a little over a mile (2 kilometers) from the village on the island’s west side. There are several small shrines within the cave, including a Kannondō shrine. Note that the cave is also called “Dai shoun yuu-dō” (大鐘乳洞).
If the limestone cave doesn’t impress you, you can walk about 985 feet (300 meters) down to one of Takara’s beaches, this one over a mile (2 kilometers) long and encompassing virtually the entire mid-section of Takara’s west coast. There are also a couple of small beaches on Takara’s southeast and northeast shore, plus the island’s best beach, the Ōkago bathing beach (大籠海水浴場; Ōkago-kaisui-yoku-jō), which is adjacent to the port. None of Takara’s beaches are great, but they’re modestly sandy and accessible, something that’s not true on most of the other Tokara Islands.
For many visitors, Takara’s big “sight” is the fanciful mural at the port. For one, you can’t miss it when you arrive. It’s a giant, wildly imaginative drawing that covers most of the cemented hillside. Whatever your take on the aesthetics, it has to be said that it’s different.
The last sightseeing spot we’ll mention is the island’s final spot: the southernmost extremity, Cape Araki (荒木崎; Araki-zaki). Here, the triangular-shaped Tarakajima narrows down to its most acute angle. The road goes right to the end and then it’s a short 300-feet (100-meter) walk to the Cape Araki Lighthouse (荒木崎灯台; Araki-zaki tōdai). From here, there’s nothing but ocean on all three sides. And from there, it’s open waters until our next archipelago—the Amami-shotō.
MUUTACHIIWA (舞立; Muu-tachi iwa). If you do go to the beach on Takarajima’s west coast, near the Kannon-do cave and shrine, you’ll see this little rock. It’s only some 660 feet (200 meters) offshore, about exactly midway along the west coast measuring from north to south. It’s a little more than three-quarters of a mile (1 kilometer) south from the cave. Muutachi Rock is no big deal, only a green-covered rectangular islet about 330 feet (100 meters) long from east to west and approximately 100–130 feet (30–40 meters) wide from north to south.
The mural on a cemented hillside at Takarajima’s Maégomori-kō Port (前籠漁港).
The only way to visit Kaminoneshima and Yokoatejima is to sail, swim or paddle a kayak there. These isolated rocks are well off the regular shipping channels.
FUCHI-NO HANARE (ふちのはなれ; Fuchi-no hanare). To get a little technical, Cape Araki, mentioned above, is not quite the very end of Tarakajima. These rocks are. Just offshore, just off the very end of the cape, lies this little collection of stones. From the Cape Araki Lighthouse you’ll have to scramble over rock about 820 feet (250 meters) to the very end of the island. From there it’s about 165 feet (50 meters) over water, south and a bit west, to this last piece of Treasure Island. It’s not exactly one large rock. Rather, it’s a fused collection of several. They’re so tightly bound together, however, that it almost appears as one. The tiny islet is more or less an oval in shape, approximately 165 feet (50 meters) long and 80 feet (25 meters) wide.
11 KAMINONESHIMA 上ノ根島
Once a week the Tokara ferry sets sail from Takarajima and travels south 55 miles (90 kilometers) to Nazé, Amami-Ōshima’s port and main city. The trip takes three hours. About halfway there, if you could change the ship’s course and travel due west about 25 miles (40 kilometers), you would arrive at Kaminoneshima (上ノ根島; Kaminonéshima) and its larger neighbor Yokoatejima. Both are tiny volcanic islands and both are uninhabited. That’s why the ferry doesn’t go there. Since they’re so far away, you won’t, in fact, see them. Kaminone Island is the smaller and more northerly of the two. It’s an oddly shaped rectangle with a number of little protrusions. The islet is about 1,640 feet (500 meters) across from east to west and almost three-quarters of a mile (1 kilometer) in length from north to south.
Yokoatejima’s eastern half is a perfectly formed strato volcano, while its other side, connected by an isthmus, is a lava flow. Barely visible at the far right of the photo is Kaminoneshima.
12 YOKOATEJIMA 横当島
Only 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) south of Kaminone Island is Yokoatejima (横当島; Yokoaté-jima), the most southerly of the islands in the Tokara chain. This uninhabited rock may also be the most unusually shaped islet in the Tokara-rettō. It resembles a sideways figure eight, with its eastern side about twice as large as its western. Forming two halves of an island, they are connected by a narrow 490-foot (150-meter)-wide isthmus. The larger half of the island is circular and about a mile (1.5 kilometers) in diameter. It is nothing more or less than a perfectly shaped volcano, with a crater dead center at the top. The western side of the island is somewhat of a squished box in shape, perhaps 2,620 feet (800 meters) at its longest in any direction.
Unless you have paddled out to these remote little isles, you more than likely have safely arrived in Nazé (Amami City) on the Tokara ferry. That’s the starting place for our next group of Ryukyu Islands: the Amamis or the Amami-shotō. It’s a particularly beautiful set of islands and, after coming from the Tokaras, will seem like Robinson Crusoe is indeed rejoining civilization.
Chapter 3
THE AMAMI ISLANDS 吐噶喇列島
Splendid vistas, rugged coasts
1 Amami-Ōshima 奄美大島
2 Kakeromajima 加計呂麻島
3 Kikaijima or Kikaigashima 喜界島
4 Tokunoshima 徳之島
5 Iōtorishima 硫黄鳥島
6 Okinoerabujima 沖之永良部島
7 Yoronjima 与論島
Compared to the previous Tokara Islands, most of the Amami Islands (奄美諸島; Amami-shotō) seem almost gigantic, though of course this is only relative. There are eight inhabited islands and several semi-inhabited or uninhabited ones worth mentioning. Starting from the north, the chain begins with Amami-Ōshima, the largest island in the group, located 235 miles (375 kilometers) south of Kagoshima City, which is situated on mainland Japan’s southernmost Kyushu Island. From there, the Amami chain stretches some 125 miles (200 kilometers) south to Yoron-tō, which lies just above the northern tip of Okinawa at Cape Hedo. Although geographically and geologically a part of the Ryukyu Archipelago, politically the Amamis are located in Kagoshima Prefecture, along with the Tokara and Ōsumi groups. Thus, on a map of Okinawa or, more specifically, of Okinawa Prefecture, you won’t find them.
Gangplank on to an “A” Line ferry.
Culturally, the islands are quite distinct, being neither tropical Okinawan nor exactly the same as mainland Japan. Gravesites and tombs, for example, are in the style of the mainland and not the “turtleback” style of Okinawa. Yet, the Amami dialect of Japanese language is within the group of Ryukyuan languages, not mutually intelligible with Japanese nor, for that matter, with other Ryukyuan dialects. The “separateness” of the Amamis, as with most of the Ryukyu Islands, goes back hundreds, if
