Chiba east · IchinomiyaNo.1299★★Open in map →

Tsurigasaki Beach

cultureOff the trail — and worth it

The beach at the southern tip of Kujukuri that hosted surfing's first Olympic contest. Watch skilled surfers from the sand, see the Olympic podium in the visitor centre, and find the torii where festival shrines are carried down to the sea.

FromTokyo Station
~2 hrExpress + local train + walk
Get off atTorami Station (JR Sotobo Line)
From there
Tsurigasaki Beach

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

Within Japan this is a well-known beach, not a hidden one — but its fame belongs to surfers. Non-surfers rarely put it on a plan, even though anyone can watch high-level surfing from the shore and the Olympic displays are open to all.

Where it is

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What to look for

Tsurigasaki Beach toriiXser21 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Stella Tsurigasakivisitor centre showing the Olympic podium, the Games mascot and a surfboard signed by every Olympic surfer
Olympic monumenta surfboard-shaped monument marking the venue of surfing's first Olympic contest
The beach toriia torii standing on the sand, marking the festival ground where the shrines meet the sea
The surf line-upthe waves off the beach; the point at its southern end is known to surfers as Shidashita

How to actually get there

Tokyo Station → Kazusa-Ichinomiya Station (JR Limited Express Wakashio, ~60 min)
Kazusa-Ichinomiya Station → Torami Station (JR Sotobo Line local train, 1 stop)
Torami Station → Tsurigasaki Beach (walk ~30 min)

Wakashio express, then one stop by local train: Tokyo Station →(JR Limited Express Wakashio, about 60 min)→ Kazusa-Ichinomiya Station →(JR Sotobo Line local train, 1 stop)→ Torami Station → walk about 30 minutes to the beach. Change to the local train at Kazusa-Ichinomiya.
Return from Torami Station: Walk back to Torami Station and ride one stop to Kazusa-Ichinomiya, where both the Wakashio and rapid trains leave for Tokyo. Check the return train times before you walk to the beach.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Tsurigasaki Beach lies at the southern end of Kujukuri Beach, in the town of Ichinomiya. Good waves come in all year round, drawing professionals and advanced surfers, and Japanese surfers call it the 'surfing dojo'. Several pro surfers grew up riding here. When surfing joined the Olympic programme for the first time, at the Tokyo 2020 Games, this beach was chosen as the venue. In the beachside park, a visitor centre called Stella Tsurigasaki keeps items from the competition on show. The sand is sacred ground too: a torii stands on the beach, and portable shrines gather here every September.

How to enjoy it

Start at the visitor centre, open 9:00–16:30, which also hires out bicycles by the day if you reserve ahead. Then walk out past the torii to the shore and watch the surfers waiting for sets. On 13 September each year the shrine festival takes over the beach, as bearers run the portable shrines along the water's edge.

Background & history

The beach had a sacred role long before surfing. It is the festival ground of the Kazusa Junisha Festival, the annual rite of Tamasaki Shrine, said to have begun in 807 and designated an intangible folk cultural property by Chiba Prefecture. From 2016 to 2019 it hosted the QS6000 Ichinomiya Chiba Open, the highest-level international contest held in Japan in those years. In 2021 it staged the surfing event of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. A visitor centre with displays from the Games opened beside the beach in 2022.

Before you go

Cash: Bicycle hire at the visitor centre is 500 yen a day; bring photo ID (town listing). Torami is an unstaffed station with a simple IC-card gate, so Suica-type cards work.
Good to know: The latest notice from the Ichinomiya Tourism Association, dated 29 September 2026, closed the roads around the beach and its plaza after renewed flooding and asked visitors not to approach (checked 1 October 2026). Check the association's website or Instagram for a reopening notice before you go.
Another way: Rapid trains from Tokyo on the Keiyo or Sobu lines also run through to Kazusa-Ichinomiya, with no limited-express fee. From there you can also hire a bicycle at the tourist information centre beside the station (reserve ahead) and ride to the beach.
After you get off: From Torami Station, head southeast toward the coast — the beach is over 2 km away, about 30 minutes on foot.