Ryukyu Glass Village — Attraction in Itoman

Ryuku Glass village is tucked away from the hustle & bustle of the city, without being too far away a drive. The compound has a simplistic yet tranquil environment about it.

We had a lost of respect & enjoyed watching the professionals make glass in the open compound, showcasing their years of apprenticeship and training.

Within the indoor (air-conditioned) area of the village, there were a lot of glass souvenir options to choose from. The glasses there were all handmade and each had their distinct differentiable feature even though they were of supposedly the same design. No two glasses were made exactly the same, which we enjoyed.

Despite being a glass village, it is an extremely family friendly place. There were glass making and painting class options that we did not opt for but seemed popular based on the number of people we saw waiting for the class to start.

Upon purchasing your glass pieces, the staff were extremely efficient and professional about packing it, wrapping them carefully and placing them in boxes, ready for gifting to your friends and family back home. They even have a cafe serving good coffee and blue seal ice cream if you need a break from all your shopping!

The glass making culture in Okinawa has deep history, we really enjoyed the glass village and would recommend anyone to drop by if you are visiting Okinawa. (Estimated visiting time without glass workshops would be...

If you want to make your own Ryukyu glass in Okinawa, this is a place to go. We had a rental car, and the drive was 30 minutes from the Naha terminal. We walked in, signed up for the Ryukyu glass workshop, and paid for the glass types that we chose. plus shipping since we were staying in Naha only for a half day. There was no line, and we could join the workshop right away.

These glasses can be a nice souvenir to take home with you. The workshop was very simple, and all the difficult part was handled by the experts. Still, it was a lot of fun. You can feel the heat while you work on your glass and see how it is being made. The only thing to note is that it takes three days to cool off, so you cannot simply take it with you once it is done. They will ship it within Japan for 1500 yen, and some countries close by for a higher shipping fee. It would be best if you are staying in Okinawa to pick them up or stay in Japan to receive your glass later. We were lucky that we had one more week to stay in Japan, and the package arrived after 4 days.

Other than the workshop, there are two souvenir shops. They can be something small for your friends and family or something very fancy and expensive. Some of these glass work was made in Vietnam, and some in Okinawa. There was a sign to explain this in the store, so you might want to pay close attention to where it is made if it...

Interesting place to go see the Okinawa based glassware which are both distinct and beautiful.

They have an open section where you can see glass being made which is super interesting. Also a main shop where you can buy all types of art and kitchenware, however the prices are not cheap. Inside that shop is an ice cream shop selling Blue Seal (only sold in Okinawa) which was worth it - they have seating inside and some benches outside.

Right at the back there is an outlet shop selling imperfect glass ware at 20-50% reductions. Note though that some of the pieces being sold there were actually made in Vietnam which seems bizarrely counter intuitive to the whole village.

Worth going to but...