I have been going to Japan for a decade now, but until very recently, I had never made it off the mainland. At the tail end of a month-long trip to the Land of the Rising Sun in November, I decided it was time to I finally check out the country’s tropical paradise, so I booked six nights at the Hoshinoya Okinawa. The idea was to relax by the pool, snorkel, read and chill after all of the sightseeing and moving around I had just wrapped up in Tokyo, Hakuba, Toyama, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka.
I was compelled to pull the trigger and make the booking when I saw the (slightly insane) offer of 67% off of stays of six nights or longer. The offer maxes out at 67% but builds progressively for three nights or more and what can sometimes be a $800+ room came down to a much more reasonable sub $300 rate. The catch is that the booking is nonrefundable and while the trip was vaguely threatened by the tail end of some typhoons, it was never really in doubt that we would make it.
We spent two nights in Naha before catching a cab north and I was shocked by the fare which came out to be just 9,000 yen ($58.37) for over an hour ride. We were warmly welcomed at the entrance, our luggage was whisked away, and we stepped inside the reception building to begin our week at the tropical paradise that is the Hoshinoya Okinawa.
First impressions of the Hoshinoya Okinawa
While many high-class hotels try to take your breath away when you enter the reception area for the first time, the Hoshinoya Okinawa is the first time that a reception area has successfully done so for me.
You’re first struck by the mausoleum-like structure of the outside, and when you walk through the automatic doors, the quiet, dark and extremely sparse interior makes for a true jaw-dropping moment. As the adage goes, a picture says a thousand words so have a peek below. It was made even more striking by the fact that we were the only ones inside.
Checking in was fast and seamless. The reception staff provided us with a selection of maps of the hotel and of the surrounding area as well as additional information about the hotel. Then, we were whisked away in a golf cart to our room. The entire hotel is walled in with a tall, concrete wall which brings to mind the Jurassic Park movies. While striking, it was simultaneously a bit off putting and almost ominous, a design choice that I didn’t fully understand.
The Haru Suite at the Hoshinoya Okinawa
I booked the Haru suite at the Hoshinoya Okinawa to take advantage of the wide balcony which overlooks the ocean and is constructed so that from the couch you don’t see any other rooms, hotel building, or guests unless someone is standing on the beach directly in front of your room. Upon entering the room, on the right hand side is the sitting room and kitchenette, facing the garden and on the left side is the bedroom, bathroom and the balcony facing the ocean.
The kitchenette is equipped with a kettle, Nespresso machine and microwave as well as a full sized refrigerator and freezer. The fridge is stocked with minibar items and although the prices are quite reasonable given the weak yen (around $2 for a beer), it seems like such a swanky place could make some of the basic items free. There was also a basket nearby with mosquito spray, an electronic mosquito repeller, body mist, and a flashlight. I was a bit worried about getting eaten alive given all the mosquito-related paraphernalia, but apart from a bite or two on just one night as the sun was setting, I didn’t notice any mosquitos.
The bathroom was stocked with more toiletries than you could shake a stick at including Hoshinoya-branded face masks and bath salts. The toilet was a Toto (of course) and the deep soak tub was quite comfortable although there was a shower option if you prefer that.
The beds, which are Japanese futon style on the floor, are comfortable and when we called for some harder pillows, the front desk quickly sent memory foam alternatives. On the beds were two sets of pajamas for each guest: a pale purple pair for use inside the room only (the hotel’s literature was quite insistent on this point) and a blue pair for use outside the room on the hotel’s grounds. Almost every guest I saw was making use of the blue pajamas and when I finally donned them to go to breakfast, I felt like I had joined a cult. While I appreciate not having to do laundry when you are switching from swimsuit to cult pajamas, long sleeves and long pants would not have been my first choice for a climate like that of Okinawa. The staff are also in similar garb, except theirs is either mostly blue with a touch of orange or vice versa.
Even the nicest hotels in the world have hiccups and the Hoshinoya Okinawa was no exception. The first issue was that the minimum air conditioning setting was 22 degrees Celsius (about 72 degrees Fahrenheit) which was simply not going to cut it for steamy Okinawa. When we called the front desk and asked them to send someone to change the setting, there was initially some pushback and the receptionist even said that 22 degrees was the lowest temperature. After a bit of pushback, had a staff member in the room a few minutes later on the phone with the engineer trying to fix it. It took about 15 minutes for her to figure it out but eventually she unlocked the system and allowed me to set the temperature at 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) for the rest of the trip.
The second issue with the room that had a negative impact on the stay was actually a three-part issue. The door to the bathroom didn’t close very well, the motion detector was extremely sensitive and when you would make the slightest move in bed, the ballroom hallway light would turn on and take many minutes to turn off.
