It's just over a 10-minute walk from Omoromachi Yui Rail Station. This facility combines a museum and an art gallery, and is also known as "Okimyu." Outside, houses from the Ryukyu period and tropical plants are on display. By showing a one-day Yui Rail pass, the museum's permanent exhibition, which costs 530 yen, is now 420 yen. I tried playing the sanshin in the interactive experience room. The museum covers Okinawa's history, nature, and culture from ancient times to the present, and I learned a lot. It was interesting. There is also a cafe and shop.

It is a spectacular structure from the outside close to the San-A Main Place shopping center. The museum building, constructed largely of local Okinawan limestone, was designed with the imagery of Okinawa's gusuku (castles) in mind. A nice museum with lots to show highlighting natural history sections a lot. Be prepared that there is no English translation on the info cards, so you may get lost a little if you do not read Japanese or use translation applications.

... with a lot to See and experience. You are free to touch many things and Look at the very closely. Unfortunately a lot of text is just japanese and there is no english information nearby. Thus you need the audio guide (I guess, not sure if there is one). There is a room in front of the shop where you can try a lot of things by your own, e. g. playing the sanchin (a traditional japanese guitar with three strings). If you're hungry there's a pretty good restaurant on the first floor where we ate an amazing vegan Curry dish for aprx. 7€.

I went to the museum just to see the permanent exhibition, but I didn't have enough time to see everything. It takes you through Okinawa's history from prehistoric times to the present. In addition to the general exhibition section, there were five other sections that dealt with the matter in more detail, but unfortunately I couldn't see everything. The natural history section explained Okinawan creature specimens and their habitats in an easy-to-understand way, and I think even elementary school children would be interested in it. I wish I had at least two hours to see the whole thing.

The museum is accessible by bus or Yui Rail (Omoromachi station, then about 10-15min walk). It is surrounded by the lush greenery of Shintoshin Park, and many shopping centres such as Naha Main Place The ticket price was affordable, and we got a discount when we showed our Okinawa Bus Pass. The main exhibition on the prefectural museum is very well designed, with a timeline from pre-historic times and natural history, to various civilisations, to the WWII era and present day. It really appeals to my interests in physical geography, and to the study of ancient and modern history. There is sufficient wording in English and very detailed visuals and artefacts throughout. Overall, an in-depth story on the origins of the Ryukyus/Okinawa. There is a children-friendly hands-on exhibition on the side (free to enter), and an outdoor model of a traditional Ryukyu which you can enter freely. There is also a collection of a souvenir post card and ink stamp trial to follow around the museum grounds. There is a gift shop, cafe, and library as well. I recommend at least 2 hours duration to look through the main exhibition. We didn't have time to also view the art exhibition side of the museum (which looked very fun) as it was almost closing time at the museum. It is possible to spend half a day here to go through all of the exhibitions at a leisurely pace. A great way understand the origins of this land, to begin or conclude your visit to Okinawa.