Farm Markets #19

Happy More,
the city market

Thirty-five minutes from the airport, on the road to the resorts — the farm market you can fit into a day that was going to be about something else.

Ginowan CityTropical store since 202110:00–18:001,000+ growers

Smoothies from ~¥400herb, vegetable, beet, soy · made at the counter

The smoothie bar

In short

three things to know before you fill a basket

Actually convenient

Most of Okinawa's farm markets are an hour or more out. This one is 35–40 minutes from Naha Airport on Route 58, on the way to Chatan and the west coast resorts.

A thousand small growers

The company calls itself a support squad for small farms. Retired growers with a few rows, families with a surplus — the shelf is built from producers too small for a supermarket.

Come on the 8th, 18th or 28th

That's when the lemon andagi doughnuts are made. The banana cake sells 600 on a weekend day, and the smoothie counter pours up to 9,000 a month.

Nobody plans a holiday around a suburban vegetable shop. But this one sits on the road you're already driving, in the town most visitors only know from the news — and it is one of the more genuinely Okinawan hours you can spend near Naha.

The counter in the middle

Herbs you
can't name

The wooden tower in the center of the shop is the smoothie bar, and it's the reason a lot of people come. Prices sit roughly in the ¥400–650 range depending on size and recipe.

Special herb smoothie

The odd oneKomatsuna, mugwort, sakuna long-life herb, manjerico, coherenruda and whatever else is in season, with pineapple, lemon and banana. The mix changes daily.

Vegetable smoothie

The safe oneThe house standard, and the cheapest way in.

Beet & soy

Sells outBoth regularly show as sold out on the board by mid-afternoon.

Ripe banana cake

600 a dayBaked in the open kitchen with Okinawan cane sugar and very ripe bananas. A different flavor each week.

One thing worth being precise about: the shop's own wording is low- and no-pesticide, not certified organic. That's a meaningful distinction, and it's the shop that draws it — not us.

How it got here

A tomato
greenhouse

Happy More started in 2008 as a small vegetable stand on the site of the owner's parents' tomato greenhouse. It now works with more than a thousand contracted growers — many of them very small: people who kept farming after retiring, families with more than they can eat.

The original shop closed at the end of November 2021 when the building aged out, and everything moved to this one, opened in February 2021 inside the Ginowan Yui Marche complex — about 1.5 times the size. There is only one shop now, whatever older listings say.

Woven lampshades hanging over crates of vegetables inside Happy More Ichiba — Baskets, beams and boxes — a shop, not a showroom.

The circular wooden tower at the center of Happy More Ichiba — The tower in the middle is the smoothie counter.

The smoothie menu board at Happy More with prices by size — Sizes and prices on the board — check on the day.

Buy here, eat next door

Happy More is one tenant of Ginowan Yui Marche, which also holds a seafood section selling that day's landings and four canteens — a seafood diner, a couple of set-meal places and a long-standing local restaurant.

Farm and harbour under the same roof, which is unusual. Note the hours differ: the complex runs longer than Happy More's 10:00–18:00.

Where you actually are

Ginowan is the city most visitors know only as the name attached to a US air station in the news. Within a short drive are the Sakima Art Museum — built on land its founder negotiated back from the military, showing the Maruki panels of the Battle of Okinawa, with the base visible from its roof — and Kakazu Takadai Park, a battlefield hill that now looks over the runway.

You don't have to make a day of it. But knowing you're buying tomatoes in that town changes the tomatoes a little.

Getting there —
on the way north

By car

About 35–40 minutes from Naha Airport, north on Route 58, or roughly 40 minutes via the Okinawa West Coast Road. Expect traffic at commuting times.

Free parking for 200 cars — the most generous in this series for a shop this close to the city.

By bus — possible, with a walk

Buses toward Chatan and Goya from Naha Bus Terminal reach the Daiichi Oyama stop on Route 58 in about 35–45 minutes. From there it's roughly a 20-minute walk.

The Yui Rail monorail doesn't serve Ginowan, so it isn't a useful option here.

7-1350-81 Oyama, Ginowan
Okinawa 901-2223

10:00–18:00 · closed only over New Year · 200 free parking spaces

Open in Google Maps →

Need a taxi? Here's how it works in Okinawa

You're in a city here, so taxis are far easier than elsewhere in this series — but a foreign SIM still often can't dial a Japanese number. Three ways:

Use an app. GO — Japan's main taxi app — works in Okinawa with an English interface. DiDi and Uber cover parts of the island. Install before your trip.

