Daemado (Tsushima): The Japanese Island That Busan People Know Better Than the Japanese

Japanese people sometimes ask Koreans from Busan how Tsushima is. Not the other way around. The island that belongs to Japan, that has Japanese food and Japanese convenience stores and Japanese countryside roads with nothing on them, is in practice better known to people living in Busan than it is to most residents of mainland Japan.

The reason is because Tsushima, known in Korean as Daemado (대마도), is the highly accessible destination from Busan, but harder to travel to from Japan. The island sits roughly 50 kilometres from the Korean coast. On a clear day from the northern tip, you can see the lights of Busan.

For Japanese people coming from the mainland, Tsushima is remote and requires effort to reach. Only to be on a countryside island with the same food and groceries they can find when they walk out their front door. For people in Busan, it's foreign, reachable, good food, and shops that sell items they can't find at home.

The route runs from Busan International Ferry Terminal to Hitakatsu Port on the northern end of Tsushima. The crossing takes around an hour and a half to Hitakatsu. There is also a southern route to Izuhara, the island's main town, which takes around two hours and ten minutes.

Most Busan day-trippers use the Hitakatsu route. The port is small, there is a duty-free shop right outside the terminal, and the ferry schedule allows you to leave in the morning and be back the same evening. If you plan to go south to Izuhara and explore more of the island, an overnight stay makes more sense.

What it costs: Ferry prices vary by season and how far in advance you book. As a rough guide, expect to pay somewhere in the range of 60,000 to 90,000 KRW each way for a standard seat.

Japan also charges a departure tax on every person leaving the country. It is currently ¥1,000 per person and rises to ¥3,000 from July 2026. This is paid in cash at the port on departure, not included in your ticket. Have the yen ready before you get to the terminal or you will be scrambling for an ATM on the way out.

One thing to sort out before you board: Buy sea sickness medicine at the port in Busan. Not a pharmacy the day before. The ferry terminal area has a pharmacy selling exactly this, and it is worth slightly more than other pharmacy pricing. Buy two medicine per person, because they do not sell it at the port in Japan when you are leaving to come back.

Japanese food
Real Japanese food, in Japan, at Japanese prices. Ramen, sashimi, tempura, conveyor belt sushi, canned drinks from Japanese vending machines. The food is not the same as the Japanese restaurants in Busan, partly because it is the actual thing and partly because Tsushima has its own local specialities

Grocery shopping, with no weight limit
There is no luggage restriction on the ferry the way there would be on a flight. The Korean customs duty-free allowance for returning travelers is $800 USD worth of goods, plus two litres of alcohol and 200 cigarettes. In practice, Busan shoppers load up on Japanese snacks, sake, whisky, seasonings, and whatever else they could not easily find at home.

The beaches
This tends to get undersold in the "Busan shoppers do grocery runs" framing of Tsushima. Miuda Beach in the north of the island is on Japan's list of its top 100 most beautiful beaches and looks like it belongs in Okinawa: pale sand, clear green-blue water, forested hills behind it. Minato Beach is more accessible from Hitakatsu and good for a quick swim. If you are going overnight, building in a few hours at the beach is worth doing. If you are on a day trip, it depends on the season and how much time you want to spend on food and shopping versus getting wet.

Fishing
We saw two groups of people with fishing gear on the ferry. I'm not interested in fishing, so I honestly have no clue where they were going. But it's well known that people like to go on short fishing trips and bring back the catch.

Day trip: works well if you are focused on the food and shopping circuit. Take the morning ferry from Busan, arrive at Hitakatsu by late morning, have lunch, browse the shops and supermarket, walk the port area, then head back on the afternoon ferry. You are home in Busan by evening. This is the format that a lot of Busan locals use.

One night: opens up more of the island. You can rent a car and drive south toward Izuhara, or a bicycle and explore Hitakatsu. Izuhara, which is the larger of the two main towns and has more restaurants and things to see. The island has an old castle site, forest roads, viewpoints, and stretches of coast that reward having a few hours to spend on them rather than a rushed schedule. One night is enough to get a proper feel for the pace of the place.

Two nights and beyond: possible, and there are people who do it. Tsushima is the kind of island where doing nothing in particular is the activity, and that suits some travelers well. But to be direct about what the island is: it is a quiet, rural Japanese island with limited nightlife, limited restaurants outside of Hitakatsu and Izuhara, and beautiful nature that you are mostly experiencing on your own. For a long weekend of genuine relaxation with good seafood, it works.

There are not many hotel options near Hitakatsu port, and the choice narrows quickly once you factor in location. Toyoko Inn Tsushima Hitakatsu is the one that keeps coming up for a reason.

It is a standard Japanese business hotel chain: clean rooms, functional design, nothing luxurious. What makes this location different is where it sits. The hotel is on a hillside above Miuda Beach, a one-minute walk from the sand. The hot spring next door, Kami-Tsushima Nagisa-no-yu, has outdoor baths facing the sea. Both of those things would cost considerably more at a ryokan making the same pitch.

Breakfast is a free buffet from 6:30 to 9:00, which matters if you are catching an early ferry back to Busan.

The hotel also keeps Tsushima horses on the grounds, a rare native breed with fewer than 100 left in existence.

For a one-night stay, the sequence that works: ferry in, check in, lunch and shopping in Hitakatsu, beach in the afternoon, hot spring next door, dinner in the village (Make a reservation), sleep, buffet breakfast, morning ferry home.

Getting around: Hitakatsu is small enough cycle. For the rest of the island, you need a car. Rental options are available at the port. There is a bus service on Tsushima but it is infrequent and designed for locals, not tourists with three hours.

Cash versus card: Japan remains more cash-reliant than Korea. Bring yen. ATMs are available in Hitakatsu but having some ready is easier.

What to bring: your passport, yen (or be prepared to withdraw), a bag for the return trip shopping, and sea sickness medicine from the Busan port. Make sure your yen covers the departure tax in cash on the way out: ¥1,000 currently, ¥3,000 from July 2026. That is really the list.

A note on visa checks if you are a foreigner in Korea: Immigration has been dealing with a pattern of foreigners in Busan using this day trip as a visa run, and they have started screening for it. If you are a non-Korean there is a very high chance they will start to ask vague questions about your living situation. The questions can feel unclear at first because they are not always direct about what they are actually asking.

What they want to know is that you are not doing a visa run. If you have a legitimate long-term visa for Korea and are just visiting Tsushima as a normal trip, the easiest thing to do is show them your visa expiration date.

If a visa run is actually your goal: be aware that this is the thing they are screening for, and it may not go smoothly.