Many Tokyoites visit beaches in nearby prefectures to cool off in the summer, but you can’t truly kick back and enjoy the sand and sun until the umi no ie (beach houses) start opening. A key part of Japan’s summer season, beach houses are surfside shacks offering beachgoers food, activities and a cool place to rest.
Yokosuka’s lesser known Akiya beach on the Tateishi coast has a swanky revamped beach house this season that reopened just in time for summer. Akiya Beach Club has been fully renovated and offers plenty of meals and drinks to refresh you after a day out in the sun. This two-storey beach house features a bar on the first floor and an open terrace on the second which has a spectacular view of Mt Fuji on clear days.
Akiya Beach Club also has rental equipment for plenty of water activities, including stand up paddle boarding, jet skiing, wakeboarding and surfing. The beach house offers group meal plans for enjoying on the sand, like the takibi plan (¥10,000), which comes with a table, four chairs and a bonfire for two hours, plus a few dutch oven meals, marshmallows and apples you can roast in the fire.
There’s also the classic barbecue plan (from ¥5,000 per person), which comes with a range of meat and veggies for you to grill, and a free-flow sparkling wine plan (¥7,000 per person), which gets you 90 minutes of unlimited bubbly. For a quick bite, just order a pizza or curry from the standard menu for takeout or even delivery.
Akiya is easily accessible from central Tokyo and only takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes to reach from Shinagawa station, while Akiya Beach Club is open every day from 10am to 8pm until late August. For more information see the website.
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