Awaji Island’s onions are a genuine local obsession. The island’s mild maritime climate, long sunshine hours and well-drained sandy soil, combined with a slow curing period hanging in open-sided sheds, produce onions with unusually high sugar and low pungency — sweet enough that Japanese cooks eat them raw in salads where other onions would be too harsh. You will see the drying sheds all over the island, roadside stands selling nets of them for a few hundred yen, and restaurants building whole menus around them: onion burgers, whole roasted onions, onion soup and, inevitably, onion ice cream.
🗓️ At a Glance
| Location | Awaji Island, Hyogo |
| Hours | Farm stands and restaurants daytime |
| Admission | Free; a net of onions a few hundred yen |
| Time needed | Part of an Awaji day trip |
| Best time | Spring for the new-season harvest |
What to Try
- Raw onion salad, sweet enough to eat undressed.
- Onion burgers and whole roasted onions.
- Roadside stands and open-sided drying sheds.
- Onion soup, onion crisps and onion ice cream.
Combine Your Visit
- Combine with Hanasajiki flower fields.
- Cross via the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge .
- Read our Hyogo overview .
Getting There
- By bus: highway buses from Kobe or Osaka cross the bridge to Awaji in under an hour.
- By car: best for reaching roadside stands and farm restaurants.
Tips
Buy from a roadside farm stand rather than a supermarket — the price is lower, the onions are fresher and the varieties on sale change through the season. New-season onions in spring are the sweetest and most delicate but do not keep, so buy those to eat on the trip and take the cured ones home if you want them to last.
