Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
village. Immediately below these residences there's a public golf course, Sashiba Links (
サシ
バリンクス伊良部
; Sashiba rinku suirabu; lit. “Irabu Hawk Links”).
Like Irabu, its larger neighbor to the east, Shimoji has the shape of an egg. It's an oval,
also leaning to the left, but less than half the size of its big brother. At its longest north-south
axis it's not quite 3 miles (5 kilometers) in length. At its widest east-west points it's 1.5 miles
(2.5 kilometers) across. Altogether, Shimoji's area is 3.5 square miles (9.54 square kilomet-
ers). Again, like Irabu, it's mostly flat, so flat indeed that in 1979 Japanese aviation author-
ities decided that it would be a perfect place to expand a small existing airport into a full-
length 10,000-foot (3,000-meter) runway as an airline training facility. The Pilot Flight Train-
ing Center Foundation (
下地パ イロット飛行訓練所
; Shitaji pairotto hikō kunrensho) occu-
pies several buildings and a control tower at the airport.
Ever since it was built, both Japan Airlines and ANA have used Shimoji for training pilots
on all sizes of aircraft right up to Boeing 747s. Shortly after the long runway opened, in 1980,
commercial services, including direct flights from Tokyo and Naha, commenced. However,
since most accommodations and tourist service are on Miyako, transferring from Shimoji to
the ferry port in Irabu and then sailing over to Miyako was unnecessarily time-consuming
and inconvenient, especially when you consider that the Miyako Aiport is five minutes from
downtown Miyako! Consequently, commercial airline service was never economically viable.
Flights were finally discontinued in 1994. Therefore, although you may see jet aircraft taking
off and landing, and there is indeed a small passenger terminal and control tower, you can't
fly here. The airport remains open today only as a training facility.
This aerial view is from the north. Shimoji and its airstrip are on the right, larger Irabu is on the left.
