Kakinohana Hija

Kakinohana Hija (popularly known as Shichankaa)

The typhoon season is behind us, and the best time of year for sightseeing in Okinawa has arrived.

Near Hyakuna Garan are many famous sights, such as Sefa-utaki, a World Heritage Site, Kudaka Island, Okinawa World and the Valley of Gangala, but there are also plenty of lovely places you will not find in any guidebook.

One of them is Kakinohana Hija, which you can even reach on foot from the hotel.

“Kakinohana” and “Hija” are both names of the area around the spring.

The pool further down, below the men’s stream and the women’s stream, is called Uma-amashii, the “horse bath”, because people once brought their horses here to drink and to be washed.

The spring lies high up, looking out to sea. As you follow the path in the fresh autumn breeze, there comes a moment when the sound of the wind suddenly gives way to the sound of running water.

With rising excitement you follow the arrows, and fields of watercress, grown in the fresh spring water, come into view.

Nanjo, where Hyakuna Garan stands, is in fact well known for its watercress.

When it is in season, we serve it as a salad at lunch and dinner, and our guests love it.

Carry on past the watercress beds and the view suddenly opens out: there before you is Kakinohana Hija.

Rice was once grown widely around the spring, and the water of Kakinohana Hija was used for the paddies.

In time it came to be used for bathing, washing clothes, rinsing vegetables and more, and little by little the spring became part of local people’s daily lives.

The water of Kakinohana Hija has an average hardness of 265 to 280 milligrams per litre.

That is relatively hard among the waters chosen as Japan’s hundred finest, which gives it a satisfying, full-bodied taste.

The water is also relatively warm, staying at about 23°C all year round.

You may see people sitting on the benches chatting with friends, their feet in the water, and children splashing about.

Kakinohana Hija spills down along its stone channels. Many people come to draw its spring water, and it is a well-loved place where local people come to relax.

The clear water and the moss together are simply beautiful.

Do come and see it for yourself.