Shikinaen Garden

識名園（しきなえん）

A Ryukyu royal villa garden of ponds and pavilions

Hours

Apr-Sep 9:00am-5:30pm, Oct-Mar 9:00am-5:00pm (last entry 30 min before). Closed Wednesdays

Tickets

Adults about 400 yen

Address

421-7 Maji, Naha

Built in 1799 as a villa for the Ryukyu royal family, it also hosted envoys from China. A round stone bridge crosses the pond, and a tiled-roof pavilion faces the water. It mixes Chinese garden layout with Ryukyuan coral stone walls and red tiles. The war flattened most of it, but it has been rebuilt and is now a World Heritage site, and for somewhere so close to the city it stays surprisingly empty.