Nagabeta Sea Road

photo by Saigen Jiro · CC0

photo by くろふね · CC BY 4.0

The lamp posts stay standing in the water: ten minutes of tide and the road disappears.

From the shore a concrete road one kilometre long runs out into the Ariake Sea, with twenty-four lamp posts along the way: they are there for the people who farm nori seaweed. At low tide you walk among crabs and mudskippers; when the tide turns, the road goes under and only the posts remain. One visitor counted ten minutes between the tide starting to come in and the road disappearing.

The road was built in 1979 so that fishermen could reach their boats at low tide: Ariake Bay has one of the largest tidal ranges in Japan, and that range decides, twice a day, whether the road is there or not. On the horizon, across the sea, you can see Unzen-Fugendake, the volcano in Nagasaki Prefecture.

ℹ️ ⚠️ AS OF 1 SEPTEMBER 2026 THE ROAD IS CLOSED. On 30 July 2026 the municipality of Uto published a 通行止め notice: the earthquake of 28 July damaged a section of it, the entrance is barred because of the danger to pedestrians and no reopening date has been set; the municipality says it will announce it on its website when the road can be used again. Sumiyoshi Coastal Park, from which you watch it, has a free car park and toilets. You do not come at a time, you come at a tide: within three hours of low tide the road is visible, at high tide only the posts remain, and the tide tables are those of the Japan Meteorological Agency. On foot it is 25 minutes from Sumiyoshi Station on the JR Misumi Line and 5 minutes from the Nagabeta bus stop on the line to Amakusa; by car, 45 minutes from Kumamoto. If you come by car, do not park in the fishermen's yard: it is for work, and visitors get told so.

🚉 Sumiyoshi · 17 min walk

Sources: tabizine.jp · 4travel.jp · city.uto.lg.jp

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