KOKUSAI DORI

A must-see shopping and entertainment district in the city centre, Kokusai-dōri is home to the Sōgen-ji Sekimon Temple, with its stone wall and arches. The temple was the temple of the Ryūkyū kings in the 16th century. It unfortunately went up in smoke in 1945. Heiwa-dōri, the market street, crosses the Kokusai-dōri in its middle. It is a district still crisscrossed with alleys giving off the powerful smells of the markets of the East. You can still see the traditional houses with their red-tiled roofs, held together by whitewash.