Hyakuna Garan

Hyakuna Garan sits on the Hyakuna shore in Tamagusuku, built in a style it calls wa-ryu, Japanese and Ryukyuan together. All 16 rooms face the ocean, and from them you watch the sun come up behind Kudaka-jima, which Okinawans call the island of the gods, with Ojima off to the side. Open-air baths called Hojoan look over the sea and the eroded rocks, and you check which one is free on the tablet in your room and go when you like. The Michelin Guide has given the hotel one Key three years in a row.

Dinner is a kaiseki of local, seasonal food served in a long room laid along the water, facing the sea that people here call their field. There's no pool, so a February stay centres on the baths and the view. The hotel lists rental bicycles. The south-coast road past Hyakuna climbs into the Chinen hills toward Sefa-utaki. It makes a good first climb of the day before breakfast.