Suma Beach

Suma has been a place people came to look at the sea for a very long time. It is where the Genji of the Tale of Genji goes into exile, brooding at the waves, and the same stretch of shore saw the battle of Ichi-no-Tani in 1184 when Yoshitsune's cavalry came down the mountain behind it. None of that is visible now. What you get is 1.8 kilometres of pale sand with the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge closing off the western end of the view.

The convenience is the selling point. JR Suma Station sits directly across the road from the sand, about fifteen minutes from Sannomiya, so this is a beach you can reach in a shirt and decide to swim on impulse. The sand is imported and regularly renourished, the water is calm, and the whole thing is engineered rather than wild.

July and August bring the umi no ie, temporary beach shacks selling yakisoba, shaved ice and beer, along with several hundred thousand people. Weekends in that window are shoulder to shoulder and loud. May, June and September are the better months if you want the walk rather than the party: the bridge catches the light in the late afternoon, and Awaji Island sits low on the water across the strait.

The park behind the beach has a promenade you can cycle, and the aquarium there reopened in 2024 as Kobe Suma Sea World after a full rebuild, with orcas and dolphins. Suma Rikyu Park up the hill has a rose garden and a view back down over the bay. Swimming outside the official season is technically not supervised, and the currents in the strait are stronger than the flat water suggests.