Okinawa Travel / How to Join a Zamami Island Whale Watching Tour? Set Sail to Visit the Humpback Whales!

Last week, the author made a special trip to Okinawa, Japan. Besides renting a car to drive around the island for a few days, the most important purpose was to take a boat to Zamami Island to visit the humpback whales that migrate south from the Arctic waters only in winter to escape the cold.

Whale watching at sea is one of Okinawa’s most popular winter travel experiences. After going on the trip firsthand, the author truly wants to recommend it to everyone—it offers a very different kind of fun from the whale watching¹ you can only do at sea in Taiwan during summer. On Okinawa’s deep blue winter sea, encountering these ocean giants that have traveled south from afar is a kind of awe that stays with you for a long time.

Why Is Zamami Island in Okinawa a Whale Watching Mecca?

Zamami Island is located about 40 kilometers west of Naha City and is part of the “Kerama Islands,” officially designated as a national park in 2014. This stretch of sea is known for its extremely high transparency and abundant coral reef ecosystem, and is globally recognized as a diving paradise—but in winter, it has an even more dazzling identity: the winter cradle of the humpback whale.

Every winter (roughly January to March), humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) migrate south from their northern feeding grounds, choosing the warmer waters of the Kerama area to breed and raise their young. During this period, if you’re lucky enough, you can not only see the whales breaching out of the water, but even hear the low, echoing whale songs underwater—a sound that makes a traveler’s soul tremble.

Two Main Ways to Go Whale Watching in Okinawa

In Okinawa, if you want to head out to sea to chase whales, there are basically two routes to choose from:

Option 1: Join a One-Day Whale Watching Tour Directly from Naha City

This is the most hassle-free approach. In Naha’s city area, especially around Tomari Port (泊ふ頭, Tomari Port), many travel agencies offer “Naha Departure One-Day Whale Watching Tours.” The cost usually includes the boat ticket and a whale watching guide. You depart directly from Naha’s port on a whale watching boat, entering the Kerama waters along the way to search for whale traces. No overnight stay on the island is needed—you can go and return the same day.

Best for: Travelers with limited time who just want to experience whale watching once and don’t plan to stay overnight on a remote island.

• Cost: About ¥6,000–¥9,000 JPY (varies by operator and boat type)
• Duration: About 3–4 hours at sea
• Departure point: Naha Tomari Port (reachable on foot or by bus from Naha’s city area)

Option 2: Take a Boat to Zamami Island First, Then Join a Whale Watching Tour There

This is the option the author personally chose and recommends even more.

First, take a scheduled ferry from Naha’s Tomari Port to Zamami Island (the high-speed boat Queen Zamami takes about 50 minutes; the regular ferry Ferry Zamami takes about 2 hours). After arriving on Zamami Island, stay one or two nights, then sign up for a whale watching tour run by a local operator on the island.

There are several advantages to doing this:

1. Departing from the island means a shorter voyage, getting you into the core whale habitat faster, and making seasickness less likely during the boat ride.
2. You can combine it with snorkeling, diving, and other activities, fully enjoying the underwater world of the Kerama Islands.
3. The pace of life on the island is leisurely and simple—riding a bicycle around the island or spacing out on an empty beach is a completely different texture of travel.

Best for: Travelers who want to explore the Kerama waters in depth, love slow travel on remote islands, and are also interested in diving or snorkeling.

• Cost (whale watching departing from Zamami Island): About ¥5,500–¥7,000 JPY
• Duration: About 2.5–3 hours at sea
• Naha Tomari Port → Zamami Island high-speed boat ticket: About ¥3,200 JPY (one way)

Whale Watching Season and Booking Methods

Okinawa’s best whale watching season is concentrated from mid-January to late March, when the number and activity frequency of the whales are at their highest. February is usually the peak, with whale sighting rates reaching over ninety percent. If you go in early January or around April, the sighting probability drops relatively.

Booking methods vary by operator. Most Naha travel agencies or whale watching operators on Zamami Island have official websites and support online advance booking. During peak season (especially the New Year holidays and February), it’s recommended to book one to two weeks in advance to avoid disappointment.

This time, the author chose a local operator on Zamami Island. Although their Japanese-language website was a bit hard to read, the Japanese staff were extremely kind and patient. Even with a slight language barrier in communication, the entire booking process went smoothly.

Essential Precautions Before Setting Out

Chasing whales at sea is romantic, but there are a few things the author wants to remind you of:

• Seasickness: The winter waves in the Kerama waters are not small. If you’re sensitive to rocking, you can buy seasickness medicine at a pharmacy before departure (available at Japanese convenience stores or drugstores).
• Warm clothing: Although Okinawa is known for being warm, facing the sea breeze on deck in winter is actually quite cold. A windbreaker or windproof jacket is essential gear.
• Stay hydrated: The dry sea breeze plus sunlight reflection makes it easy to become dehydrated on deck without realizing it. Remember to bring a water bottle to replenish fluids.
• Whales are not guaranteed to appear: Whale watching tours are essentially wildlife observation, and operators cannot guarantee with one hundred percent certainty that you’ll see whales. However, Zamami Island operators generally offer a guarantee system of “one free re-trip if no whales are seen that time,” slightly reducing the regret of a fruitless trip.

A Scene on the Boat

Having shared so much guide information, let the author tell you about the firsthand feelings on the day of the trip.

That day the sea was rather choppy, and the whale watching boat rocked up and down on the Kerama sea, which was so blue it hardly seemed real. The captain kept in contact with several other whale watching boats via radio, searching the vast sea for the location where whales might appear.

After waiting about forty minutes, an excited announcement suddenly came from the bow of the boat—about two hundred meters off the starboard side, a huge column of water shot up from the sea surface, followed by a massive black back slowly sliding out of the water and then slowly sinking back in.

Almost all the passengers on the boat burst into exclamations at the same time.

Over the next hour or so, that humpback whale (or those whales) appeared and disappeared around us, occasionally rolling its body at a sharp angle, raising that iconic giant tail fin high, tracing a poetic silhouette against the golden winter sun, before slowly sinking back into the deep blue sea.

That scene, even many days after returning to Taiwan, still suddenly replays before my eyes in some absent-minded moment.

Some journeys just have a way of leaving a mark on you.

---

If you’re planning an Okinawa trip this winter, why not add Zamami Island and a whale watching tour to your itinerary—I guarantee it’s a story you’ll want to tell people long after you get home.

Footnotes

1. Marine Ecology / Whales in Taiwan—an introduction to summer whale watching off the coast of Hualien, Taiwan. ↩