Okinawa Island, Yoron Island, Okinoerabu Island (2022)

Once I arrive, I will leave our luggage at the hotel I plan to stay at in Makishi and move on.

This is a mysterious mausoleum where the royal family of the Ryukyu Dynasty rests. Perhaps it was the time of day or the fact that it had been raining heavily just prior to the visit, but there were few tourists. If you pay the entrance fee, you can enter the museum.

This is Cape Zanba, where a 30-meter-high precipice stretches for about 2 km. It is a cliff that makes one wonder how it was formed. It is just a short walk from the parking lot, so it is only a short distance to walk. The parking lot is bigger than you think!

The website explains that this is a point where you can overlook the East China Sea, and the sea below is crystal clear and many divers come to the site.

It is a resort town with nearly 200 stores, offering shopping, live music, dining, and more. One of the main features of this resort town is its colorful buildings. The buildings and their shapes also have an American feel to them, so just taking a picture here and there makes for a great photo! The hamburgers were delicious!

This is the site of the gusuku (castle) of Gosamaru, the 15th century king of Ryukyu Kingdom, Shotaikyu. The stone walls were built in the “aikata-zukuri” style, with a very beautiful pattern of tightly piled stones without any gaps! The view would have been great if the weather was clear.

The Okinawa Peace Memorial Museum was established to mourn the souls of the victims of war, to accurately convey the historical lessons of the Battle of Okinawa to future generations, to appeal to the people of the world for the spirit of Okinawa, and to contribute to the establishment of lasting peace. I visited this place because it is a place that should be visited at least once. I was overwhelmed by the fire of peace and the cornerstone of peace. It was the only place where I could understand the tragedy of war.

You will take a ferry from Naha Port to Yoron Island. Please note that the departure time is 7:00 a.m. and the boarding reception time is from 05:45 to 06:30. The website also recommends that you register by 06:00.
I was staying at a hotel in Makishi, Naha City, and wanted to get to the ferry as soon as possible because I did not have a boarding reservation! However, I was not sure if I would be able to catch the first Yui Rail train, so I took a cab.
As a result, I got on the boat safely. There was no problem because there was only one person on the boat.
The price was 3,350 yen. However, it was after the Amami-Okinawa exchange discount (1,420 yen discount) until 2023/3/31, so it is not the regular price.
After departure, I went to bed early because there were more than 4 hours until arrival and I wanted to sleep after waking up early.

By the time I arrived at Yoronjima, the weather had cleared up tremendously. To be honest, the weather had been bad all Golden Week, so I was very excited.

I will secure a leg for transportation within Yoron Island. This time, rental cars were not available across the board, so I decided to rent a motorcycle. I rented a 125cc motorcycle (Address V125) for 24 hours at Nangoku Rent-a-Car. The price was 4,000 yen. A light car might be cheaper.

This is a fantastic sandy beach that appears only seasonally. It is also the location used in the photo on the top page of my blog. With its shallow water and clear waters due to the absence of rivers, I have never seen a more beautiful emerald green beach than Yurigahama in Japan.
I was very lucky this time because it was the time when the sandy beach appeared when I headed directly to Yurigahama after the arrival of the ferry.
Since I could not go to the beach by ourselves, I went to the store “Yolon Island Seaman’s Club” which provides transportation service.

The Southern Cross Center is a slightly taller building located a little south of the center of the island. It is a museum where visitors can learn about the history, culture, nature, lifestyle, and performing arts of Yoron Island. The name comes from the fact that Yoron is the northern limit of where the Southern Cross can be seen.

I was told on the glass board going to Yurigahama that the sea here at Hato no Ko is very beautiful, so I headed there as soon as I finished visiting the Southern Cross Center. Yoron Island is not that big, so it is nice to be able to go to various places easily. The sea was indeed beautiful!

This is the beach I visited while circling Yoron Island. No pictures.

This beach was also the location for the 2007 movie “Megane” and is a scenic white sand beach, but the pumice stone from the Fukutoku Okanobaba eruption of 2021 remains to this day in 2022, leaving a solid gray line on the beach.

This beach can be visited on foot from Ginza Street, the downtown area of Yoron Island. It is characterized by a large white monument. I wonder what this is… The ocean extends just to the northwest, making it an easy place to photograph the sunset. In fact, it was just evening on this day, so I went there to take sunset photos.

This is Boat Drawing Hill (Hadjipiki Panta). According to the Yolon Island Tourist Guide, as follows, it is a place with a long history.

This is a hill with a great view, which is said to be the birthplace of Yolon Island.
A long time ago, two gods, Siniguk and Amamik, were out fishing when their boat’s rudder got caught in the shallows.
When they got off the boat, the coral reefs rose up and the island of Yoron was born.
Standing here, one can see Kunigami, Motobu Peninsula, and Ie Island of Okinawa to the south, Iheya Island and Izena Island to the west, and Okinoerabu Island and Tokunoshima Island to the north.

There is no history of railroad service on Yoron Island, but there is a railroad station here! But it’s just a railroad and wheels about 5 meters long. It has a nice view.

Yoron Island is a small island, for lack of a better word. Its highest point is only 98 meters above sea level. And yet, it even has limestone caves. It is the best sightseeing spot with so many colors in such a small area!
Yoron Island is an island formed by rising coral reefs, which means that the environment is perfect for limestone caves.

