Uruma

Uruma was born in 2005 from four towns, and each still has its own character. Ishikawa in the north is bullfighting country, with a free festival bullfight each October, and it also holds Bios Hill and the trails of Mount Ishikawa. Katsuren keeps the castle and the mozuku farms, and Yonashiro faces the Kaichu Doro.

Katsuren grows about 40 percent of Okinawa's mozuku, and Okinawa grows more than anywhere else in Japan. The seaweed turns up everywhere, kneaded into noodles at Kaichu Chaya and stirred into Shima Parlor's winter chowder on Hamahiga. The city's soba shops are worth the detour too, from Fukaki Soba's additive-free fish broth in Uken to the goat soba at Yagi to Soba Taiyou in Ishikawa.

For riders, the Kaichu Doro and its four islands make a full day out, with a flat causeway and short bridges before Miyagi's climb and the turnaround at Ikei. Sea Kayak Okinawa Kamome no Jonathan rents cross bikes and e-bikes at the causeway's midpoint.