In Namiji you are fishermen from Japan of yesteryear, fishing south of the Japanese archipelago, a few kilometers from the famous Tokaido Road. You will need to have a fruitful day at sea to win the game. To do this, you'll have the chance to admire beautiful sea creatures, fish with a line or net to fill your racks with colorful fish, and reel in your crab trap.

You can take advantage of stops to improve your fishing equipment, and you will also have to interact with the gods of the sea by launching offerings, or by fulfilling their wishes that they express during your contemplation at the Sacred Rocks, for which they charge you will reward.

Namiji has gameplay similar to Tokaido. The action spaces are laid out on the game board in a linear path, with players moving forward on this path to take actions. The player currently last on the track takes a turn by moving forward on the track to their desired action and taking that action, so players must choose whether they want to progress slowly to get more turns, or travel faster to get ahead of other players at their desired action spaces. What players do on the court is different from what they do in Tokaido.