If you’re traveling to Okinawa, be sure to make time to explore Naha’s Kokusai-dori Shopping Street! It’s one of Naha’s liveliest shopping streets, lined with all kinds of souvenir shops, drugstores, restaurants, and unique little stores. There are also plenty of Okinawa-exclusive products to browse for at your own pace. The street is quite lively during the day and early evening, making it a great place to stroll, shop, and look for souvenirs.
However, we stayed out fairly late this time and thought we could keep shopping at a leisurely pace, but many stores had already closed! Walking down the street and seeing one storefront after another with its shutters down, we realized that not every store in Okinawa stays open late. Luckily, Don Quijote was still open, so we could keep shopping. It has snacks, cosmetics and drugstore items, household goods, and all kinds of Japanese products, making it the perfect place to stock up at the end of a trip!
If, like me, you enjoy shopping and buying souvenirs at night, I recommend coming to Kokusai-dori a little earlier so you don’t miss the stores you want to visit. If you stay out until late at night, there are far fewer places where you can continue shopping! Don Quijote, though, lets you shop until the very last minute, and you still can’t help wanting to buy a few more things. Sure enough, when traveling in Japan, the shopping itinerary never truly ends!
