Recommended for a family of five, Toyota Raize
👋 Haisai! This is CULT.
Today, I’m reviewing a rental car in Okinawa. It’s a small SUV called the Toyota Raize. Typically, when you think of rental cars in Okinawa, even if it’s a five-seater, it often can’t accommodate all the luggage for five people. However, with the Raize, even if five adults come along, as long as you pack smartly, the luggage space is quite ample, so there’s less to worry about. With a 998cc engine and an official fuel efficiency of 21km/l, it’s more than sufficient for travelling around Okinawa without any hassle. Consider giving it a try.
🚙 Okinawa Rental Car: The Look of Toyota Raize
🇰🇷 Operated by a Korean owner, communication is available in 🇯🇵 Japanese and 🇬🇧 English, and for 🇹🇼 Taiwanese and 🇨🇳 Chinese, a translator can be used to communicate.
🛬 We offer pickup from Okinawa Naha Airport, and after handing over the vehicle at our office, when you return it, we can also provide 🛫 drop-off to the airport. Additionally, baby seats, child seats, and strollers are available for rent, so you can check the details on the website at the bottom of the text.
This is a side view of the Toyota Raize. The photo was taken at Umikaji Terrace on Senaga Island.
If you travel to Okinawa, this might be the kind of scene you’ll encounter. This Raize blends so well with the emerald sea and blue sky that I think the car’s colour should be named Okinawa Blue 🥰
- Related post: Senaga Island Umikaji Terrace
Since I’ve been driving the car for a few days, it got dirty… so I did a bit of car washing. I was taking photos for a review… After taking a few shots, I noticed some stains on the car, so I hurried to the car wash. Now it looks all shiny and I’m pleased.
🔍 Exploring the Vehicle Interior
Let’s take a look inside the vehicle. This is the front seat, and an interesting feature is that the navigation system is slightly tilted towards the driver. This function is designed for easier viewing, and the navigation system supports multiple languages. Additionally, it supports Google Auto and Apple CarPlay, making it easy to navigate using Google Maps. I’ve never arrived on time relying on Japanese car navigation systems, so I always connect to CarPlay and drive using Google Maps.
This is the view from the passenger and driver’s seats. There aren’t any major peculiarities compared to a typical vehicle, but there’s nothing particularly uncomfortable either. And there’s a key point for enjoying the hot Okinawan sun.
It’s a cup holder for drinks.
When travelling with the hot Okinawan sun, having air conditioning is great, but it’s also nice to have a refreshing drink available at any time. Of course, this vehicle has excellent air conditioning. The issue is… as you travel along Route 58, you’ll often find yourself getting in and out of the car to admire beautiful beaches or stunning scenery, right? Then the car heats up…
That’s when this becomes essential. For me, when renting a car at a travel destination, the presence of this cup holder is a key consideration.
The rear camera is, of course, supported as standard, and with the 360-degree around-view camera installed, parking becomes a breeze. If you’re Korean and have driven a Hyundai Avante or Kia Sportage, you’ll find parking very easy. For those coming from the US… American cars are all quite large, so the Toyota Raize will feel very small. If you’re from Europe, it’s similar in size to the Volkswagen T-CROSS.
The gear stick has parking at the very top and driving function at the very bottom.
Some Japanese cars have the inconvenience of needing to visually check each time you drive because they place other functions below drive. The Toyota Raize allows you to change modes comfortably and drive with ease 😊
It supports charging with a customised cigarette jack and two USB A ports. For an iPhone 16 Pro, if you drive for about an hour with Google Maps on, it charges about 5%. If you have Apple CarPlay on and the screen off, it charges about 30% in an hour. The charging output is not particularly strong.
Additionally, a dash camera is installed, and it comes with a memory card already inserted. Please do not take the memory card 🙅
The foot pedals are a two-point system. The centre is the brake, and the right is the accelerator. The side brake is a left-hand handbrake type. The reason I’m explaining this is that there are quite a few people who press the accelerator while the side brake is engaged 😮💨
The information panel visible to the driver is in digital format. Despite being digital, you can also check the RPM and the current gear.
