Kerama Islands · AkaNo.795★★Open in map →
Aka Island
— The middle island of the Kerama group
The middle island of the Kerama group, where the national park's coral water starts at the pier. A visitor centre that explains the reef, a long beach over the rise on the north-east side, and a bridge that carries the walk on to two more islands.
- FromTomari Port, Naha
- ~50 minHigh-speed boat from Tomari Port
- Get off atAka Port (Queen Zamami / Ferry Zamami)
- On foot
- Aka Island
The sweet spot
Aka is not overlooked because it is dull. It is overlooked because the boats call at Zamami and Tokashiki first and the day-trip habit has settled on those two. Aka gets the same water. The difference is timetable and reputation, not what is here.
Where it is
22 more notes in Okinawa · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Aka Portthe pier the village boats work, with the settlement beginning directly behind it
- Sango Yuntaku-kanthe national park visitor centre, reading the Kerama sea outward from its coral
- Nishibama Beachthe island's main beach over the rise on the north-east side, and its snorkelling base
- Aka Bridgethe span to Geruma, walkable from end to end with the channel underneath
How to actually get there
- Central Naha → Tomari Port, the pier for the Kerama Islands.
- Tomari Port → Aka Port (Queen Zamami, about 50 minutes; the ferry takes about 90).
- Aka Port → the visitor centre, then over the rise to the north-east beach.
- Back through the settlement and out across the bridge before the afternoon sailing.
- High-speed boat from Tomari Port
- Naha, Tomari Port →(Queen Zamami, about 50 minutes)→ Aka Port. The conventional ferry on the same route takes about 90 minutes and sails once a day. Both are operated by Zamami Village, and seats are held by telephone or through the village's own booking page rather than at the counter.
- Return from Aka Port
- The same village boats call again on the way back to Naha, and the last of them leaves in the afternoon. There is no night sailing. Book the return leg together with the outbound one, because summer boats fill and a missed departure means a night on the island.
About the place
Aka sits in the middle of the Kerama group, west of Naha, and it is the island most people pass rather than land on. The whole archipelago is a national park: 3,520 hectares of land inside a marine boundary of 90,475 hectares, drawn that way because the value here is in the water. Coral grows densely on the reefs, and the clarity above it is what people mean by Kerama blue. Aka itself is steep and wooded, with the settlement and the pier on the sheltered side. At its far end a bridge runs off the island altogether, onto Geruma and Fukaji, so the walk does not stop at the shoreline.
How to enjoy it
Take the first fast boat and the whole morning is yours on the island. One road climbs from the settlement over the rise to the north-east beach, and the visitor centre on the way is the place to ask what the reef is doing that day. In winter the channel becomes whale water, and humpbacks are sometimes visible from the deck of the boat. Note the return time before you set off walking.
Background & history
The Keramas were protected for decades only as part of a wider quasi-national park strung along the Okinawa coast. On 5 March 2014 they were separated out and designated Japan's thirty-first national park, with the sea taken inside the boundary rather than left outside it. The date was chosen for the pun in its Japanese reading, san-go, coral. Four years later, on the same day of the year, the park's visitor centre opened here on Aka to explain what the designation was protecting.
Before you go
- Cash
- The beach and the bridge cost nothing. Boat tickets are issued at the port counter on the day of travel, and gear rental, dive boats and guides are all arranged locally. Card acceptance thins out once you leave Naha, so carry cash across.
- Before you go
- The crossing is open water. Sailings are suspended when the sea gets up, and the typhoon season in late summer and early autumn can close the route outright. Check the day's operating information before fixing a return time.
- Another way
- Village boats also run between the islands, and Zamami to Aka takes about 15 minutes, which makes the two easy to combine in one trip. On foot, the bridge carries you off Aka altogether, onto Geruma and Fukaji.
- After you get off
- Aka Port is the arrival point. The settlement stands immediately behind the pier, the visitor centre is a short walk into it, and the road for the north-east beach climbs from the far side of the houses.