Discover the ancient capital of Okinawa!

The Shuri castle site dates back over 500 years and is a UNESCO world heritage site. Burnt down several times due to war and political intrigue, today the castle site has been rebuilt and features impressive walls and gates, beautiful gardens and amazing views across the whole of the island. 

Join James and Becka as we walk and talk through the history, stories and key features of Shuri Castle.

Okinawa

Very nice tour guides
I found that James spoke very fast..perhaps he could slow down a bit
I don't know if I grasped everything
At the end .they asked for questions..in the next breath said..well ok..we will sign off
There was little or no interest in the people in the group
I was somewhat disappointed

Beautiful tour, lots of great commentary.


James and Becka were knowledgeable hosts with a clear reverence for the Okinawan culture.  Very beautiful destination!

Beautiful place. Looking forward to seeing more

Happy, chatty guides gave very interesting background information. Stunning location, glad to hear the renovation work is progressing.

Second time to do this tour, new info, thanks for great trip. Develop more in Okinawa.

Great tour thank you both..Very informative and just the right length of time.. It was lovely to see Okinawa.. It would be great if ye did a tour on the whole martial arts aspect. I would also love to see an Art tour with traditional Sumi-e ink painting in the future sometime.

Stayed up late to view the Share Castle and am glad that I did.  Quite a bit of history was included in the tour.  Thank you James and Becka. 

Very pleasant early morning stroll through the castle and grounds.  Thank you. 

A nice tour. James and Becka gave us decent information about the castle and about Okinawa in general. Personally, I'd love to learn more about the island or Japanese culture in general such as food, customs, music, art, the language so I'll definitely look out for any future tours from these two. Pleasant, friendly and professional guides who dealt with some of the more bizarre questions in a polite way. People are funny, honestly, I think some of the other travellers here think they deserve the trip to be catered to their *specific* preferences. I've seen other guides be told not to 'talk to the camera' so much so it really just depends on who's on the tour, but people would do well to remember these tours are free (bar donations) and delivered by individuals with expertise in the country or city's history and touring/guiding in general. 

Really enjoyed the tour! Really interactive and chatty and has given me a desire to travel to Okinawa in the future. I can't wait for the next tours they are planning around the city!

Had a wonderful view of the Castle in Okinawa and they were very skilled and knew answers to all the questions that passed. Will most certainly look for future tours (Market and culture would be fun)

Great tour - would have loved to see inside a real castle but hey ho Covid eh? Thanks for what you were able to show us - lovely escape.


An enjoyable tour with lots of background information, well done James and Becka!  

Really enjoyed the tour.  Friendly and knowledgeable guides.  I did learn a lot and the scenery was gorgeous.  I will definitely do more with them.  Worth getting up for. Thanks

Fantastic tour lovely seeing the castle and the gardens can't wait to see if other tours

Brilliant tour guys. Lots of information about a place in Japan that I haven't been to visit yet! 

Interesting tour with plenty of varied information.
Agreed the signal wasn't the best but you are a way away !
So sad that the inner sanctuary had been burnt down (yet again).
So good that they're working hard to rebuild, though a few years before we can enjoy.          Thank you & continue enjoying Life.

Enjoyed the tour, having two guides seemed to work well. Thanks for all the information given. So sad about the devastating fire. It will be a wonderful place to visit when renovated.

Thoroughly enjoyed this tour, very informative, look forward to more trips with this couple 

Great tour with lots of information led by knowledgable and friendly hosts. Thankyou

Wonderful tour this morning. Great guides

Great guides!Very interesting explanations, it has been fantastic this visit to the okinawa castle, I’ll be waiting for new tours in Okinawa. good job!

Wasn’t really worth getting up early for! We didn’t learn very much or see very much. Quite basic info and found more info online. The flower festival was on but that wasn’t really mentioned and saw very little of the flower displays! Not enough here at present to make this really interesting as fire had damaged the main building and it is currently being rebuilt.

Very interesting look at current Japanese life 

Becka and James, thank you very much for that wonderful tour! Very interesting, looking forward to upcoming tours :)

tour very informative and interesting

Angela H.

Excellent passionate tour guiders

Very knowledgable and friendly couple. Spoke clearly and deliver the tour at a good pace. However, I would have liked to see them more on camera in oder to feel the contact between us and them 

Great team work, I really enjoyed your tour and finding out about so many new things. 

A very interesting tour, lots of opportunities for postcards. A very good first tour

Well done excellent information and interesting thank you

Fabulous tour with a fabulous tour guides.

they did a great job.  worked well together


I love it when a tour causes me to lean into my laptop to see, hear, and learn more. My fascinate forced me to google pickled snake. What a surprise to see one! Yuck!! Thanks for a fabulous and interesting tour. See you soon on the next one.

James and Becka were good together as a team.  Both the video and audio were good on the tour.

Don’t know if it was my connection,but about 15 minutes into the program there was terrible echoing. Could not understand the guides at all. I don’t care for when they are answering questions during the tour. Should wait til the end. The little bit I heard they didn’t answer the questions all that well.

It was difficult to understand them. I think it would have been helpful to have them filmed while they "spoke to us," as other guides have done.

Interesting tour. Thank you, James and Becka!

Really cool and interesting tour. James and Becka are lovely.

Super interesting tour. Looking forward to more...