The back seat looks like this. It can accommodate three people, and the seat on the far right can be folded forward, allowing you to secure more trunk space for additional luggage.
🧳 Trunk Storage Space
Now, let’s take a look at the trunk space.
Unlike other rental cars in Okinawa with lower chassis, the Toyota Raize offers a relatively large cargo capacity. Although it’s a five-seater, many vehicles can’t accommodate one suitcase per person, but the Toyota Raize can. It can fit 24-inch suitcases, and depending on the situation, you can even load two 28-inch suitcases along with several cabin-sized ones.
An interesting point is that since a spare tyre is not provided separately, you can fit more luggage in that space.
Travellers from the US or Europe might be a bit surprised by the absence of a spare tyre, but with the level of experience from changing a spare tyre during a driving test, it would be quicker for a staff member from a car service centre to come and change the tyre on-site than for you to do it yourself.
That’s why most rental cars in Okinawa don’t have a spare tyre.
I’ve tried loading the luggage.
The 28-inch Rimowa suitcase fits into the spare tyre space at the very bottom. It’s the largest suitcase, and visually, you can stack three of them and still fit about two smaller suitcases behind. Visitors from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and China usually don’t bring large suitcases, so this storage space is sufficient. However, the issue arises with visitors from the US or Europe, as their suitcases are incredibly large. If five people are travelling, you’ll need to consider this carefully. If each person has two suitcases, you won’t be able to fit all the luggage.
If there are four people, you can recline one of the seats on the right to expand the storage space.
🚘 Driving Experience
In Okinawa, you’ll mostly find yourself needing to reverse park. Parallel parking is rarely required. This makes parking quite easy, and with courteous drivers on the road, you shouldn’t experience any inconvenience.
Although it might seem like 998cc lacks power, it’s perfectly adequate for driving in Okinawa. You can accelerate smoothly without any sluggishness. Most of Route 58 has a 60km speed limit, and the highway is limited to 100km, so having a high-displacement vehicle might not be particularly necessary.
I would like to recommend this to families of five travelling in East Asia. If you have a small suitcase, it should be sufficient for five people, and you can fit two large suitcases along with about 4-5 small ones. For those with a lot of luggage, I think four people can comfortably travel to Okinawa while having enough storage space.
🛢️ Refuelling and Returning the Vehicle
Most rental cars in Okinawa have a lever to open the fuel cap from the driver’s seat, but this car doesn’t have that lever. It’s a simple mechanism where you just push the fuel cap to open it. At a staffed petrol station, you can simply ask for a full tank of regular (gasoline), and at a self-service station, there’s an English menu available, so you can touch the LCD panel to switch to English and follow the instructions to fill up.
For Japanese people, this will be very easy, but the ones who might find it most challenging are Europeans. You can refuel and pay directly at the machine without needing to enter the shop. Cash is possible, but you won’t be able to fill up completely, so it’s best to use a card.
And make sure to keep the receipt. It might come in handy in case of any disputes, so it’s best to have it when returning the vehicle. I travelled back and forth twice from Naha city to the American Village, and since I visited various places for content research, the fuel cost was a bit high. However, overall, the fuel efficiency was quite decent. If you’re looking for a vehicle with even better fuel efficiency, you should consider booking a hybrid car.
📝 Booking Method
You can make a reservation by clicking the button below to proceed to the Aosora Rent-a-Car site. It supports a real-time translation chat feature, allowing Korean visitors to communicate with Japanese staff through real-time translated chat. They are also planning to support English, Taiwanese, and Chinese soon. For more details, please inquire through the chat on the site, and you can easily make a reservation via the link below.
10% off the total amount with code: AOSORA_CULT1
That’s it for today’s Okinawa rental car review! I’ll wrap it up here and will be back in a few days with more Okinawa rental car news. Matayasai 👋
