Amamioshima is located in about three hundred kilometers north of Okinawa. This island is well-known for: Habu, which are a kind of poisonous snake; kokutou shouchuu, which is distilled spirit made from brown sugar; and mangrove forests. This island's mangrove forests are the northernmost area that they can range.
I and my friend went to this island in March for 6 days including round-trip transport. We visited this island because we hadn't been there, and had thought it would have warmer and sunnier weather than Tokyo. Unfortunately, the weather was actually terrible, chilly, and rainy except the last day.
We went there by airplane and ship. It took about twelve hours to arrive to Naze port in Amamioshima form Kagoshima port by ship. I had never traveled such a long time by ship, and as I had feared, I felt seasick.
We got there in the morning of the next day. It was rainy. And because of the coldness, I wondered if I was really on a southern island. Then we went by bus to a campsite we reserved beforehand. We were supposed to rent a tent and pitch it, but the owner of the campsite said to us we should stay at the cottage because it was bad weather.
The owner was kind and funny man. He was about 50 years old and ran the camp alone. He had a blind bulldog named `July' and three cats. They were very friendly and followed us all the time. That night we ate a simple supper at the shared open kitchen-dining. We could cook as well as keep warm using the BBQ in the center of the table. So we and the owner fired the charcoal burner and talked about many things.
The second day, we went to mangrove forests by bus, and had a mangrove canoe tour in the misty rain. The tour was about two hours. We sometimes stopped our canoes and the conductor explained to us about mangroves. In spite of the weather, that was a delightful, interesting experience because it was my first time to paddle canoe, and the scene from the canoe was marvelous.
The last day became very nice, warm, and sunny. So we rented a car and went to Cape Kasari and Tomori seaside, adding two people who we met at campsite we stayed the first two days. Cape Kasari is located at the edge of the northeast of the island. It had an astonishing panoramic view, because wherever you look you can see the ocean from this headland. The color of the ocean was a beautiful, magnificent, bluish-green hue that we couldn't see somewhere around Tokyo.
After visiting this island, I became to have more savor of traveling around Japanese island chains. Of course I'll certainly visit Amamioshima again someday.
