PORT OF JAPAN
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See in Miyakojima · #5 of the port's ten

Sunayama Beach

~1h — the round trip from the gangway, with the 60-minute margin kept aside.

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Photo: JiroS. / CC BY-SA 3.0

Tap a photo to see it large. 8 photographs, each credited.

Round trip
1 hr
From the ship and back
Fits
a 2–3 hour stop ashore
Margin already counted
Getting there
Car ~15 min
See the rides below
Booking
Just turn up
Nothing to reserve
Why we send people here

Over a sand dune and down to a cove with a wave-cut arch. The arch is roped off after rockfalls — honesty requires saying so — but the cove remains the island’s prettiest small beach.

Why it earns the hours
  • Short enough to be certain of: 1 hr door to door, so even a tender day works.
Before you count on it
  • No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
The story

Why Sunayama Beach is famous

A small beach reached down a slope through a pine wood, named for the sand dune you cross to get there. Its natural rock arch collapsed in 2016, which the island still talks about. What remains is a compact cove with unusually clear water, close enough to town for a short call.

Where it is

Sunayama Beach and your ship

Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.

The arithmetic

Where the 1 hr goes

Counted from the moment you step off the gangway. The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside.

Out15 minCar ~15 min
There30 minWhat you came for
Back15 minTo the gangway

15 minutes each way is the honest figure for car ~15 min, not the optimistic one. If your ship is late, cut the 30 min in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.

If you have longer

What fits alongside it

Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare on a 6-hour stop ashore.

Mango, whole, in season1 hr 40 min for bothJune to August the island’s farms serve their own fruit over ice at parlour counters. Out of season, honesty says skip it — frozen mango is not the same argument.Snow salt & awamori1 hr 40 min for bothYuki-shio powder salt from reef seawater, and the island distilleries’ awamori — the two bottles that carry Miyako home in a daypack.Higashi-Henna Cape2 hr for bothA two-kilometre grass blade of cliff dividing two seas, lighthouse at the tip. Nationally designated scenic beauty, and the island’s best walk that is not a beach.
The day this belongs to

Routes that already include it

Each one is a finished day we have walked and timed, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.

The town and the town beach2–3 hours · ~2.5h door to doorNo wheels, no bookings — the honest walk-off planThe west-side loop4–6 hours · ~4h door to doorPre-booked charter or rental — the bridge and the great beachThe grand loop8 hours or more · ~6.5h door to doorLong calls with a charter — the whole island, without the rush
Pairs well with

What to put beside it

Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.

Build your own day →
1 hr 40 min for both

Mango, whole, in season

June to August the island’s farms serve their own fruit over ice at parlour counters.

See the detail →1 hr 40 min for both

Snow salt & awamori

Yuki-shio powder salt from reef seawater, and the island distilleries’ awamori — the two bottles that carry Miyako home in a daypack..

See the detail →2 hr for both

Higashi-Henna Cape

A two-kilometre grass blade of cliff dividing two seas, lighthouse at the tip.

See the detail →
The one rule: be back on board 60 minutes before all-aboard. Build the whole day on the Miyakojima plan page.