Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
more thing, if you're a golfer, there's the Iejima Country Club, the longest “short course” in
Okinawa. It bills itself as a par 58, 18-hole course or a par 72, 9-hole course.
From Iejima we'll take the ferry back to Okinawa and drive either around the top of the
Motobu Peninsula on Route 505 or via the southern road, Route 449, towards Nago and then
head north on Route 58. Whichever route we choose, our next starting point is located at the
junction of Routes 58 and 110. From here we'll be visiting the following three islands, Ōjima,
Yagajijima and Kourijima, all of which are connected by roads and bridges to Okinawa main-
land.
This aerial view shows tiny Ō at bottom left, Yagaji at mid-center and Kouri at center far right. The north-
ern end of the Motobu Peninsula fills the upper left-hand side of the photo.
11 ŌJIMA 奥武島
This is yet another islet named Ōjima. You may have noticed that we have visited several is-
lands that share this name. They all use the same Kanji characters which translate incompre-
hensibly—and nonsensically—as “Austrian Military (or Weapons) Island.” The islet has noth-
ing to do with either Austrian weapons or the Austrian military. Ōjima ( 奥武島 ; Ō-jima) is
just a set of characters that makes no modern sense literally translated. However, there is one
obscure meaning of the Chinese characters and they can be translated as a “traditional place
to mourn the dead.” This phrase has some resonance for this place, as we'll see below.
The crossing from Okinawa-hontō to Ōjima is less than 260 feet (80 meters) over a con-
necting bridge. The tiny islet is more or less oblong-shaped, with a long bottom left inward
hook. Its overall size is about 1,640 feet (500 meters) long and 1,310 feet (400 meters) wide,
except that its southwestern end extends another 985 plus feet (300 plus meters), giving it a
total length of some 2,950 feet (900 meters) at its very longest. It is relatively hilly, much of it
rising about 30-65 feet (10-20 meters). Its main function is to serve as a land bridge between
Okinawa and the next larger islet, Yagaji.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search