Japan

Where to surf in Japan

The islands of Japan are strung out across the NW corner of the wave rich Pacific, yet very few surfers will ever visit these interesting shores. The cost factor is enough to put most people off, but add in heavy crowds, intense industrialisation, an utterly alien culture and inconsistent waves, then it's hardly surprising that few foreign surfers ever make the effort. For those who have enough money and can handle the flat spells, then Japan can be a rewarding surf destination. Japan appears to be ideally situated in the NW Pacific, ready to pick up wave energy anywhere along its 3000km length. From the frozen north to the tropical south the seasonal variations are extreme. The Land of the Rising Sun is made up of four major islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu) and almost 7000 lesser islands, split between the influence of the warm Kuroshio and the cold Oyashio currents.

Hokkaido

More snowboarding than surfing with some bitter water and air temps in winter, however consistent peaks can be found at Hamaatsuma, Itankihama and in the city of Hakodate, but the island is heavily armed with tetrapods everywhere. There are a couple of surf shops and the town's summer breaks will be far less crowded than Honshu, despite many holidaymakers from the south.

On Hokkaido the hardy local contingent can be found picking off Sea of Japan waves on the west coast as far north as Wakkanai and Rashiri Island, or closer to Sapporo at the popular rivermouth breaks of Shioya, Fugoppe and Furubira. Summers can be very flat on the Sea of Japan but that is the time for SE swell and some typhoon action to roll into Uchiuwa Bay, which is ringed by volcanoes.

Honshu

Tohoku – NE region where incredible scenery is buried under some of the deepest snowfall figures in the world. Spring to autumn is usually the best surf season with more SE swell hitting every shape and size of sea defence known to man and creating some good beachbreaks right up north at Rokkasho, Veedol and Misawa harbour.

The coastal mountains then lead down to Sendai where one of Japan’s best beachbreaks will crank up in any size swell offering barrelling peaks for a large local contingent who surf Sendai-Shinko year-round.

Fukushima used to be a great road trip for Tokyo surfers to escape for some quieter, cleaner waves up the northeast coast. Since the 2011 tsunami and nuclear power plant meltdown, this has become a no-go zone thanks to high radiation levels and a forecast 40-year clean-up, which has yet to locate 600 tonnes of melted radioactive fuel and plans to dump millions of litres of tritium-laced water into the Pacific. Great beachbreaks like Toyoma and Kamioka are too close to the meltdown site in Futuba to be safe, but some locals take their chances.

Kanto – Ibaraki Prefecture is almost as close to Tokyo as Chiba but far less popular as it gets colder and windier and is only 100km from the reactor. The waves are generally high quality beachbreaks (Akamba, Kujigawa) and reefbreaks (Todai, Hitachi) among the sea defences and can be big and powerful with longer period E swells. Long beaches at Oarai and Onuki offer straight sandbars for the crowds of learners and cruisers between the jetties and are also home to some major tourist attractions. T-bar groynes litter the long beach southwards giving some shape to exposed beachies through Kashima all the way down to Chosi and the beginning of the most crowded zone in Japan, Chiba Prefecture.

In Kanagawa Prefecture Shonan can easily push Chiba for highest crowd factor but a lack of consistency is the main problem for the closest beaches to downtown Tokyo. Nestled deep in Tokyo Bay with offshore islands filtering swell, it is either small windswell or pumping SE typhoon swell that gives the thousands of locals a chance to share a few waves. In the 10km stretch from the excellent walls and barrels of Osaki Reef in the east to the Shonan indicator beachbreaks of Kugenhama there are some quality storm reefs at Kabune, Tamaishi and Inamura, where a lack of quantity means competition for waves is intense. The Izu peninsula picks up more swell and E swell will start re-appearing at Shirahama, a consistent beachbreak used for comps and also at bays like Tattadohama, Iritahama and Ohama. Shizuoka Prefecture sees increases in water temps and decreasing crowds compared to Chiba, but is usually a summer/autumn destination working on SE-SW swells. Majestic Mt Fuji overlooks dozens of shifty beachbreaks plus a few reefs and rivermouths, so it pays to scout about. Highlights include the southeast-facing beaches around Shizunami, where a new surf stadium has been built a few blocks from the beach. Nearby Katahama and Susuki beaches get some OK waves, but the south-facing coast at Omaezaki boasts some serious barrels at Niinogawa Point, Sharks Point, and down to the nuclear plant at Hamaoka. Wind turbines are a bad omen here unless you have a sail or kite, particularly in winter, but when it’s offshore, the whole south coast can fire through Toyohama, Hamamatsu, Kosai and Akabane.

