evergrn

I rented from Times. They were good. I wanted to ease into things by not renting the car immediately upon arrival, but rather waiting a couple days before picking up the car. I rented from a location near the airport so that I could drop off my car and catch their shuttle bus to the airport on return. I chose a hotel close to the monorail (so I could hop on the monorail at the airport upon arrival and go straight to the hotel), spent the first day in Naha, then took taxi from the hotel to Times for the pick-up. Then had the car for the remaining days of our stay on the island during which we went everywhere else.

Driving in Okinawa is really not much different than driving most elsewhere in Jpn. Learning to drive on the wrong side is no easier/harder there than Kyushu or Hokkaido (of course it's not crazy like Tokyo or Osaka). I would certainly do it again. Driving in Naha was a bit hairy, but fairly easy elsewhere. One thing to note is that, although the island appears small, it takes a long time to go a relatively short distance. It took a good hour (possibly more) to go from the airport to Chatan. The only fast way to go up and down the island is via the expressway. I heard that gets crowded in the afternoon, though, so keep that in mind. If you want to take the scenic route along the coast from Chatan up past Nago, you're talking a couple hours.

Anyways, in Okinawa, I think you pretty much have no choice but to rent a car... unless you want to do bus tours or just hang out in Naha.