About an hour’s drive from Naha Airport. The first floor is a market and the second floor is an eat-in space. The first floor is the market and the second floor is the eat-in space. It is the perfect place to enjoy delicious seafood unique to Okinawa’s seaside area.
Point 1: Surprisingly easy to access! Where is the Yomitan Village Fisheries Cooperative Direct Store located?
The “Yomitan Village Fisheries Cooperative Direct Store” is located by the sea in Yomitan Village in the central part of Okinawa’s main island.
The first floor of the cooperative is the market, and the second floor is an eat-in space where customers can have what they buy on the first floor cooked and eaten. This is the same system as the “Makishi Public Market,” one of Okinawa’s representative tourist spots.
The Yomitan Village Fisheries Cooperative Direct Store is about an hour from Naha Airport via the Okinawa Expressway. By bus, take Ryukyu Bus No. 120, which also passes in front of Kokusai-Dori and American Village, transfer to Ryukyu Bus No. 62 at “Kadena” and get off at “Toya”, then walk 10 minutes to the fishery cooperative.
There are other routes, but this route is the cheapest, although it takes an extra 20 minutes.
Fishermen’s cooperatives are usually thought of as old buildings with a market and a restaurant, but we were surprised to see a beautiful building, probably because there are so many tourists here! Let’s go inside right away!
Point 2: Fresh seafood! Introducing the seafood menu at the Yomitan Village Fisheries Cooperative Direct Store!
At the Yomitan Village Fisheries Cooperative Direct Store, visitors can buy seafood at the market on the first floor and have it cooked and eaten at the eat-in space on the second floor.
The auction starts at 10:00 a.m., and the place is lively with middlemen and other buyers. After the auction, a direct sales store next to the auction opens at around 11:00 a.m., and the public can buy freshly purchased fish at a discount.
You can have the fish you bought cheaply cooked on the second floor, or you can enjoy the seafood menu at the “Kaijin Shokudo”. You can enjoy it in your way. Tuna bowl (950 yen), Mozuku bowl (750 yen), Ikasumi bowl (1,500 yen), and fish soup (1,200 yen) are also available.
In addition to the luxurious “Miyakoya no Kaijin-don” (1,950 yen), tuna bowl (950 yen), Mozuku bowl (750 yen), Ikasumi bowl (1,500 yen), and fish soup (1,200 yen), tempura is also available at “Kaijin Shokudo”.
Other set menus such as umi budo donburi (sea grape bowl) and grilled fish with butter are also available and are relatively reasonably priced.
After all, the ingredients are freshly purchased, so how can they not be delicious? If you want to eat fresh seafood, you will have to choose a fishing port.
Point 3: This is what I wanted to eat! Tempura menu at Yomitan Village Fisheries Cooperative Direct Store!
Unlike its mainland counterparts, Okinawan tempura has a dashi (Japanese soup stock) flavor to the batter. Therefore, it can be eaten as a snack without tempura sauce. You may have seen it sold in cases labeled “hot snacks” at convenience stores and markets in Okinawa.
You can also find Okinawa’s unique tempura at the Yomitan Village Fisheries Cooperative Direct Store. The tempura is not sold in a case but is deep-fried upon order, so you can eat it “Atiko-ko” (meaning “hot” in the Okinawan dialect).
The system is to fill out an order sheet first and then place your order.
For sale is “Kaijin Shokudo” which sells seafood rice bowls, etc., and tempura of fish, squid, and Mozuku (only Mozuku is 100 yen, the rest is 90 yen).
If the weather is clear, it is nice to eat on the terrace where you can see as far as the Kerama Islands!
When I eat the well-seasoned Atikko tempura, I feel “Ah, I’m back in Okinawa,” and I wonder how you feel about it, too.
Surrounded by the sea, seafood is delicious in Okinawa, but it is not easy to find a place where you can eat delicious and reasonably priced seafood. There are places such as “Makishi Public Market” near Kokusai-dori Avenue, but the prices seem to be very high these days.
If you want to eat cheap and fresh seafood, please visit “Yomitan Village Fisheries Cooperative Direct Store”.
