A beach with the everyday feel of a small fishing village
The name says "coast" rather than "beach", but some 600 metres of white sand run along it. It was not built for tourism; it has simply been part of local life for a long time. There is nothing special laid on, but you can sink into the everyday scenery of a small fishing village.
This is not a beach built for visitors but one the locals have always had. It is not managed for swimming, so it feels thoroughly natural. This photograph shows the left-hand side of the beach. The seaweed that would be cleared away at a tourist beach lies washed up on the sand here, showing black.
Early in the morning elderly locals come here to walk, and on summer afternoons a local family occasionally plays in the sea, but more often than not there is nobody here even during the day.
Because the beach is not managed for swimming, no jellyfish net is put out at any time of year and there are no lifeguards. You can swim where you like, at your own risk.
The grains of sand are on the coarse side and are not easily stirred up, so the water is little clouded and the clarity is high. The floating algae and seaweed do bring the sense of clarity down a little. The gradation is about average for an Okinawan beach: on a clear day you get the full effect of the clear blue at the water's edge, the emerald green inshore and the deep blue further out.
There are three or four patches of tree shade beside the beach, like the one in the photograph.
The second photograph on this page shows the left-hand side of the beach as you face the sea and the third the right-hand side. This one was taken from the middle of the beach, looking straight out.
There are no toilets, showers or foot rinse. In place of a shower or foot rinse, it is worth bringing a bottle of water.
At the northern end of the beach is Seaside Drive-in, a long-established drive-in serving American food. It was the first drive-in in Okinawa. Takeaway is open 24 hours and eating in from 8 a.m. to midnight. On summer weekends it is as busy as this before 10 in the morning.
Nakadomari Kaisanbutsu Ryoriten (in the photograph), on the south side of the beach, looks out over the whole of Nakadomari Beach. The seafood cooking is every bit as serious as the solid old building and the name promise, and it is fairly priced.
The menu runs to fish soup at ¥1,620 and a simmered fish-head set meal at ¥1,620. The photograph is the squid soup, also ¥1,620. Set meals in which a whole fish is grilled or simmered in salt change price by the day according to the species and size bought in, at around ¥1,800. If you have a friend from the mainland who says the fish in Okinawa is nothing much, bring them here. They will leave saying that taman is best grilled with salt, miibai simmered and irabucha as sashimi.
You could just about barbecue here if you brought your own equipment and food, but with no toilets and no washing area it is not really suitable. There is space for only about three cars (parked on the road), so gathering in a large group is difficult.
Snorkelling is possible all year round, but the reef edge where the fish are is a long way out, so you have to swim for a long time to reach it. Around the coral in the shallows on the way there should at least be small fish.
Unlike a beach kept for swimming, it is not looked after all the time, so seaweed and litter are sometimes left washed up.
In Japanese (for maps, taxis and car navigation): 仲泊海岸 沖縄県国頭郡恩納村仲泊
We run beach yoga here too. Check availability and book in a few steps.