We came to 3 Peace Cafe in Itoman, southern Okinawa.
The unusual name made me think of wishing for peace amid refreshing nature.
It was also near Naha Airport, with planes faintly visible taking off and landing.
Even with Google navigation, the lack of signs made it difficult to locate.
Bedding was drying upstairs; I wondered whether a guesthouse operated there too.
The café was on the second floor.
The source listed hours of 11:30 a.m.–7 p.m., closed Sundays, Mondays, and Japanese public holidays.
A group of women were enjoying lunch at the sea-view window seats.
Slippers waited at the entrance, where we removed our shoes.
There was a table directly in front of the kitchen,
a larger table for groups of friends,
and a window seat overlooking Nashiro Beach.
Only one seating area faced the sea, so we took a small table in the middle.
It was a small café; about four groups seemed enough to fill it.
The interior was full of cute little details.
I suspected much of it had been put together by hand.
At the time, island-tofu and cheese hamburger steak, garlic-sautéed chicken, chicken with Japanese scallion sauce, and the changing daily lunch each cost JPY 880.
Sea-grape and tuna rice bowls, grilled fish with natto and sea grapes, Japanese-style peperoncino with sea grapes, and cold tomato pasta with sea grapes each cost JPY 1,080.
An extra JPY 200 added dessert and a drink.
It was a little disappointing that not every dish had a photograph.
A small chalkboard listed the extra desserts: caramel-apple cheesecake, brown-sugar and roasted-soybean-flour no-bake cheesecake, shikuwasa chiffon cake, and rum-chocolate cake.
We ordered chicken with Japanese scallion sauce
and a sea-grape and tuna rice bowl.
Sea grapes can be tricky to prepare, but these had no fishy taste and retained their popping texture. They were delicious.
They may have been the best sea grapes I had eaten in Okinawa.
The bitter-melon and tuna salad was good too, with relatively little of bitter melon’s characteristic astringency.
The portions were small, but the cooking was clean-tasting and delicious.
For the added desserts, we had brown-sugar and roasted-soybean-flour no-bake cheesecake
and rum-chocolate cake.
The rum made me pause, since I had to drive afterward.
We took the desserts out to the terrace.
Okinawa’s cool sea breeze felt wonderful.
In front of the café was a campsite,
where we could see people enjoying a camping stay.
There were also tables and sofas for overnight guests,
and a swing hanging from a large tree that looked good for photos.
Overall, the atmosphere reminded me more of Southeast Asia than Japan.
A short walk from the café brought us to the little-known Nashiro Beach.
Around the back of the beach, the water was a deep green.
We spotted a surfer who had come for the waves.
The sea was calm that day, so perhaps the timing was not ideal.
Whoops!
3 Peace Cafe
Address: 1931 Maezato, Itoman, Okinawa
Phone: 098-994-0014
Hours recorded: 11:30 a.m.–7 p.m.
Closed Sundays, Mondays, and Japanese public holidays, according to the source