Really enjoyed the tour, have not been to Okinawa yet but have visited Japan many times. Have family in Tokyo, 3 Japanese grandkids. One called Ryuku!! Hope you can do a market tour someday, Thanks again.

James and Becka are a great duo for a tour! Very knowledgeable of the history and very attentive to questions in the chat. Can’t wait to see more from these 2. 

thanks so very much. I really enjoyed it there. You answered all of my questions but Iasked the most lol  You misunderstood my question about typhoons and what they are like. I didn't ask what you did after finding a safe place, which was interesting except I didnt know where you went to be sa fe. A basement, anywhere special? I asked what a typhoon was and what one would experience? It must be very scary expecially the first few, and I have no idea what a typhoon is. We don't have them in Canada' By the way, I am sure that  some will be nasty. The very best of guides have gotten some awful comments and English is a second language at least for them. I am very sorry if that happens. Just know that you did your best and that it was quite interestsing. More on Shintoism would be great like a certain celebration explained a bit. I asked if the other was pantheism, is it  although I can't remember what you said the religion was. We have a beautiful Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre open to everyone and being of British descent, one is welcome but you can feel them holding back. there was a demonstation of a tea ceremony, and here, men can participate and learn it, but the tea was just horrible. From my viewopint, I can't imagine creating a beautiful ceremony and ending up with an awful product representing part of the mystery of the ceremony. It seems rather like going to Cordon Bleu and showing off a burnt and collapsed soufflé . It would be wonderful if you could comment on that kind of thing and  if you celebrate you celebrate this yourself?the Japanese in  Toronto tend to be United Church (a unique combination of all Protestant churches, but then not everyone would give up being say Presbyterian. Of course. lol why would you want to stay there? It's so very different from  European and North American ways of life. I can see it for awhile, always everything is amazing when new and then it seems rather like the movie Lost in Translation. Also  it is very hard to learn  Japanese and they way they do business is very different from here. My brother was in the marine division of a very large Japanese company, recreation division and became head of Canada, and when they offered a really great retirement package, as they dont want older people  in their businesses, they were shocked that he was going to leave and he was offered a lot more money everything, but he had had to travel internationally almost every week for years, and also he said that he just couldn't handle how they did business any

Very nice tour. We learned a lot about Okinawa and the castle. Gave really good insight to the island. A place we hope to visit someday, in person. Thanks for the tour!

very interesting  James voice is well suited for this work

Tour was interesting and informative. The sound was great but the picture quality was slightly cloudy making picture taking difficult. I did refresh but no improvement. 

They do such an amazing job. I’ve never been to Okinawa so this was so exciting to experience. I watched with my family. 

Great information about that area.  Lovely area to visit.

Fantastic tour with history and lots of every day info as well! I felt like I was there with James and Becka Thanks so much! 

What I could hear sounded very interesting but audio kept breaking up. Looked like a fascinating location. Will try again another day.

Can't wait to see more tours from you, I really enjoyed this one. Absolutely love interaction when asking questions. Great tour, Thank you James and Becka. 

Very interesting place to explore. 
James and Becka are great storytellers.

Very knowledgeable and good use of camera. Careful to respond to participants questions. Thank you 

Good commentary from James and outstanding camerawork by Becca -- smooth and steady on both counts.  Looking forward to their next tour.

First tour with this equipment, so some glitches expected. Would advise when stopping for an extended period to talk about history, etc.,  instead of standing in one place, pan the camera. Visuals are so important to the guests!

What a great introduction to the island of Okinawa! Such a beautiful landscape and history with ties to various countries in regards to WWII. I look forward to more tours and was appreciative that James and Becka took suggestions for future tours.

Becka and James did a great job of balancing the wonderful views with cultural and historical context. Please do more tours!

Great first tour. So interesting. It’s lovely to visit somewhere that I no longer have the stamina for. (I don’t think I could cope with the long flight from the UK 🙁)  So it was a lovely trip for me! 

James & Becka had excellent knowledge of the Shuri Castle history and Okinawa. Great guides to tour with!!

I enjoyed visiting the gardens & palace. I didn't know there had been a devastating fire so I thought there would be more to see but enjoyed what I saw (and was glad they climbed all the stairs for us).

Nice to see an aerial view of Okinawa and the Shuri  Castle  Great to be able to join Virtual trips and see so many places which I have not plan to visit and this gives all of us an insight into so many wonderful countries .Would love to join a saki tasting tour and also  see some beautiful shrines ,gardens and  perhaps a foodie tour.

I arrived too late to know what was happening. I'm not able to provide a review this time.

Very knowledgeable and the pair made an excellent team in the tour. Best tour I’ve taken so far!

Wonderful first trip to Okinawa.  These two work so well together. This was a fun and informative tour.

Itt was a good, informative tours. I enjoyed it. The connecting was not always perfect but the guides were perfect.

Thank you for your brilliant trip. I visited the castle in 2018 so it was good to see you it is being redeveloped. You two are naturals at this.

very informative with beautiful views. Really enjoyed the tour.

A very enjoyable tour with wonderful guides, James and Becka. Very organized and interactive with time allowed for Q & A at the end of the tour as not to distract from the subject matter. So much knowledge gain in under an hour. Loved seeing the little school kids walk through while we were touring too.

Great tour, learned alot but signal went out a few times so missed some information

I really enjoyed this tour with James & Becka & plan to do more with them.

Shuri Castle: Legacy of the Ryukyu Kings

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