There are two large islands in the lake,
Daikon Island
(???
Daikonjima
, lit. "
radish
island") and
Eshima Island
(??
Eshima
, "river island"). There are bridges and roads that connect the east and west shores of the lake through the two islands.
Nakaumi is a brackish lake because it is connected to the Sea of Japan by a short channel, the
Sakai Channel
, and lies so low that the tides reverse the flow of the rivers all the way into Lake Shinji.
Nakaumi (??) literally means "middle sea". Even though Nakaumi is a lake, it was likely named a sea because of its saline water and proximity to the actual sea. In
Japanese
, the lake is usually referred to simply as Nakaumi, not as Nakaumi-ko (Lake Nakaumi).