Vessel Hotel Campana Okinawa Japan, Full Room Tour, Breakfast Buffet, American Village & Local Area
welcome back everyone we are on a wonderful adventure today in Okinawa Japan i am going to share all the fun details of our trip to help you plan yours including a full room tour food options all the amenities a few highlights of the surrounding area with a few surprises along the way starting off with a few logistics you’re going to need to get into town from Naha Airport there’s a bus you can take which I believe will cost you roughly $9 uber also works here and around 3:00 p.m it was going to cost me roughly 60 US bucks to get to the hotel i decided to try one of the taxis waiting outside and it ended up running me about 40 bucks which is not bad for what ended up being around an hour ride with traffic also if you’re worried about communicating just say American Village and they’ll know where to go when you get to the Vessel Hotel Kana Okinawa you’ll be greeted with a very friendly and for the most part English-speaking staff they will have water cold tea beloved local shikuasa juice and a variety of popsicles for you if you have goldfish brain like me or you just love free hotel stuff they have a pretty impressive selection of hotel amenities for you like washcloths moisturizer hair mask razors you name it it was actually pretty fun trying some of the products out and surprisingly as someone who has crazy sensitive skin I didn’t have any issues the lobby is also where you’re going to come down for breakfast in the morning which we’ll get to in a bit now let’s go check out the room while we’re headed to the room let’s talk numbers shall we the hotel rates vary daily like most places and for the most expensive night we paid about $275 for a Sunday monday and Tuesday were about 163 per night and Wednesday was about $29 per night we also paid about $170 US in total for taxes and we booked through Expedia these prices were for an annex non-smoking double occupancy room with a balcony view and included the breakfast buffet which would run you I think roughly 13 US separately all right we got fresh towels all right so here is the door we just walked in right here and this looks like the door is magnetic and this is a magnet that you can put on the outside of your door when you want to get a few extra Z’s all right you know the game this is the light that’s the light we did it in one oh this is one of these where you put your key card in to keep the lights on so let’s go ahead okay I did it and that look how fast we figured that out okay so here we are in the closet and it looks like this is um some sort of cleaning product all right so you have looks like a shelf up here to put a few things honestly my carry-on suitcase might fit up there it’s so small and then you have a couple hangers we have 1 2 3 4 5 six hangers oh we got some slides you know my big old fat feet are going to hang right off the edge i came in and threw my paraphernelia there so usually it’s not that bad i brought those towels in and then we have the two trash cans over here so here they have garbage to burn and then this trash can is for cans bottles and PET bottles little rack here we have slippers i love slippers guys okay so here’s some instructions please use the slippers only inside the room the sandals can be used outside the room just like my house all right there’s the mirror i have been on a plane for many many days so please excuse my sloppy appearance okay so let’s do hello again we’ve got a really nice sink area out here got some towels so they don’t actually come and clean the room every day but they do give you um fresh towels every day so that’s why that bag was out there okay there is a blow dryer so now I feel stupid if you watch that pack with me video um now I feel kind of dumb because I didn’t see it and now there’s one and I packed one for no reason now I read that people liked all the products here so I’m actually excited to try that okay these are more lights over here okay and I don’t know why the two there’s two separate beds i don’t know why that is but sure now I will say a lot of the hotels that we looked at when we were trying to book I didn’t see like how in the States we usually have like queen beds yeah they look more like I don’t know if I were to guess I’d say this is maybe a twin XL and then it seems like that size it’s like per person so if we were to have three people in the room we would have three separate twin XL’s it doesn’t seem like it’s like different based on if you’re like a married couple or not so it looks like there’s some storage right here i don’t know oh is this where I put my suitcase that might be a good suitcase spot let’s see what’s in here oh guys we got PJs in here this is kind of awesome okay so we’ve got this top with the logo on it and then so I think they come Do they just come mediums oh male female maybe maybe that’s what I’m looking at okay so that’s the a lotment but these seem kind of like basketball shorts material that kind of jersey fabric these are pretty cool not going to lie I might have to go ahead and give those a try on and they left that a jar for us to see I believe and then we have some more drawers over here this is the safe you know I ask this in almost every video i don’t think anyone’s answered me yet do you guys fully unpack take all your stuff out and put it in the drawers and then do you use the safe i’m really curious about that i don’t think I’ve ever used a safe in a hotel room before all right let’s see down here we have got some cups for tea we’ve got Oh a little mini ice bucket there and that looks like a little teac kettle down there that’s