drinking in okinawa, japan.
april 2023
let me start by clarifying that i have a “drinking” post for okinawa not because we did a lot of drinking in okinawa, but because we went to okinawa to drink. story time! early in our relationship, james and i were having dinner at a japanese restaurant and it had a japanese beer we’d never heard of or had before - orion. it came in this heavy glass bottle and it was delicious. we liked it better than asahi or sapporo or kirin. and it was from okinawa! ever since then, anytime we see it on a menu, or at the supermarket, we buy it! it’s gotten easier over the years, and there’s even a few places in LA now that have it on draft. LOVE.
japanese tallboys.
fast forward to when we were planning for this trip. the main and first objective was to visit south korea, but i also wanted to go back to taiwan because it has been nearly a decade since my last visit. while looking on the map, we noticed that okinawa is essentially on the way between the two countries.. a quick google search revealed that we could do a tour of the orion brewery.. so we said fuck it, let’s also go to okinawa!
2 chome-2-1 agarie, nago
where orion is brewed - happy park indeed.
orion happy park is located in nago, an hour or two north of naha depending on your route. the brewery tour takes about an hour and is entirely in japanese. luckily, they gave us a small handout in english that had a brief explanation of each of our stops. before touring the brewing facility itself, there was a a little bit of history and i loved the display of all their different bottles, cans, and styles released over the years.
mash tanks.
wert.
bottling.
canning.
kegs.
more kegs.
for your happy time!
after the tour, you get a couple drink tickets each to try some of their beers on tap. unless you’re driving (like i was), in which case you get to choose either their NA beer or soda. i was very jealous that james got to drink super fresh orion from the source!
orion on tap.
non-alcoholic orion.
james and his orion.
even though i didn’t get to drink at orion happy park, there’s still such a huge selection of orion at the local konbini. we definitely grabbed several to enjoy back in our hotel room!
beers at okinawan konbini - so many varieties we can’t get in the US!
el lequio
1 chome-3-3 asato, naha
back in naha, we went to el lequio for cocktails on the recommendation of our bartender from alice back in seoul. i hadn’t even thought about looking up a cocktail bar in naha, so we were very grateful for the recommendation and really enjoyed the creative and delicious drinks and the friendly bartenders.
the beautiful bar at el lequio.
awamori salad: island spirits, cucumber, pineapple, lemongrass, dill.
peanut butter old fashioned: bourbon, the sg shochu mugi, peanut butter, kokuto.
tommy’s okinawa soba: agave, lime, elements of okinawa soba
the real miyagi: the sg shochu mugi, passionfruit, campari, bee’s wax aged.
local gin, that we got to try at alice in seoul as well!
trying awamori, an okinawan liquor.
the whisky secion at el lequio.
ukishima brewing
3 chome-1-1 makishi, naha
orion is everywhere in okinawa. even all the souvenir shops sell orion t-shirts and other paraphernalia. and even though we went to okinawa for orion, we still wanted to make sure to try some other local brews. after dinner on our last night in naha, we stopped in ukishima brewing for a couple of their beers, which were quite good.
“eat, drink, play”