Kansai – This region includes the coastal prefectures of Mie and Wakayama, providing plenty of waves for the surfers from the sprawling metropolis of Osaka and Kyoto. Ise has some good longboarding spots like Kounohama and check the rocky coast around the Toba Observatory. Pocket beaches with campgrounds like Atashika and Odomari need SE swells, while the long shingle beaches leading down to Shingu rivermouth pick up NE-SW, but have little quality. Wakayama is far more rocky with lots of hidden reefs like Nachi or Inami that require some decent swell from the southern quadrant. Gobo is really popular with city surfers since it’s only a 2hr drive to the SW-facing beach, but if you want to see real crowds, try Isonoura on a summer swell and share with hundreds!

Sea of Japan – Breaks start in the far north in Aomori, Akita and Yamagata prefectures but its damn freezing. Ikarashi Cospo beach in Niigata is popular and the exposed Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture should pick up maximum swell at rivermouth spots like Machino or Shibagaki and the jetties of Tokumitsu or Ataka near the city of Komatsu. Kyoto surfers make the drive to the west coast spots of the Kansai region when there’s a storm to kick up the surf and gravitate towards Hamazume where sand builds up between the sea defences and there are “onsen” hot springs nearby to help thaw out. The Chugoku region represents the most westerly chance for Sea of Japan waves on the main island of Honshu. Tottori is a popular spot for tourists and surfers alike, where proper sandbars are fed by Japan’s only mini-desert/sand dunes. Neighbouring Ishiwaki holds similar higher quality waves and this coastline receives anything from W around to NE swells, which often march in during winter. Scope out Kirara, Kokofu and the long north-facing beach at Odaohama comes complete with camping and a challenging right reef at Kohama. Even offshore islands like Tsunoshima have waves, leading down to the Kyu Shu zone of Fukuoka where shorter fetch and narrower swell window are offset by uncrowded quality and relatively warm water.

Shikoku

Shikoku is home to some of Japan’s finest rivermouth breaks centred around the eastern half of Kochi Prefecture – with plenty of exploration potential to the west and east.

Tokushima – This is the eastern part of Shikoku from Cape Gamouda down to Kaifu where cliffy, boulder strewn bays and some steep protected beaches like Tainohama may have some waves when the summer/autumn SE-SW swells arrive.

West Kochi – Beyond the world-class cylinders of Nyodo Rivermouth, the coast goes vertical and contorted again, with some points and rocky bays to seek out, but much is inaccessible and too steep or rocky. Boulder strewn average beachbreaks at Ida, Tanoura, Futami and Hirano, pick up E-S swell or head a short way south for a long left point into a rivermouth and harbour in eastern Tosashimizu. Around the windswept and waveless Cape Ashizuri the rugged coast lacks opportunity except at rivermouths like Kainokawa.

Kyushu

The most westerly main island of Japan is Kyushu, where warmer waters, a wide swell window and far fewer surfers than up north, combine to make this a smart surf destination. Miyazaki is on the east coast, welcoming any Pacific pulses, while Fukuoka can be found on the northwest coast, collecting any swells getting squeezed southwards through the Japan Sea.

The NE coast plunges into the sea apart from a few big bays that hit grey sand shingle beaches and usually close-out. The big rivermouths begin at Nobeoka then Hyuga and instantly the surf improves as long jetties hold sand and triangular bars are sculpted by the river flow.

This theme runs through the Miyazaki zone, then continues around the tip of the island and onto the typhoon dependant peaks of Oniguchi, which sits under the shadow of the majestic volcanic cone Mt Kaimondake. This SW-facing coast suffers from a very small, typhoon dependant swell window, since the Ryukyu Islands block anything from the SE-S respectively.

Ryukyu Islands

Falling from Kyushu like a broken necklace of pearls, the Ryukyu Islands arc southwest for 1000km, finishing just off the coast of Taiwan. Within this slender archipelago, both in the north and the largest island of , can give surfers something that can't be found anywhere else in Japan - a tropical surf experience.

Those looking for adventure should try Amami Oshima, a large island to the north of Okinawa that holds at least a half dozen spots sprinled about and few locals to share the rivermouths and reefs with. There are dozens of smaller islands plus the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands further south have extensive fringing coral reefs and plenty of swell exposure from just about every direction.