The Last Day on Kokusai-dori: Muchi, Soki Soba and a Keyring

Q: Will children eat muchi?

The ginger is strong. Ours would not. Buy one and test before committing.

Q: Is Kokusai-dori walkable with children?

Yes. The covered arcades keep you out of the sun, which makes summer manageable.

Q: How long is the keyring workshop?

Close to an hour for us. Avoid it on a day with a flight to catch.

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The final day of four nights in Okinawa. We left the hotel in Onna and drove down to Kokusai-dori in Naha for souvenirs, lunch and one last thing to do before the flight.

What you'll find here

Whether muchi, the local sweet, works for children (ours: no)
Toraemon — soki soba, and a children's menu
How long the STARLAND keyring workshop actually takes
One last stop in the Naha airport lounge

1. Kokusai-dori and its arcades

Kokusai-dori itself is open to the sky, but step into the covered arcades that branch off it — Heiwa-dori and the market streets — and you are out of the sun, which counts for a lot in August. Both Toraemon and Starland, below, are on Heiwa-dori.

*The arcade. A roof changes the temperature entirely*

*The main street. Busy, this being Obon*

2. Muchi, the local ginger-leaf sweet

In the market we found muchi, a traditional Okinawan sweet.

¥150 each — the price is per piece. It looks like a rice dumpling wrapped in a ginger leaf, and is sold still in the leaf.

*Muchi in their leaves, stacked in the market*

Honestly: the ginger is strong, and children may not take to it. Ours did not.

*Inside — chewy, but the ginger dominates*

📌 If you buy with children: buy one first and test it. Adults tend to like it; children are a coin toss.

3. Lunch: soki soba at Toraemon

Lunch was Toraemon, an Okinawan restaurant built around soki soba.

*Working through the soki soba. The portion was manageable even for a child.*

Soki soba starts at ¥1,000 a bowl — a per-person price — and there is a children's menu, so ordering was straightforward.

📍 Meshi cafe Toraemon — Step Building 1F, 3-2-61 Makishi, Naha, Okinawa / +81 98-863-0702 / 11:00–21:00, closed Tuesdays / on Heiwa-dori, just off Kokusai-dori

*The menu. Large photographs, so children can choose*

*Soki soba — one more bowl before flying home*

And to close the trip out, an Orion beer.

*An Orion at lunch in Okinawa. It would not have felt finished otherwise*

4. The keyring workshop takes close to an hour

The thing our children had been looking forward to: making a keyring at Starland, at ¥2,800 per person for one keyring.

📍 Starland craft workshop — 3-2-62 Makishi, Naha, Okinawa / on Heiwa-dori, a minute off Kokusai-dori / official site

*The fine detail takes time — about thirty minutes at this stage.*

*Being able to take it home the same day was the best part.*

They loved it. However —

it takes a while. Ours took close to an hour.

That is worth knowing in advance. It may not be the thing to do on the day your flight leaves; we ended up working with one eye on the clock.

📌 Do it early in the trip if you can. If it has to be the last day, budget a full hour and work backwards.

5. Finishing in the Naha airport lounge

Last stop: the lounge at Naha. It had to be another Orion.

*The beer taps. One more before boarding*

*Somewhere quiet. The last wait of a family trip is easier here*

With children, the final wait before boarding takes more out of you than you expect. Lounge access turns it into a rest instead. More in making airport lounges work with kids.