pretty cool it looks like this whole thing oh it looks like Let’s open this more looks like they both slide out that’s pretty neat that’s a good storage solution there you go it’s a better look at that i need one of these at home oh got to make sure that’s in all the way go okay oh and then this side we have a mini fridge okay looks like there’s a little baby freezer area there too okay nice oops let’s see what this button does uh I don’t know what that did was that maybe for like the fridge maybe that was for the mini fridge maybe it’s like plugged into something oh yeah yeah i didn’t read carefully that’s probably what that is yeah yep i bet there’s a plug back in there that you turn the plug on using this honestly if I had read carefully I’m sure I could have figured that out let’s back up here so you guys can see the TV so all of that stuff is up under the TV looks like we have some complimentary water which excellent because after all that flying I am incredibly dehydrated okay we have some remotes here these are going to be so fun to figure out so this guy looks like it goes to the air conditioner right there and you know what we like to do you know we like to keep it cranked i will say I have been hot since I got here it is the last time we were in Japan it was July and I swore I would never come back in the summer and it is May right now and I was like maybe it won’t be so hot i was hot and um I feel like nobody had the AC up all the way they could have cranked it a little harder so we have a notepad and a pen and there is a phone right there there’s some hotel travel information i think that’s just a vent for the fridge okay little paperwork there’s some tissues okay we have some outlets and this just like my Apple brick fits in there just fine i don’t need a fancy adapter or anything i think you would probably only need an adapter for here if you had like a threeprong outlet okay we got a mirror oh we have an oldfashioned clock that looks like it’s maybe for a cat 5 cable yep that’s what that is okay and that looks like a dehumidifier and it has a little chair right here so you can sit there and get a little work done there is free Wi-Fi here which is awesome there’s a little area where you can sit and look at each other and talk although I would argue I would rather have bigger bed not a big deal but I mean this is a really nice room i like it a lot so here’s a look at the decor from this angle zoom out a little so you can see beds okay let’s come over here and see now I don’t know what this is about we’re going to have to figure that out this is a light that looks like a light yep that’s kind of cool since we’re on the beach it looks kind of like a little lantern um this is probably Do I do it that doesn’t open that’s probably like an access panel we had to do it though i’m so curious all right let’s see what this mattress is working with okay so much better the last time we were here I swear I slept on plywood covered in a comforter but um that looks like that’s actually going to be pretty comfortable so I’ll let you guys know after day one of sleeping we have another lamp over here we have more outlets and we have some USB outlets here we go and I think ah yeah you can get a choice of uh pillow so you can get different types of firmness which is pretty neat let’s see oh there is a massage menu not going to lie I’m considering partaking that sounds awesome after the travel excursion that I have had that might actually happen okay entrance room so these look like these are all the lights yep that I pushed it and it turned off yep so that’s cool so you can have some lights on and you don’t have to get up to turn the light some hotels don’t have that and you’re like “Oh no i forgot to get back up.” You have two more outlets over here and I really like this ledge because your phone will fit up there perfectly and your glasses i hate when they don’t have anywhere to put your glasses guys it’s just like they forgot all about us as glasses wearers okay let’s look at the bathroom and then we’re going to go out and look at the balcony okay here’s a warning please keep door closed when using the shower to avoid setting off the fire alarm okay that makes sense because that means it’s probably very sensitive okay it looks like the light for the bathroom is on the outside if you guys watched I think we were in Lake Las Vegas the Hilton they did that too all right so we got Okay there’s a little bit of a step down here i kind of almost tripped over it i don’t know what is in that box we’re going to find that out together so we’ve got toilet paper fancy toilet instructions [Music] okay now I’m a little rusty i I believe one of those is oki and one of those is chai which one of them means big and one of them means small so you know do with that information what you will we have two towels up here and then let’s the tub it looks great this is one of those fancy Japanese soaking tubs that is pretty deep i’m not much of a hotel bath person let me know down in the comments do you guys take baths at hotels this looks like a pretty nice it feels really clean in here but I read some Forbes article about how they don’t clean bathtubs in hotels and you know I’m a little bit of a germaphobe all right you know I love these this is where you pull that and you bring it around town all the way over here and it hooks in here and then you can hang your wet swimsuits which is fantastic cuz like I said we are on the beach we are directly on the beach and I’ll show you guys when we move into the lobby i’ll show you guys we have like direct access to the beach that is a great shower head this looks pretty cool that’s