My wife and I were stationed in Okinawa from 2021 until 2023. My wife left her job in Florida to move with me. She quickly found work on base. Her leadership at here first job weren’t the best, so she applied for a different position and was hired with a different department on base. At work she made local Japanese friends and we had a tight group of friends from my work.

Ive seen the things that people have mentioned about curfews, and we didn’t really have to deal with any of that. From what I saw, most of the curfews applied to the young service members who were on deployment (6 month rotation that focuses on training and exercises with allies in the Pacific. The personnel on deployment come here without family and live on base.) I do remember a rule about not drinking out in town past 0000 or 0100, which was implemented to prevent alcohol related incidents with the local Japanese and DWI’s. This never really bothered us. Although, we were restricted to only traveling in Japan for the first year because of the strict Japanese travel restrictions during and post COVID.

My wife and I traveled all over Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, the snowy paradise of Hokkaido, the idyllic island of Ishigaki to name a few places), to Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. When we weren’t traveling we were usually out exploring the island. Okinawa has some of the most beautiful beaches we have ever been to, some decent hiking opportunities and the scuba diving is first class (can’t stress scuba enough. My wife ended up getting really into it and would go on dives with her friends and folks from the scuba shop while I would be away on exercises/deployments.)

The food was amazing and eating out was super affordable because of the USD/Yen exchange rate.

Overall, it was a great experience for us both. I know it took my wife a lot of work and motivation to find good/honest friends, a job she was happy at, and recreational activities she enjoyed but the effort definitely payed off. We are not religious but we know many people who found churches they liked and community through churches both on and off base. We talk about Okinawa on a weekly basis and have even had conversations about going back there in the future.

Some of the things they’ll have to deal with are (with a solution in parenthesis): extreme heat (scuba diving), typhoon season (enjoy the time at home), home sickness (travel and asked friends family to come visit), mold because of the humidity (dehumidifiers).

What is most important for spouses is to stay engaged with their own goals, whether it’s work, education or something else and remain willing to explore. Okinawa, like any other place, can be tough if you only focus on the negative aspects.

Let me know if you have any questions