Our tour guide, before we got into Naha, asked everyone if we’d be visiting one of the markets because there was a store we could exchange our tour stickers for a free gift at. After some searching I realized it was the market near my hotel and the one I frequented often. The store was called Umichurara and it’s located on the second floor of it’s building. You have to go inside the souvenir store and then up the stairs and you’ll find an aquarium gift shop.
What you need to do is to take your sticker or aquarium ticket stub to a staff worker. They’re towards the back at the check out. They will give you a coin and motion you towards a gacha machine. Use the coin in the gacha then take the paper from the gacha ball and give it to the staff to figure out your prize. No matter what you’ll get a free post card. Mine was of some whale sharks.
My prize was kind of sad. It was a coupon for the cafe. Not like a free drink. I got 50 yen off. Which is the equivalent of about 50 cents. I didn’t want to waste my walk there so I headed to the cafe.
I would note that the grand prize would have been a nightmare for me to get home if I had won that. The grand prize is a gigantic whale shark plush. There is no way I would’ve gotten it home. I was already struggling to get all the souvenirs to fit into my suitcase.
The cafe is located within Umichurara and is called Soukana. It’s open from 11am until 9:30pm with last order at 9:15. There’s a couple spots near the cafe to sit and enjoy whatever you get. While I was interested in their “long-lived grass and Ryukyu herb smoothie” I ended up getting their “goya and long-lived grass smoothie” Both are considered their healthy green smoothies. They also serve pineapple, mango, banana, and mixberry soymilk smoothies, soup, pasta and ice cream.
While I had greatly loved goya champuru the goya or bitter melon smoothie I got was strong. It was very bitter despite the additions of banana and pineapple to try and curb it.
Umichurara is a good spot to get souvenirs from the aquarium if you were unable to do so at the aquarium as well as a good spot to buy discounted tickets. Generally tickets to the aquarium are 1,880 yen but if you buy them at Umichurara they’re 1,690 yen. They also have some, tropical fish, clownfish, and garden eels you can also check out.
Umichurara is open daily from 10am until 10pm.