Eat

Okinawan cuisine is distinctly different from that of mainland Japan. Unlike the simplicity of classical Japanese food, which tries to highlight individual ingredients, Okinawa is a champurū (mixed) cuisine, where lots of ingredients can be used in a single dish to create complex, balanced flavors -- aptly enough, the very word seems to originate from the Malay campur. Thanks to its notable Taiwanese influence, Okinawans too proudly proclaim that they use every part of the pig except the squeal and pork makes an appearance in almost every dish, including bits like ears, trotters, and blood which are generally disdained by the Japanese. Even Spam has a distinct following.

Other Okinawan ingredients include vegetables rarely seen on the Japanese mainland such as bitter melon (ゴーヤー gōyā) and purple yam (紫芋 murasaki-imo). Local seaweeds like the gloopy mozuku (モズク), often served in vinegar or mixed into porridge, or fluffy green āsa (アーサ), hiding in soups, often get credit for Okinawans' life expectancy, the longest in the world. Okinawan tropical fruits including mango, papaya, pineapple, dragonfruit and the sour lime-like calamansi (シークァーサー shīkwāsā) are delicious when in season. Dark cane sugar (黒砂糖 kurosatō) is also a popular snack, eaten both as is and made into a vast variety of candies and pastries.

Some dishes worth trying:

• Gōyā champurū (ゴーヤーチャンプルー) is the canonical Okinawan dish, a stir-fry made from goya mixed with pork and tofu. There are lots of other champurūs as well, made with tofu, noodles, fu (gluten), etc.
• Gurukun (グルクン) is no less than the official fish of Okinawa prefecture. Small but tasty and prepared in a variety of ways, even the bones are edible.
• Okinawa soba (沖縄そば) is made with wheat noodles and a pork-based stock. Often served with sōki (ソーキ), stewed pork ribs, and spiced up with a dash of shima-koshō (島胡椒) island pepper or shima-tōgarashi (島唐辛子) chilies.
• Hirayāchī (ヒラヤーチー), an okonomiyaki-like thin savory pancake.
• Raftī (ラフティー) is a side dish consisting of very fatty cubes of stewed pork.
• Shima-dofu (島豆腐) is the Okinawan version of tofu, coarser in texture than the Japanese kind and often served warm.
• Sātāandagī (サーターアンダギー) are deep-fried balls of dough also aptly known as Okinawan donuts.

Okinawan chinmi or "strange foods", eaten as snacks with drinking, include:

• Chiragā (チラガー), the skin from a pig's face; can be very chewy
• Mimigā (ミミガー), sliced pork ears in vinegar; crunchy and nearly tasteless
• Umibudō (海ぶどう) or "sea grapes", a type of seaweed eaten raw dipped into vinegar or soy, mild with a pleasant caviar-like texture
• Sukugarasu (スクガラス), salt-pickled tiny fermented fish, usually pressed onto tofu before eating

Aficionados of American fast food may find Okinawa to be a curious treat, as many American restaurants popped up here to serve the US military long before they made it to the mainland. Most prominent is the presence of A&W outlets serving hamburgers and root beer (with free refills, even), available practically nowhere else in Japan. Blue Seal ice cream is common, with their purple yam soft ice creams worth a lick. Several hybrid Okinawan-American dishes, most of which seem to employ copious quantities of Spam, are widely available:

• Nuuyaru burger (ぬーやるバーガー), a specialty of local fast food chain Jef, is gōyā champurū, cheese and a slice of Spam in a bun. Appropriately enough, the name is an Okinawan pun that translates roughly as "What on earth is this?".
• Pork eggs (ポーク卵 pōku tamago) consists of fried slices of Spam served with ketchup, scrambled eggs and — since this is Japan, after all — rice and miso soup.
• Taco rice  (タコライス tako raisu) is spiced Mexican-style taco meat with cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes, but instead of being in a tortilla, it's on rice.

Drink

The local brew of choice is awamori (泡盛), a notoriously strong rice liquor that can contain up to 60% alcohol, although 30-40% is more common. Unlike Japanese shochu, which is usually prepared from potatoes or barley, awamori is brewed using imported Thai jasmine rice since during the days of the Ryukyu Kingdom, short-grain rice could not be brought in from the main islands. It's most commonly drunk on the rocks or neat.

Awamori keeps well, and when stored more than three years is known as kūsu (古酒, also read koshu in standard Japanese). If the label indicates a specific age, it's 100% at least that old; however, kūsu without a given age is usually a blend of 50% 3-year-old and 50% new awamori.

If awamori is a bit too strong for your taste, try awamori umeshu (泡盛梅酒), a delectable sweet liquor made by infusing Japanese ume plums in awamori and cane sugar. Lemon and coffee-flavored versions of awamori are also available.

Okinawa's local beer Orion is a safer alternative, at least in small quantities. Most larger islands also have their own microbreweries.