not in Freedom Unit so I think I’m going to have to figure that out but what a fun problem to have okay so these are some of the bath products that I read a review and people said they really like them so I’m happy to try those out all right so that’s the bathroom and like I said I do like that the sink is over here because one person can be showering and I can be brushing my teeth or doing my makeup or something oh and there’s more outlets here so and plenty of room for like a flat iron or a blow dryer obviously okay let’s let’s see what’s going on [Applause] outside oh you know what i Hold on i need two hands I think yeah there we go so the the fixture up there is magnetic so they don’t like come apart you know where people have to do that trick where you um you know put the hanger there oh my gosh it’s like straight water h it looks like it slides open oh I’m stupid hold on how embarrassing i’m not even gonna cut that out here it is okay it’s a little steamy out here my glasses have fogged up okay we are going to go down there later and walk around i’ll give you guys a full tour of the property all right so we’re back inside so that is the room and I’m going to explore door a little bit more tomorrow i actually Well maybe I’ll take you guys with me if I go get something to eat tonight but I am exhausted and then we are back at square one hopefully I wasn’t too wobbly for you guys i’m by myself right now so I don’t have anyone to record me doing the bed test so let’s do it together you ready let’s do it that’s a little firm all right i’ve got pretty big feet and they kind of fit i mean if I was buying these in a store I’d probably go up a half size but I think this is good all right as you can tell I have already rated the Lawson’s i got lots of beverages and snacks okay I have to do this to you guys i got to show you what I got so they gave me some chopsticks awesome i got some kimchi cuz I got to get my immune system back up let’s see what else I got i got one of these just a plain kind of oni giri i impulse some doughut sticks i just I I love like convenience store baked goods here pork and omelette on a giri purple yam is so tasty this looks like it’s in like a little tart show okay guys so if you watch that Epcot favorite nonfestestival snacks video I did this is the bar that I ate basically for an entire month the last time I was here and this is one of my favorite treats here it’s got the chocolate and the ice cream and the wafer and the logo that almost looks like the GIF peanut butter logo um but these are awesome and there’s it’s not exactly the same but there’s kind of a similar version at the Japan Pavilion in Epcot and that was one of my favorite kind of nonfestestival snacks I shared with you guys i can’t wait to dig into this i smell like airport but I almost don’t care i’m going to down one of these before I get in the shower [Music] hallelujah look at that oh look at that yo it’s as good as I remember honestly the difference to me is it’s like the ice cream is really creamy there’s no like acidity to the chocolate the chocolate itself has a really smooth creamy consistency and that outside shell has like the perfect crunch you know what it’s like you want to get an ice cream cone from McDonald’s and you have that last little bit of ice cream cone and it’s like crunchy on the outside but the inner part is like a little bit soggy from ice cream and you pop that last bite in your mouth yum this entire ice cream sandwich tastes like that last bite of McDonald’s ice cream cone but with chalky on the inside okay so while we’re on the subject of food I would be absolutely remiss if I did not talk about the breakfast buffet if you paid for breakfast with your reservation you’ll get these little golden tickets to happiness pro tip here the dining room is a decent size but there can be a bit of a line around the buffet table so try to get there early this is the line we were in right before 7:00 a.m when they were about to open like I said there’s plenty of tables and if you get there early you can grab a seat with a view this isn’t your typical yellow flower water cosplaying eggs next to suspiciously wet fruit and tiny weird meat patties this is a smorgus board of local favorites with a few western options thrown in the items change out daily so it would be impossible for me to show you every single item but I will show you a few of the greatest hits just to give you an idea there’s an espresso machine a machine with orange juice sipen or jasmine tea the ever popular and delicious shikuasa juice or milk if you’re into that okay buckle in we’ve got pork cutlet Okinawan pork belly curry Japanese fried chicken Okinawan seasoned rice coffee jelly pudding mackerel corn potage shrimp sweet potato fritters bamboo shoot salad seaweed salad bock root salad chocolate fil mini donuts natto side note here have you guys ever tried this before i know some people hate it but I honestly didn’t think it was that bad a selection of baked goods like this cake with the chocolate and the tropical gilet on top okinawan brown sugar pudding an entire DIY sashimi bar i spent a whole lot of time over there tomago almond pudding yeah that’s an edible flour on top squid fritters tropical fruit jelly with real fruit inside mango juice strawberry fil donuts crystal the most amazing tiramisu that had a layer of coffee jelly at the bottom spinach filled pastries as you can probably guess the poor buffet made absolutely no profit from my visit at all they do also have some less adventurous options like spaghetti chicken nugs or waffles on the menu you can also find Blue Seal ice cream which is kind of a popular thing