After a day of sightseeing on Yoron Island, I will move on to Okinoerabu Island, further east from Yoron Island. As yesterday, I will take a ferry for this trip.

Upon arrival in Wadomari, I rented a car. Unlike when renting on the main island of Okinawa or elsewhere, renting was quite loose.

The banyan is a tall evergreen tree belonging to the fig family of the mulberry family that is found in subtropical and tropical regions. In Okinawa Prefecture, it is said that a fairy-like creature called “Kijimuna” lives in large banyan trees.
The largest banyan tree in Japan is said to be located in the schoolyard of Kunigami Elementary School on Okino-erabu Island. The tree was planted by the first graduating class of the school more than 120 years ago, and has been carefully nurtured ever since.
Since it grows in the schoolyard of the elementary school, I was allowed to enter the school while checking whether it was open to the public or not.

It is said to be “a beach designated by the town of Wadomari where the contrast between the white sandy beach and the emerald green sea is beautiful,” but unfortunately the weather was cloudy, so I could not see the emerald green.

The area overlooked by this point is covered with seaweed, and at high tide, sea turtles come to feed on the seaweed, hence the name “Sea Turtle View Point. And this time is low tide. Why did I come at this time?

It is a place where you can taste the precipitous cliffs. It is like Manza-gou in Okinawa Prefecture, but unlike there, there is no enclosure, so you can easily die. I went sightseeing while being very careful. If you step off the foot even one step is goodbye. In addition, the sea turtles that could not be seen at the sea turtle view point, here I were able to see. It usually comes up to the surface of the sea.

Jikkyonuho was used as a valuable source of water and a place for interaction among the villagers until a water system was installed. Jikkyonuho is a dialect name meaning “jikkyo (serikaku),” “nu (no),” and “ho (river),” which is the name of a character.
The shape is unique and photogenic, but I had no idea what each part of the structure does. Can someone tell me?

It is important to secure water for daily use, which is essential for daily life. When there is no river on a small island, it is difficult to secure water. However, some limestone caves had longitudinal and lateral holes, and there was a place where underground water accumulated, from which water was secured. This place is called Kurago (dark river).
This Sumiyoshi dark river is one of them. It is a short walk from the entrance to the place where the water pools, but be careful because the foothold is very bad (slippery).

This is Taminamisaki, one of the Amami Ten Sceneries. It is a precipitous cliff as high as 51 meters. As with Hanzaki, there is a danger of falling off the cliff, so be careful when sightseeing.

Sycamores line the 600-meter promenade here and there. Originally, cycads grew wild, but since they were used as food in times of food shortages, they have been planted by people. They range from large cycads to cycads that are just now growing. The small cycads are so cute. The path is narrow, so be careful passing each other. However, there was no one here on this day.
It is a little regrettable that it is difficult to find the entrance from the road.

Huacha is a tidal cave. Depending on the structure of the cave, the tide can blow up to 20 to 70 meters if conditions (e.g., tide, wind, etc.) are favorable. However, the official website says “during monsoons and typhoons,” so it looks like it would take a considerable amount of wind.
The reef was formed by the erosion of the uplifted coral reefs by rough seas, and it has a very rough shape, so there are places where you can walk freely, but it looks like your shoes will be torn to shreds. If I fell down, my shoes would probably get stuck in my head.
Where the holes are, the sea is a complicated current, and it looks like a whirlpool.

This memorial hall is located at the place where Takamori Saigo was exiled to Okinoerabu Island after he incurred the displeasure of Hisamitsu Shimazu. There is a recreation of the prison where Saigo Takamori spent his first days, but it is not built to withstand the wind and rain. You will definitely get sick.
Inside the museum, the culture of Okinoerabu Island and Saigo Takamori’s interactions with the island are displayed in an easy-to-understand manner. The floor is not that big, so you can see enough in about an hour.

This is the second sea turtle view point. I came to aim at the time of high tide, so the rock moss was immersed in the sea. However, I did not see the sea turtle…

This is my second time at Fucha. I revisited this one as well, thinking that the tide would be more gushing at high tide. However, the wind did not blow very strongly, and there was no spouting here either. However, it was a dynamic place in its own way because of the large volume of seawater flowing in.

It is believed that the shrine was built in memory of the character of Saigo Takamori. There was also a bronze statue of Saigo and his dog Tsun, much like the statue in Ueno.

The return trip is from Iobu Port on the north side of Okinoerabu Island. I returned our rental car here. Naturally, I returned the car with a full tank of gasoline, but we were worried about whether it would be OK because I was returning the car by leaving it at a parking lot.
The ferry terminal was originally at Wadomari Port on the east side of the island, but because of the wind, I ended up here. When I went to Wadomari Port, there was no one there, so it was really heartbreaking. The fare is 4,850 yen. Probably the Amami-Okinawa exchange discount is in effect. It is 7 hours to Okinawa by this ferry! I have to sleep!

Arrival! I wasn’t tired because I slept the entire ferry ride, but it would be boring if I didn’t find something to do on the ferry. It is a trip to think of ways to pass the time in places like this, since it is a rare chance to relax.

長く楽しい旅行でした！