North Okinawa · KunigamiNo.844★★Open in map →

Yambaru National Park

natureOff the trail — and worth it

The subtropical forest of northern Okinawa is a national park and a World Heritage site, and much of it is closed or guided. Its own centre at Hiji is the one place built to explain the whole of it before you go in.

FromNago Bus Terminal
bus + ~15 min on footRoute 58 bus, then a walk
Get off atOkuma Beach Iriguchi (Route 58 buses, Hentona direction)
On foot
Yambaru National Park

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

The forest itself is quiet, but that is not the point of the centre — it can be busy, and school groups book it in advance. What it gives you is the reason for every restriction you will meet on the roads and trails afterwards, which is the difference between driving through Yambaru and reading it.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

The centre sign at the roadKugel~commonswiki / CC BY-SA 4.0

The centre sign at the roadthe approach from the coast road, with the park emblem on a low stone panel
The entrance zonea hall built with Yambaru timber, hung with figures of the animals that live here
The Forest Theaterfour screens including the floor, so the forest runs underfoot as well as ahead
The Forest Gallerydioramas of ridge and stream, with the sound of the forest shifting from day to night
The lecture room and yuntaku spacepicture books and field guides to sit with, and space used for temporary shows

How to actually get there

Nago Bus Terminal → Okuma Beach Iriguchi (Route 58 bus, Hentona direction).
Turn inland from the coast road and walk uphill to the centre.
Take the theatre film first, then the exhibition rooms, then the field-rules panels on the way out.
Walk back down to the same stop on the coast road for the return bus.

Route 58 bus north from Nago Bus Terminal: Buses run north from Nago Bus Terminal along Route 58 up the west coast. Get off at Okuma Beach Iriguchi and walk inland and uphill to the centre. Services thin out as you go north, so fix your return before you set off.
Return down the coast: The same Route 58 service runs back south towards Nago. There is nothing at the stop itself, so give yourself margin on the walk down rather than cutting it fine, and carry water in summer.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Yambaru means a country of mountains and forest, and the park covers the northern end of Okinawa Island across three villages: Kunigami, Ogimi and Higashi. The hills rise almost straight from the coast, so the rivers are short and steep, and the ridges carry evergreen broadleaf forest dominated by itajii oak. Cloud forest sits near the summits. That density is why the wildlife here is found nowhere else, and why access is managed rather than open. The centre stands at the foot of a wooded slope at Hiji, off the coast road, with the forest beginning directly behind it.

How to enjoy it

Open from ten in the morning until five, with a cooperation fee of 300 yen for junior-high age and above. The film in the theatre runs ten minutes, so an unhurried pass through the exhibits fits inside an hour. Come here before the forest roads rather than after, and read the road-kill notices on the way out — they are the reason the speed limits in the north are what they are.

Background & history

Yambaru was made a national park on 15 September 2016, the thirty-third in Japan, on the strength of the largest subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest in the country. In 2021 the northern part of Okinawa Island was inscribed as World Heritage together with Amami-Oshima, Tokunoshima and Iriomote, listed for biodiversity rather than scenery. The centre at Hiji was rebuilt around that listing and reopened in the summer of 2026 under a new name, the Yambaru World Heritage Conservation Center, keeping the local nickname Ufugi, a word for a great tree.

Before you go

Cash: Entry is by a cooperation fee paid at the desk, charged from junior-high age upward. Guidebooks and road-kill prevention magnets are also offered for a contribution, which goes to the Yambaru fund that pays for conservation work.
Good to know: Closed on Mondays, on public holidays other than Greenery Day and Children's Day, over the new year, and on 23 June, Okinawa Memorial Day. Eating and drinking inside the building is not allowed and the grounds are entirely no-smoking. Typhoons close the centre and the forest roads together.
Another way: By car it is about 50 minutes from the Kyoda interchange on the Okinawa Expressway, running north on Route 58. There is a car park at the centre, with room for two large coaches, and groups are asked to book a week ahead.
After you get off: Okuma Beach Iriguchi is on the coast road. The centre is inland and above it, reached by turning off the highway and following the road uphill; there is no shop on the way, so buy anything you need before you leave the coast.