Okinawa: Cape Zanpa Lighthouse

If you ever visit Okinawa and aren't familiar with its local cuisine, I highly recommend you seek out a few places to try some of the most popular dishes. These include but aren't limited to Goya Champuru (a bittermelon dish) and Okinawan Soba which happens to be my absolute favorite! Go to a few different places because there are always slight differences between what you get. Today we started off lunch at one of the famous locations in Ginowan called GON soba. From what I understand there might be a few other locations as well.

GON soba sign by the road.

Me by the front door. I didn't take pictures inside and of the food because it was a very local oriented restaurant and I wanted to be respectful. That being said, don't feel shy to take pictures! Just be mindful that Japanese people don't often want to be captured in other peoples photos.

The food inside was absolutely amazing! It was a great way to start my Okinawan Soba binge and I would definitely go back if I ever have the chance. After lunch we headed to today's post's main attraction, Cape Zanpa Lighthouse.

Being that Okinawa is a string of hundreds of islands off the main island of Japan, it has a lot of ocean and cliff side oriented locations to visit. Cape Zanpa is definitely one of the more popular ones but not over crowded. It should be noted that we did make it there later in the day when most people had already left and the ticket booth to walk up to the top of the light house was already closed. We could still see everything just couldn't enter the lighthouse. I believe tickets were 200 yen which is around $2 right now. Regardless of whether or not you buy the ticket, the location is worth the drive by itself.

Blue Seal is arguably Okinawa's most famous Ice Cream and can be found all throughout the island. Here was a food truck selling out by the lighthouse.

As you can see the location was stunning and also claims a beautiful spot to watch the sunset if you are willing to stay till then. The lighthouse sat on a cliff side where you could look out over the ocean and nearby tide pools. We even saw someone surfing out in the waves but I'm not sure if its recommended as it seemed like a rather dangerous place to be swimming. 

The cliff side view from right under the light house.

Another attraction nearby to note was the cute little goat pen right next to the free parking lot and bathroom. People were paying the stand in charge of it for a small cup of carrots and the goats were loving it. They looked happy and well fed. There were even some small "kids" in the pen frolicking around and climbing the rocks.

Overall it was a great thing to see and was time well spent. Add this to your list if you want to see the ocean, lighthouse, have some blue seal while you watch the waves, and feed some cute goats.