Okinawa · Yaeyama IslandsNo.675★Open in map →
Kuroshima Island
A flat coral island in the Yaeyama group, given over almost entirely to cattle pasture. No hills, one road around the coast, and a rented bicycle is enough to take in the whole of it in an afternoon.
- FromIshigaki Port Ferry Terminal
- ~30 minBoat from Ishigaki, ~30 min
- Get off atKuroshima Port (Anei Kanko and Yaeyama Kanko boats)
- From there
- Kuroshima Island
The sweet spot
Kuroshima is not undiscovered. Day-trippers come across from Ishigaki in steady numbers. What keeps it quiet is that the island has built almost nothing for them: no resort strip, no hotel row, and a single road around the coast that spreads everyone thin.
Where it is
9 more notes in Okinawa · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Nishi-no-Hamathe beach closest to the port, and the island's main sea-turtle nesting sand
- Kuroshima Research Stationa sea-turtle and coral research centre with an exhibition room, the island's de facto museum
- Nakamoto Coasta reef shore where the coral spit called Watanji encloses a natural tide pool
- Kuroshima Observation Decka low tower beside the island school, its floor tiled with a map naming the islands offshore
- Iko Piera long straight pier off the north-east shore, left from the days when Iko hamlet fished
How to actually get there
- Ishigaki Port Ferry Terminal → Kuroshima Port (high-speed boat, about 30 min; Anei Kanko or Yaeyama Kanko).
- Kuroshima Port → rent a bicycle at the counters beside the pier.
- Ride the coast loop in order: Nishi-no-Hama, the research station, Nakamoto Coast, the observation deck, Iko Pier.
- High-speed boat from Ishigaki Port Ferry Terminal
- Ishigaki Port Ferry Terminal →(high-speed boat, about 30 min)→ Kuroshima Port. Anei Kanko and Yaeyama Kanko both work the route with several sailings a day. Buy the return leg when you buy the outbound ticket, and confirm the last sailing at the counter before you cross.
- Return from Kuroshima Port
- The same two operators run back from Kuroshima Port to Ishigaki. Sailings finish for the day rather earlier than you expect and are cancelled in strong wind, so treat the printed departure as the last one and be inside the waiting hall ahead of time.
About the place
Kuroshima lies between Ishigaki and Iriomote in the Yaeyama group, and its outline is close enough to a heart that the island is marketed as one. It is a raised coral platform with no hills at all, and a coast road of roughly 12.6 kilometres closes the loop. Almost every fenced field along that road is pasture. About 220 people live here, and the beef herd has stood at more than ten times that figure for years. Calves born on the island are sold on at its own livestock market, so the view reads as farmland first and coastline second.
How to enjoy it
Rent a bicycle at the port and take the coast road as a loop. With no gradient anywhere, a circuit with stops fits into the gap between two boats. The last Sunday of February brings the Ushi Matsuri cattle festival, the one day the island fills. If you plan to swim at Nakamoto Coast, collect a free life jacket from the research station first, because there is no one watching the water.
Background & history
Under the Ryukyu Kingdom, Kuroshima was where Yaeyama built its boats, vessels for Miyako Island included, until the yard moved to timber-rich Iriomote. The kingdom also broke up settlements here, resettling families by force on Iriomote and in northern Ishigaki, and the folk song Chindara-bushi is sung in the voice of a woman left behind. The grassland is far more recent. Coral bedrock resisted the plough until machines able to break it arrived, and the forest that once covered the island turned to pasture within a generation.
Before you go
- Cash
- There is no admission and no ticket gate on the island. Boat tickets are bought at the terminal counters on either side. Kuroshima has one post office and no bank branch, so carry cash for bicycle rental, the research station and food.
- Before you go
- Nakamoto Coast is not a designated bathing beach and has no lifeguard; in rough weather the local fire brigade posts a no-swimming notice, and free life jackets are lent out on the island. Camping and sleeping out are prohibited by decision of the community association. Typhoon season from summer into autumn cancels sailings at short notice.
- Another way
- Both operators also run a slower ferry on fixed weekdays alongside the high-speed boats. The crossing takes longer, but it is the sailing that carries vehicles.
- After you get off
- Kuroshima Port has a passenger hall and a floating pier, and the bicycle and scooter rental counters sit beside it and open for arriving boats. From there the riding is flat in every direction: about ten minutes south to Nakamoto Coast, or north-east along the coast road to Iko Pier.