Itoman Market Before Nine: Island Vegetables at a Price You Agree Out Loud

If you go to Itoman’s market, go early, and on any morning but Sunday. From early morning its vegetable stalls fill with Itoman’s anmā, the town’s mothers, selling island greens and fruit at a price that is settled by talking with you, not read off a label. Nearby, a kamaboko maker from the Taisho era is already open by five, and on an ordinary Sunday every butcher in the building is shut. What draws me is that price agreed out loud.

Do not plan around the market’s posted opening time of nine. For its food counters, that is already mid-morning: the kamaboko maker and the corner shop open well before it, and so do the first of the butchers.

A market that feeds the town

Itoman is a fishing town, known as a town of uminchu, the people of the sea, and a bus ride south of Naha. Its public market, Itomaru, opened in new premises in 2020 on the site of the old market, and the market describes the place as the kitchen of Itoman and the south of the island since the old market opened.

You will find three butchers among its counters, along with a fishmonger, a corner shop selling daily goods and a kamaboko maker. Each keeps its own closing day, so the market looks a little different on every day of the week.

Where the price is talked out

Start at the aitai-uri zone. Aitai-uri is the old way of selling here: the grower or seller and the buyer agree the price between them. The market says the zone is lively from early morning with Itoman’s mothers, with island vegetables and fruit in season, and the Itoman dialect flying back and forth.

The market invites you to shop by talking with the sellers and agreeing the price between you, a way of selling far older than the building around it.

Before nine: fish cake and meat

Walk next to the kamaboko maker, listed by the market as 西南門小カマボコ屋, founded in the Taisho era and in business ever since. Its counter holds everything from big kamaboko for the family table to small ones you can eat as a snack, and the market suggests trying several side by side. It closes on Thursdays and shuts early on Mondays, so plan around it on both.

Uehara Shokuhin opens just as early. Think of it as the neighbourhood shop: side dishes, daily goods, and Hamakyo bread, a local brand the market says you will find only in and around Itoman.

The butchers open one after another in the early morning. Inamine Meat began, the market says, at an open-air market just after the war, and is now run by the fourth generation; its rule is to buy each day’s meat and sell it the same day. Like every butcher here, it normally closes on Sundays, though it opens before lunar Obon and the lunar New Year.

If you want beef, go to the butcher listed as 玉城精肉店, run by its second-generation proprietress and the only counter in the market that sells it; the market suggests picking some up on your way to the beach. For nakami, try Ōshiro Meat. People come there for this pork offal, which turns up across Okinawan home cooking, and some, the market says, drive down from the middle of the island to buy it.

The fish that came in this morning

Ask for the tuna at Matayoshi Fish. The owner bids for it at the fishing port in Nishizaki early that same morning, and sells it in slices too, so you can eat it straight away. The market describes a sign the shop has put up out front: the shiibun, the little extra a seller throws in, is a kachāshī, the Okinawan dance. In other words, the bonus is a dance, not a slice. Its hours move with its orders and it closes on no fixed day, so treat it as a lucky find rather than a plan.

On the last day of the lunar year

If your trip happens to fall on Tushinuyuru, New Year’s Eve by the lunar calendar, expect a crowd. From early morning, the market says, people come for New Year soba and for the food and decorations of the lunar New Year. The date moves every year, so look it up before you hope for it.

If you stay for lunch

Choose by the day. Minatomachi Parlor, the sister counter of a fishmonger, serves kaisendon from late morning and closes on Tuesdays. Gajimaruya fries half a chicken at a time, a Hokkaido dish made with Okinawan chicken, and closes on Mondays; it makes a limited number each day and stops when they are gone.

When you leave, walk down to the water. Itoman’s fishing port is about a minute’s walk from the market.

Before you go

Checked 6 October 2026.

What I would do

I would take an early bus south on a Friday or Saturday, when none of the shops here with a fixed closing day is shut, buy greens from the aitai-uri stalls while the morning is still young, pick a few kamaboko to try side by side, and stay for kaisendon at Minatomachi Parlor before the bus back to Naha, all for the sake of a price agreed out loud.