Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Once a week the Tokara ferry sets sail from Takarajima and travels south 55 miles (90 kilo-
meters) to Nazé, Amami-Ōshima's port and main city. The trip takes three hours. About
halfway there, if you could change the ship's course and travel due west about 25 miles (40
kilometers), you would arrive at Kaminoneshima ( 上ノ根島 ; Kaminonéshima) and its larger
neighbor Yokoatejima. Both are tiny volcanic islands and both are uninhabited. That's why
the ferry doesn't go there. Since they're so far away, you won't, in fact, see them. Kaminone Is-
land is the smaller and more northerly of the two. It's an oddly shaped rectangle with a num-
ber of little protrusions. The islet is about 1,640 feet (500 meters) across from east to west and
almost three-quarters of a mile (1 kilometer) in length from north to south.
Yokoatejima's eastern half is a perfectly formed strato volcano, while its other side, connected by an isth-
mus, is a lava flow. Barely visible at the far right of the photo is Kaminoneshima.
12 YOKOATEJIMA 横当島
Only 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) south of Kaminone Island is Yokoatejima ( 横当島 ; Yokoaté-
jima), the most southerly of the islands in the Tokara chain. This uninhabited rock may also
be the most unusually shaped islet in the Tokara-rettō. It resembles a sideways figure eight,
with its eastern side about twice as large as its western. Forming two halves of an island, they
are connected by a narrow 490-foot (150-meter)-wide isthmus. The larger half of the island
is circular and about a mile (1.5 kilometers) in diameter. It is nothing more or less than a
perfectly shaped volcano, with a crater dead center at the top. The western side of the island
is somewhat of a squished box in shape, perhaps 2,620 feet (800 meters) at its longest in any
direction.
Unless you have paddled out to these remote little isles, you more than likely have safely
arrived in Nazé (Amami City) on the Tokara ferry. That's the starting place for our next group
of Ryukyu Islands: the Amamis or the Amami-shotō. It's a particularly beautiful set of islands
and, after coming from the Tokaras, will seem like Robinson Crusoe is indeed rejoining civil-
ization.
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