here and you’ll see several locations around town we managed to try out mango blue wave which is ramune soda ice cream swirled with chunky pineapple ice cream almond pistachio and Okinawan salt cookie which I think was my favorite okay so now that we have pretty thoroughly talked about breakfast let’s talk about what to do about second breakfast shall we or really some of the amenities that the hotel has to offer starting with the Lawson on the first floor of the annex building it took me exactly 1 minute and 28 seconds to get from the front door of my room down to the convenience store and they have all sorts of awesome snacks ice cream including my treat from earlier alcohol and necessities like phone chargers personal products or even souvenirs they are open 24 hours and it really comes in handy when you need something last minute or a midnight snack it also came in clutch when I needed to get change for larger bills to support my growing capsule toy habit side note here you will actually need a key card to get up to your room so don’t forget to bring it with you if you decide to make a quick snack [Music] run and we have arrived if you want to get something at Lawson that needs to be microwaved you can do it there or I found a little room in the hall that has one even closer to the room all right there’s my room so right here is another little room with ice machine and a vending machine and I know this looks crazy but the water for example is $130 130 yen if you hopefully can see that it’s jumping a little for me when I see it it says they take card i’ve had a little trouble getting some of these to work in the machine so I typically have just been using cash but it’s good that this is so close to the room there’s also a microwave up here so if you go down to Lawson’s and get one of those heat and eat kind of things you can pop it in here and then go back to your room and eat next up are the public baths okay so I just got back from the public bath here at the hotel it is really awesome there are two public baths we’re in the annex building there’s one here and one in the main building which it’s not like a far walk or anything it’s like you could see one door from the other not super far and then there’s a private bath for women so you um go and you enter a special key code and then after you enter the code then you can go in and you will put your shoes in like a little cubby and then there’s a whole walkway of areas where you can you know freshen off like do your there’s a bunch of blow dryers available so I feel even dumber that I brought a blow dryer because there’s like blow dryers galore i would have taken photos and videos but they were very strict about not doing that um even though I went kind of maybe like half hour 40 minutes before they were closing and there was actually nobody else in there so I probably could have but I just feel like I guess I’m kind of being a stickler for the rules i want to be able to go back tomorrow not get kicked out or be called a perve or anything so even though there was nobody in there um but so they have an area where you can freshen up with the blow dryers and such so once you go through another set of doors there’s going to be a sauna available and then there are two large infinity hot tubs i mean they look calling it a hot tub feels like rude it’s like it’s the size of like two small swimming pools they are both at 40.1° C editing Lauren will do that math for you so they’re both at 40.1 and there is one that is just plain water and there is a second one that is actually it looks kind of pink and the whole thing is hibiscus scented it is absolutely amazing i think I sat I tried the regular one but I sat in the hibiscus one for most of the time that I was in there it was awesome smells really good my skin feels nice and soft and then there is actually a cold plunge in there and that was when I go back I’ll remember the temperature i wore a swimsuit because I’m from Pilgrim Land I guess and I didn’t think about it but um I guess you don’t have to i think later one other person came in and they did not have a swimsuit on so there’s no shoes in the whole area back there there’s a little tag you can put on them with a number they also have lockers available that are at no charge and so you’ll put your bag i had a backpack you’ll put your bag into a cubby and then you there’s a little key that’s in there you’ll lock it and then the key stays with you it’s on like a little kind of coily elastic that goes on your wrist and you are okay to get in the pool with that get in the sauna and then when you’re ready to go you can just go get your things um there are towels available for free down there and then you don’t need to bring them back to your room they will be returned in a bin down there oh and then they have all the way surrounding the whole area they have maybe like 15 different kind of open shower stalls with lots of the hotel amenities in there so there’s soap shampoo everything so they do ask that you kind of wash yourself uh before you get in there but absolutely amazing experience um I spent so much time really digging into the breakfast buffet this morning um so because I did that I was a little short on time for the hot tub so I’m going to get up a little earlier tomorrow but I was so tired this morning that I just could not get out of the bed which even though I hopped on it yesterday and was like you know it’s kind of hard actually it was kind of just right kind of just right so maybe they’re on to something over here with a harder bed anyway I think I’m going to go ahead and get changed then I think we’re going to do a little exploring i