Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Funauki passenger ferry from Shirahama Port.
Hateruma, the southernmost island of the Ryukyus.
West Beach (Nishi-no-hama) is Hateruma's largest and most popular beach.
It's as tiny a place as one can imagine, but it is a port town, so it has a dock. There are
perhaps 25-30 houses and maybe 50-60 people living there. There is an elementary and ju-
nior high school. There are no paved roads and no motor vehicles; after all, there's no place
to drive. There is, however, one little grocery store and one
minshuku
. Funauki is truly the
destination of choice for those who wish to get away from it all.
There used to be three other villages even further west along the northern coast of this
piece of Iriomote, but they all were abandoned over the past 30 years. One in particular,
however, Amitori (
網取
; Ami-tori), a sea village on the next peninsula west of Funauki, was
given a new lease on life, albeit in a limited fashion. The government of the Yaeyamas gave
the abandoned village to Tokai University to establish their Institute of Oceanic Research
and Development. It's a small private operation and not open to the public. Nonetheless, be-
cause there are some researchers living there, you'll see Amatori listed on the ferry's route
