweaty from playing all day...they don't need to be. All the rooms are a stones throw from the beach! They have several rental items and I love the bikes for 4! They even have a small golf course. Make sure you go up to lookout point! You will want a sunset picture there!
• The restaurant at Okuma is priced very well and for dinner you can get a great meal (including soup and salad) for as little as $5!! We started going, eating the soup and our fill of salad and taking our entree in a to go box for lunch in the room (they have microwaves and a fridge).

Getting home:

When you are leaving Kadena, you will have to "stamp out" of the country once you are manifested at the terminal. That ride is on you and it is about $50 round trip, I am told. You will go to the same immigration office and "stamp out".

However, if you proceed to another Japanese base, such as Yokota, you can "stamp out" of the country there much easier! At Yokota, we took all the passports and made about a 15 minute walk outside the gate (no taxi will go there) and got them all stamped and we were on our way.
HOWEVER, if you get your passport stamped when you arrive at Kadena, you may not have to worry about that 15 minute walk because the SPs at Yokota told us we only had to make the walk because Kadena did not take us back to the terminal (there was an accident at the terminal) and have the SPs stamp something in our passport. Had we made the trip back to the terminal on our day of arrival at Kadena....Yokota's terminal folks could have stamped us out!

MeLissa, Guest Blogger