West Okinawa Main Island · YomitanNo.659★★★Open in map →
Cape Zanpa
— Yomitan's clifftop cape and climbable lighthouse
A limestone headland at the western edge of Yomitan, where the cliffs drop straight into the East China Sea. A white lighthouse stands at the point and is open for visitors to climb, and the park around it is free with no closing time.
- FromNaha Bus Terminal
- ~1 hr 45 minBus from Naha, then taxi
- Get off atYomitan Bus Terminal (Naha routes 28 and 29)
- From there
- Cape Zanpa
Where it is
41 more notes in Okinawa · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- The Zanpa great shisaan outsized lion-dog guardian standing at the park entrance
- Statue of Taikia bronze of the envoy Yomitan claims as the first the Ryukyu court sent to Ming China
- The cliff promenadea level paved path along the rim, wide enough for wheelchairs and pushchairs
- Zanpa Lighthousea white tower thirty-one metres from ground to top, open for visitors to climb
How to actually get there
- Naha Bus Terminal → Yomitan Bus Terminal (bus route 28 or 29, about 75 minutes).
- Yomitan Bus Terminal → Zanpa Misaki Park by taxi; no bus route reaches the cape itself.
- Park entrance → the great shisa and the statue of Taiki, then out onto the paved cliff promenade.
- Cliff promenade → the lighthouse, climbing the tower during opening hours before returning the same way.
- Bus 28 or 29 from Naha Bus Terminal
- Naha Bus Terminal →(routes 28 or 29, about 75 minutes)→ Yomitan Bus Terminal. The cape is still a few kilometres northwest of the terminal, so take a taxi for the last leg. Allow around an hour and three quarters from Naha to the headland.
- Return from Yomitan Bus Terminal
- Taxi back to Yomitan Bus Terminal and take route 28 or 29 towards Naha. Services thin out after dark, so confirm the last departure at the terminal before you settle in for the sunset.
About the place
Cape Zanpa closes the western end of Yomitan, the village that occupies the widest part of Okinawa Main Island's central coast. The cliff line here stands about thirty metres above the sea and runs for roughly two kilometres, a wall of raised coral limestone facing open water. Behind it lies Zanpa Misaki Park: lawn, a promenade laid out wide enough for wheelchairs and pushchairs, a free car park, and an outsized shisa guardian lion at the entrance. The headland belongs to the Okinawa Coast Quasi-National Park. Because the cape faces west with nothing in front of it, this is one of the island's established places to watch the sun go down.
How to enjoy it
The lighthouse opens for a morning session from 9:30 until noon and again in the afternoon, with the closing hour moving by season and by day of the week. Come in the morning for the tower and the cliff path before the coaches, or come late for the sun going down over open sea. Both fit into one visit, because the park itself never closes.
Background & history
The lighthouse was first lit on 30 March 1974, only a couple of years after Okinawa returned to Japanese administration, which makes it a late arrival among Japan's lights. The cape carries an older memory as well. A bronze figure in the park honours Taiki, remembered in Yomitan as the first tribute envoy the Ryukyu kingdom sent to Ming China. The shisa at the entrance follows the lion-dog guardians set on Okinawan roofs and gateways, built at village scale in the postwar decades.
Before you go
- Cash
- The park, the car park and the cliff promenade are free. Climbing the lighthouse costs 300 yen for junior-high age and above, collected at the door; younger children go free. Carry cash for the tower and for the taxi.
- Before you go
- Lighthouse hours differ between summer and winter and between weekdays and weekends, and admission stops shortly before closing. The cape is fully exposed, typhoons cross Okinawa from summer into autumn, and there is no lighting after dark.
- Another way
- By rental car it is about seventy minutes from Naha Airport up the western side of the island. Parking at the park is free, which makes the cape an easy add-on to a driving day along the Yomitan coast.
- After you get off
- Yomitan Bus Terminal sits inland and is a transfer point rather than a trailhead; there is no walk from it worth making. Taxis wait at the forecourt. Ask for Zanpa Misaki Park and you are set down beside the free car park, a few level minutes from the lighthouse.