The food and drink offerings at the Hoshinowa Okinawa
The Hoshinoya Okinawa presents a bit of a conundrum when it comes to dining in that it is not walking distance from any restaurants and only has one restaurant, which offers a Sicilian-Okinawan omakase option. Now, I’m sure it was great, but at over $100 per person, I didn’t really feel like Italian food while I was in Japan. What did we do instead? Well, we hoofed it to Lawson and 7-11 and the local grocery store to have our lunches and dinners most nights.
One night we went to an Izakaya which specialized in pork shabu shabu and one night we went to the adjacent steakhouse which is managed by Hoshinoya but nominally separate from the hotel. The steakhouse was fair, and oddly enough the most enjoyable aspect was the super fun, cloud shaped beer glasses which were thin as can be and a delight to drink out of. The steak was nothing special, although perhaps it was because I chose the cheapest option on the menu rather than some swanky cut of wagyu.
We also had lunch at the Banta Cafe which, as with the steakhouse, is kind of part of the hotel, and kind of isn’t. There, they do small bites like croque monsieur, ice creams and smoothies. We had an Okinawa-style pizza with bitter melon, spam and tomato on shokupan bread which was… interesting. It reminded me a lot of elementary school cafeteria pizza. Whether that is a good or a bad thing is up for you to decide.
We went for breakfast one morning as well and ordered one Japanese breakfast and one Sicilian breakfast. They were beautifully presented, but again, nothing particularly special or delicious, though the fruit selection was quite good. At more than 4,000 yen per person, we had much better hotel breakfasts elsewhere in Japan for half that.
The common areas at the Hoshinoya Okinawa
The pool at the Hoshinoya Okinawa is kept nice and warm and has a great view over the ocean. There is plenty of seating and some of the best spots have superb and unobstructed views of the sea. If you are feeling a bit peckish, you can go inside the second reception area which has a coffee machine, tea, and snacks. I highly recommend the sweet potato slices which were so sweet and flavorful, I simply could not believe there was nothing in them but a potato. In the evening, you can go in and sample the Okinawa specialty awamori, a distilled alcohol made of rice, much closer in flavor and strength to shochu than sake.
There are also cultural performances in the evening and the night that we went, there was a karate (native to Okinawa) performance. This is where you can also book any side trips our tours (I did a great snorkel trip with an outside dive operator) and if you’d like to bring a piece of the Hoshinoya home with you, there are Hoshinoya toiletries, keychains, bags, clothing and other tchotchkes for sale. In the yoga studio, there was an afternoon “bubble tea” service, another of the free activities and it was lovely to have some tea and sweets while gazing out at the sea. Very zen. The common areas were quite well maintained for the most part (it is Japan, after all) with the exception to the stairs leading up to our room complex which were suffering from some kind of water damage.
The beach is mostly sandy but if you want to get in the water you have to be careful as there are large areas of sharp and slippery rocks where the water starts. At low tide, there is plenty of room to walk for five or ten minutes down the beach, something we did every day.
The service at the Hoshinoya Okinawa
The service at the Hoshinoya was a bit like at an Apple Store. There seemed to be three or four employees roaming around the grounds for every visitor. Still, there was something of a hands off approach from the staff. If you are used to asking for things at the hotel (assistance with luggage, rides to and from your room in the golf cart, etc.), you will be quite pleased with the service. If you are a bit more reticent to ask for help and wish that things were offered a bit more readily (think luxury hotels in Thailand or Vietnam, for instance), you might feel that the service is somewhat lacking. At every turn, however, the staff was exceedingly polite.
When we checked into the hotel, reception told us that housekeeping would come every day to tidy but a true clean would only be done on the third day of our six-day stay. They attributed it to sustainability efforts. The daily tidy was quite thorough but did not include any sweeping or vacuuming and at a beach destination when sand is getting trekked in all over the place, that seems essential so perhaps the hotel would consider this approach (especially since a quick sweep does not have any negative impact on sustainability measures!)
The bottom line
Although we got unlucky with the weather (the majority of the days were cloudy and/or rainy) we still had an enjoyable stay at the Hoshinoya Okinawa, though given the lack of restaurants and nearby activities as well as the fact that snorkeling from the beach was somewhat subpar, I don’t feel the need to return at any point in the near future.
The guest types ran the gamut from the very young to the elderly and it would be a great romantic getaway as well. Though the service was polite but bordered on standoffish and there were a few minor issues with the hardware, the property is quite stunning and I heartily recommend it to anyone looking for a luxury tropical stay on Okinawa.
