The Fukutsu Sea Mirror – which was once held as a local secret – is situated in Fukutsu, a town in Fukuoka prefecture on Japan’s southern coast
A stunning beach in Japan has been unspoilt by tourists and makes you feel like you’re on the edge of the world thanks to its mirror-like seas.
When the tide is out and the weather conditions are perfect, the shores of Fukutsu becomes a 3km crystal-clear mirror. Local resident and tourism board representative Rumi Nakamura explained: “Every morning when I come to work, I look at the ocean and think, ‘How is it doing today?’.
“If the ocean is a beautiful blue, then I feel happy, and if the waves are rough, I feel a stirring in my heart. We [locals] take a lot of pride in the sea, and it’s like a part of our family.” Rumi, who grew up in Fukutsu, which is situated in Fukuoka prefecture on the coast of southern Japan. After travelling all over the world and seeing countless shorelines, she’s now convinced that Fukutsu is a special place due to the stunning mirror effect of the waters.
“From my childhood, we knew that when the tide goes out and someone is standing further away they’d be reflected in the water, or that the clouds would be reflected and create a really beautiful scene,” she said. Rumi now works at the local tourism board and is trying to promote the beach’s beauty to the rest of the world. When she was growing up, the beach was a local secret but thanks to recent efforts, visitors have started swarming there. You can find countless examples of the gorgeous scenes with the search terms Fukutsu Kagami no Umi (Fukutsu Sea Mirror).
The wider area of Fukutsu has attracted domestic visitors for beautiful scenes of the sun setting over the Miyajidake Shrine, a Shinto shrine dedicated to the Empress Jingū. In February and October, it creates a perfect line of sunlight connecting the shrine to the sea. The promotion of the mirror came at the same time as the pandemic, and appears to have done well due to being an outdoor area where people could remain socially-distanced. Rumi said: “When people couldn’t go to crowded indoor places, they could come to the wide-open beach without having to talk or get close to others, and could take a picture. Looking at the sea and letting go of that build-up of stress could give them energy for the next day.”