grabbed a soda from the vending machine which I’m going to be doing a lot of because I just like trying new things so one thing I didn’t realize is that the fragrant bath that I was in with the hibiscus water looks like it’s only at the annex which is the building that we’re in right now another great amenity to explore is the rooftop pool it’s about 1,200 yen for adults and 600 yen for kids or half price if you go between 8 and 11:00 a.m there are changing rooms free lockers and also showers available once you scan your card you’ll pay for pool access in the lobby then they’ll give you a separate card to scan up here on the 12th floor of the annex once you pay up you’ll find a kiddie pool a hot tub and an infinity style pool there are some pool toys and life vests for kids available as well as unlimited free soft drinks if you come at night you get some especially beautiful views of the city and if you’re looking for a dip at the beach I don’t think you can get much closer i just walked outside how cute it’s a good little photo spot over here [Music] there’s even a little footwash station here before you come back into the hotel from the beach so that is where we came from we are up on the eighth floor just for a little wayf finding and we are we’re right on the beach guys all right let’s go find a little seat and enjoy our ice cream if you’re curious about the local area there is really a lot to do and see within walking distance as soon as you’re out of the lobby in the front of the hotel you’ll be right in the heart of American Village which FYI has free Wi-Fi this is a large outdoor mall type tourist attraction that has floor after floor of restaurants and shopping i’ll speed through a little walkthrough of some of the parts for you just to show you what it looks like then I’ll give you a few recommendations of places we liked bollywood Dreams is an Indian restaurant that is so good I honestly forgot to even take any video this is probably some of the best food I have ever eaten in my life and if you love well seasoned spicy aromatic highquality food at good prices I would make this a priority when you’re in town this is also a good option if you have a vegetarian in your group if you want a few quick local beers Irish Pup Howdy has okay prices and is open later than a lot of other places we had the Yuzu Logger and the Miu Red Ale which we both really enjoyed the Yuzu flavor really popped in that logger and the red ale had a nice light malty flavor snakes why did it have to be snakes the bar was a combo of friendly locals and tourists and I think this would be a great place to watch the free Saturday night fireworks out on the balcony they also have some fun table games if you’re in the mood for a completely unhinged game of Jenga double-decker bar we found to be both exceptional in drinks and in service the bartenders were happy to walk us through a few local specialties we obviously had to get an Orion logger since it’s a locally brewed favorite we really wanted to try Awamorei which is a liquor unique to Okinawa so we’ve got it both on the rocks and in a cocktail by itself it’s hard to describe because I don’t really feel like I have a good frame of reference but it’s incredibly smooth and has kind of an earthiness that fades into a slightly sweet aftertaste this cocktail was a real winner not too sweet the black currant and shikawasa flavors are the real stars and the ginger beer is just giving a little bit of kick and I can tell there’s alcohol in the drink but everything goes together so well for me it’s hard to pull the aamorei flavor out since it’s the mellowest profile in the bunch all the stars come check this place out if you need to wet your whistle if you need a good base for all that awamorei Shisa Pan Mia has the most adorable filled dough treats really similar to Tayyaki but shaped like Shisa the guardian deity here in Okinawa we grabbed the sweet potato and the custard cream flavors i would ask for these crispy and our favorite was for sure the sweet potato if you’ve made it this far in the video thanks but also I have a little treat for you if you keep walking along the beach south of the hotel towards the stadium you’ll find both the cat beach which is exactly what it sounds like and the goat house which also houses a giant tortoise yeah you’re welcome to feed them but there is a sign asking that you don’t overfeed them southeast of American Village is the Ion Shopping Mall which is a great place to get your capsule toy fixed have some fun in the arcade or enjoy a wide variety of prepared foods in the supermarket so I’m going to go ahead and end today’s video here i know I just touched on the surface of all the things there are to do or try in the area but this video is already way longer than either of us wanted it to be hopefully you guys will stick around and continue to follow my adventures in Japan until next time go forth be kind be creative
We recently stayed at the Vessel Hotel Campana Okinawa in Japan and had a great time! Today I’m sharing a tour of our room, some of the travel & pricing details, our experience with the breakfast buffet, and some of the places we visited in American Village.
Have you guys visited Okinawa before? If so, what were your favorite things?
20:38 Breakfast Buffet
22:52 Amenities
31:08 American Village Highlights
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I always bring my Tevas with me when I travel!
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I filmed most of this with my Osmo Pocket 3
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Have you guys visited Okinawa before? If so, what were your favorite things? 🐢🐐🍛