Photo: KQuhen / CC BY-SA 4.0Okinawa's fish are the wrong colours. Electric blue, parrot green, hard red — reef fish that look like an aquarium and taste nothing like mainland Japanese seafood. The ground floor of Makishi is where you see them, alongside whole pig heads, sea grapes and the pork cuts that define this cuisine.
The system is the appeal: choose downstairs, pay for it, and carry it up to the second-floor restaurants, which cook it for a per-person fee. Rebuilt and reopened in 2023, the building is new but the trade in it is not.
Five things the plaques won't tell you
- Choose downstairs and carry it up. Ordering from an upstairs menu skips the entire point.
- Ask for the fish to be prepared two ways — sashimi and butter-grilled — from one purchase.
- Tsuboya yachimun street is a five-minute walk. Do them together.
- Umibudo (sea grapes) travel badly and should be eaten here, cold, with ponzu.
- Cash. And the covered arcades around the market are the rain plan for this whole city.
Rebuilt and reopened in 2023, the building is new but the trade in it is not.
Guided days from Naha
Booked before you sail — there is no tour desk at the pier. Booking through these links supports the site.
More in Naha
Questions people ask here
How does Makishi Public Market work?
You buy fish or meat from a vendor on the ground floor, then carry it up to the second-floor restaurants, which cook it for a per-person fee on top of what you paid. Ordering directly from an upstairs menu is possible but skips the point — and you can ask for one fish to be prepared two ways.
What should I eat at Makishi Market?
Reef fish — the electric blue and green ones — prepared as sashimi and butter-grilled from a single purchase, plus umibudo sea grapes eaten cold with ponzu. Okinawan pork dishes and Okinawa soba are available around the market, and Tsuboya pottery street is five minutes away.