Tsuken Island Okinawa, aka “Carrot Island”
Tsuken Island Okinawa, otherwise known as “Carrot Island,” is an island about 3.8 kilometers from the Katsuren Peninsula in Okinawa. Tsuken Island is relatively small, it’s only 1.88 km² (.73 sq. miles) and has a population of around 487 people. There is a town on the island which includes a port, post office, medical clinic, and a couple tiny convenience stores. Otherwise, Tsuken Island is known for their beautiful beaches and production of carrots.
Tsuken Carrots are a thing and are famous across Okinawa and mainland Japan. The soil on Tsuken island is a red soil, rich in minerals brought here from the ocean. The rich soil is ideal for the cultivation of root vegetables. Apparently, the Tsuken Carrots have higher contents of sugar and are said to be more nutritious.
Getting to Carrot Island by Ferry
There are two ferries that provide service between Heshikiya Port in Katsuren and Tsuken Island. There is a high-speed ferry and normal ferry. The difference in time is 18 minutes as the high-speed ferry takes 12 minutes while the regular ferry takes 30 minutes to cross from port to port. The Visit Okinawa site is an excellent source to ferry routes and schedules around Okinawa.
Fares
Regular Ferry, Adults ¥1220 Roundtrip
High-Speed Ferry, Adults ¥1510 Roundtrip
Timetable
Regular Ferry
Departs Heshikiya Port: 9:00, 11:00, and 14:00
Departs Tsuken Port: 10:00, 12:00, and 15:00
High-Speed Ferry
Departs Heshikiya Port: 7:30 and 17:00
Departs Tsuken Port: 8:00 and 17:30
Getting Around
Carrot Island is not that big. The best way to see the island is either by cycling or walking. There is a bike rental place on the island. We rode our bikes to Heshikiya Port, but left them there and decided to explore Tsuken Island on Foot. From Tsuken Port to Tanaka Beach ( northern most point) is just over 2 kilometers.
What to Do and See on Tsuken Island
What’s Carrot Island, without a carrot observatory with carrot benches? Our first stop on Carrot Island was the Carrot Observation Deck. The observation deck definitely needs an update and paint job, but it offered incredible views of Okinawa, Tsuken Island, and the surrounding ocean.
After seeing the beautiful ocean waters, we couldn’t wait to get to the beach. The first beach was Tomai Beach. This might very well be the prettiest beach I’ve seen in Okinawa to date. Crystal clear and calm water with various shades of Blue and a white sand beach, can it get any prettier?
Tomai Beach is part of a resort on the island but is free to the public. The beach is about 1 Km in length. We snorkeled around here for a bit. Although the beach is gorgeous, snorkeling was a little underwhelming. It’s not that it wasn’t beautiful, it was just a sandy and shallow beach with nothing else really to see. We did see a 6 legged (or armed?) starfish.
Surprisingly, there was an incredible amount of Sea Glass around the island. For those that don’t know. Sea glass is just regular glass that has been weathered or worn down over time so that the edges are smooth and round. White and Brown glass is pretty typical, but these beaches were full of green and light blue sea glass.
After walking and snorkeling at Tomai Beach, we kept walking beaches around the island. None of the other beaches could come close to the beauty of Tomai Beach, but we still enjoyed coming them for sea glass, sea shells, and finding fun critters, like the Red Eyed Rock Crab in the photo below. He was so cute!
Japan has these tetrapod things everywhere that we love. My friend Kimball is fascinated by these. They are his favorite! These tetrapods are usually set up along seawalls to limit erosion and longshore drift.
That kind of wraps up the beach portion of Tsuken Island. Honestly, there is not a whole lot else to do. But we found some other cool sites. We stumbled upon a few Tombs of Okinawa. These tombs fascinate me because they are massive!
The Golden Orb Weavers or Wood Spiders are getting massive this time of year. I guess if you hate spiders, avoid August in Okinawa. These spiders are all over the place and massive, I nearly came face to face with one as I almost walked in its web. Jill was brave enough to give you a size comparison of the spider with her hand!
Friendly Islanders
I’m not sure if it’s because tourism has been low or if people on Tsuken Island are just really friendly, but we met some incredible shop owners on the island.
It started when we went into one of the small convenience stores. I am a dummy and forgot sunblock with my bike at the other port. I asked the shop owner if she had any sunblock for sale. They didn’t but she went to the back and let me borrow hers. It’s the little things like this that make me appreciate the people here.
Another encounter we had was at a different convenience store. Before departing, we wanted to purchase a water. The owner asked us when our ferry was leaving. We had about an hour, so he told us to come out back and share a drink with him. It’s hard for me to pass up a beer with a local. We sat there for a bit. My Japanese is close to nothing and his English was, well lets say better then my Japanese. Although we couldn’t communicate well, we still shared stories and had an amazing time with him before we had to depart Tsuken Island back to the main island of Okinawa.
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Plan Your Trip:
Booking Accommodations
For booking recommendations on the best deals and locations, check out Agoda or Booking.com
Activities and Tours
Find fun activities and things to do through Tripadvisor. If you are looking for tours and day trips, Viator has a lot of great options.
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