Lying 1,000 kilometres south of the Japanese mainland, the island has a tropical climate and scenery to match. It is also somewhere with highly distinctive culture and traditions. Visit Shuri castle in the capital, Naha, and you are immediately struck by the Chinese influence visible in gateways and buildings.
The Ryukyu dynasty, which ruled both Okinawa and its neighbouring islands independently of both China and Japan, was acutely conscious of its precarious position between too huge regional powers. Showing a remarkable aptitude for diplomacy, the Ryukyu monarchs managed to cultivate Chinese patrimony just enough to deter the Japanese from getting any expansionist ideas, but without giving away too much to Beijing.
The theory held up for several hundred years, but all good things come to an end and they did for Okinawans in 1609, when around 100 Japanese warships packed to the gunwales with Samurai turned up offshore to bring the island under Imperial authority.
Though a Unesco World Heritage site and ancient-looking, the castle is a 1990s reconstruction. During World War II Okinawa was the only part of the official Japanese mainland to be invaded, and the castle, pressed into service as a command centre by the defenders, was razed to the ground.
The battle of Okinawa cost the lives of around 25 per cent of the civilian inhabitants – around 100,000 people – as well as more than 12,000 US military personnel.
The island was under direct US military rule until the 1970s and is still home to two giant US airbases. The American influence today, however, is most clearly visible in Okinawan food – which has embraced some stateside staples and made them its own.
At Naha’s Makishi market, tins of Spam sit next to slabs covered with fresh fish, and taco rice – all the ingredients of a taco only served on a bed of rice and tasting much better than it sounds – is a national dish.
Such favourites notwithstanding, Okinawans are famously some of the longest-living people on the planet. Their ability to lead productive lives well into their eighties and nineties has spawned many academic studies and diet books.
Endeavouring to discover more about the islander’s ability to hold off Father Time’s advances I travel to the village of Ogimi, population 3,308, and a place that could well have the best longevity statistics of anywhere in the world.
I watched a documentary movie about this. It is really amazing to know that many of them reach the age of 90s and they are still physically fit.