While the intensity of the noonday sun attracts tourists to the beach, Okinawans usually stay away during the daylight hours. Instead, they prefer to gather on the shoreline as the sun sets, ready to eat, drink and be merry. Even Okinawans who live in other prefectures enjoy beach parties-holding them wherever they can. In Yokohama's Tsurumi district, for example, which has a large Okinawan community, beach parties are held along the Tsurumi River. On a recent Saturday night on Nashiro beach in Itoman, southern Okinawa, a dozen beach parties were heating up the evening sands.
People rent tents and barbecue sets from vendors right on the beach.
Beach parties have grown out of Okinawans' longtime relationship with the sea. For Okinawans, the ocean connects to other places, rather than cutting them off from the outside world. An old Okinawan custom on special occasion beach parties has lost its popularity-the slaughtering and roasting of a goat. Although that may sound strange to mainland Japanese, locals say it fulfilled important social functions. These days, however, the tradition is banned on Okinawan beaches for sanitary and other reasons.