Dial with +81. From a foreign phone, replace the leading 0: 098-XXX-XXXX → +81 98-XXX-XXXX. Wi-Fi calling works too.

Ask the staff — show them this:

タクシーを呼んでください

Takushī o yonde kudasai

Nearest stations from here

Ginowan is mid-island and urban, which makes this the easiest farm market in the series to slot into a day. Two very different stations sit within twenty minutes.

See the whole series →

11 km · ~20 minMichi-no-Eki Kadena, Kadena — A free deck over the air base, and an award-winning exhibit.

17 km · ~30 minMichi-no-Eki Kina Banjo, Yomitan — A rebuilt Ryukyu district office that sells nothing at all.

19 km · ~35 minUru Marche, Uruma — Open until eight, at the gate to the sea road and its islands.

23 km · ~40 minMichi-no-Eki Toyosaki, Tomigusuku — Fifteen minutes from the airport, with the departure board inside.

Practical information

TypeNot a roadside station of any kind — an independent farm market inside the Ginowan Yui Marche complex.

Address7-1350-81 Oyama, Ginowan, Okinawa 901-2223 (inside Ginowan Yui Marche)

Phone098-988-9785 (from abroad: +81 98-988-9785)

Hours10:00–18:00. The surrounding Yui Marche complex keeps longer hours.

ClosedNew Year holidays only

ParkingFree, 200 spaces

PaymentCash, credit cards and electronic money

ProduceLow- and no-pesticide, from over 1,000 contracted growers — not certified organic

Look forRipe banana cake (weekly flavors), herb and vegetable smoothies, lemon andagi on the 8th, 18th and 28th of each month, Happy More eggs, island vegetables

NoteThe original Shimashi store closed in November 2021 — this is now the only shop.

Officialhappymore.jp

Questions, answered

Is Happy More a roadside station?+

No — it's an independent farm market, one tenant inside the Ginowan Yui Marche complex. It's in this series because it does the same job as a farm stand, in a place you can actually reach from Naha.

Is Happy More organic?+

The shop's own wording is low- and no-pesticide rather than certified organic, and that's the accurate way to describe it. What it does guarantee is scale: over a thousand contracted growers, many of them tiny.

Are there two branches?+

Not any more. The original store in Shimashi closed at the end of November 2021 and everything moved to the Tropical store inside Ginowan Yui Marche. Older listings still show both.

What should I try?+

A smoothie from the counter in the middle — the special herb one if you're brave — and the ripe banana cake, which sells around 600 on a weekend day. If you're here on the 8th, 18th or 28th, the lemon andagi doughnuts are made only on those days.

Can I get there by bus?+

Yes, with a walk. Buses from Naha Bus Terminal toward Chatan reach Daiichi Oyama on Route 58 in about 35–45 minutes, then it's roughly 20 minutes on foot. The monorail doesn't reach Ginowan.

Sources

Happy More official site for hours, parking, payment and the grower count, checked August 2026 · Ryukyu Shimpo on the closure of the original store · Ginowan City and Okinawa Story listings · ハッピーモア市場（おきなわLovers 日本語版）. We corrected the driving directions (there is no Ginowan interchange, and Route 58 runs north from the airport), the nearest bus stop, and the description of the produce as organic.

Every station

nearest first, from where you are now

Michi-no-Eki KadenaKadena · 11 km Michi-no-Eki Kina BanjoYomitan · 17 km Uru MarcheUruma · 19 km Michi-no-Eki ToyosakiTomigusuku · 23 km Onna-no-Eki NakayukuiOnna · 24 km Minami-no-Eki YaeseYaese · 26 km Michi-no-Eki ItomanItoman · 26 km Umi-no-Eki AyahashikanUruma · 29 km Michi-no-Eki KyodaNago · 46 km Michi-no-Eki GinozaGinoza · 49 km Wansaka Oura ParkNago · 55 km Haneji-no-EkiNago · 59 km Nakijin no Eki So-reNakijin · 64 km Rikarika WarumiNakijin · 67 km Michi-no-Eki Sunrise HigashiHigashi · 68 km Kouri SorahashiKouri · 72 km Michi-no-Eki OgimiOgimi · 78 km Michi-no-Eki Yui-Yui KunigamiKunigami · 89 km Yanbaru Pineapple HillKunigami · 92 km

Happy More,the city market