I just booked a trip in April to Okinawa via United with ANA codeshares to OKA from NRT. Will I need to go through immigration at NRT? Is there a *A lounge on the domestic side if I do have to transit through immigration? I have a few hours between the flights and would enjoy the chance to relax. Also, would be interested in any comments or suggestions for Okinawa. I will be traveling solo and on a budget so no rental cars or fancy resorts. I am an experienced traveler and love Japan (but don't speak much Japanese). I like nature, culture and some walks on a beautiful beach. I'd like to take some day trips to other islands. Don't want to visit military monuments or enter the Amerika town stuff. And what about those habu snakes - am I likely to see one?

I've never been to Okinawa, but it is customary to go through immigration at the first airport in your destination country. You skip immigration only if you are flying on to a third country without leaving the secure area.

Yes. ANA domestic lounge is landside. It has some of the best showers in the airport. It can get a bit crowded, but it's better than being in the gate area. Don't go through security until you have to. There's nothing of interest around the gates. That's a shame. I'd recommend renting a car.
Look in your guidebook for Taketomi and Ishigaki. You might want to do more than a daytrip. You're most likely to see one in a bottle of booze. Snakes generally get out of the way of humans - but habu have a nasty habit of dropping onto people from trees.

This is mostly true in Japan, but there are a couple of "domestic" flights to/from NRT that work like "international" flights, in that you are "in transit" at NRT and then go through immigration and collect your bags at the destination. As far as I know, the only current examples are JL NRT-NGO and DL NRT-NGO/KIX.

OP: in addition to immigration, you will also need to collect your bags and go through customs at NRT, then re-check them at domestic check-in for your connecting flight.

The ANA domestic lounge is pretty decent as far as amenities go, but much more hectic and significantly lower-grade than the international lounges at NRT.

ALL JL NRT-NGO flights are considered as domestic flights now.

thanks for the replies. I've transited through NRT before but couldn't remember going through immigration. The last few visits the lines have been rather daunting but they do move pretty quickly. I don't drive anymore having lived in NYC for 30 years and don't dislike public tranport. I find Japan is particularly well equipped in that area but do get the impression that Okinawa is less so. It's pretty amazing how little info there seems to be about making a trip there. I'd like to go to Ishigaki to see iriomote (though I have heard about the habu hanging from the trees in the mangrove swamps). It looks beautiful. Does anyone have any suggestions for places to see or foods to eat ??

http://wikitravel.org/en/Okinawa

Okinawa is extremely well equipped for tourism, it's just that the vast majority of visitors are Japanese and few foreigners make it that far. I keep waiting for an LCC with a clue to take a punt on direct flights from elsewhere in Asia...

This advice is probably a little late to be of any use, but it would make a lot more sense to fly directly to Ishigaki, which has lots of direct flights from the main Japanese hubs. Flying there from Okinawa won't be cheap.

And unless you've planning to tackle the cross-Iriomote jungle trail, I wouldn't worry more about habu than I would about rattlesnakes in California.

Okinawan cuisine is quite distinct from what you get on the mainland:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Okinawa#Eat

... which makes it extremely well equipped for Japanese package holiday tourism. However, it doesn't have the density of scheduled bus and train services that many tourists come to associate with Japan, based on their visits to more heavily populated areas. The same can be said of other remote regions, of course.

Thanks. I feel a little more knowledgeable today than last week. I found a site with lots of you tubes showing beautiful beaches and I spent some time at Rakuten looking at hotels. The prices are pretty scary - our dollar is worthless there - but reading the details gave me considerable information about bus services from the airport and local depots. I just knew there had to be a way to get around without a car. It will be interesting to see the package tour set. I just went to Honolulu for the first time and was amused to see the fried bliss expressions of the Japanese tourists as they wandered about Waikiki looking like a pack of wealthy hippies. Anorexic hippies at that . . .we Americans are so fat. I've run across several mentions of naturalistic religious rites on some uninhabited islands and got to add some sea snakes to my snake phobia. Any more comments about the food? I used to watch a soap opera set in Okinawa called Churasan. They were always talking about the delicious food.

If you like fresh fish, fatty pork on irregular noodles, seaweed that pops in your mouth, kickin' moonshine, and fry-ups with lots of egg, bitter melon and whatever else is in season... you'll do just fine in Okinawa. Lord knows, I do.

As in other island communities (e.g. Hawaii) where scarce land and severe weather put pressure on the food supply, the arrival of cheap, storable, calories in the form of SPAM had a significant impact on Okinawan cuisine. Some guidebooks celebrate that. In itself, that should tell you a lot.

The OP will need to leave him/herself plenty of time if he/she plans to take public transport in Okinawa. The buses are slow and the trains, well you'll be waiting a long, long time.