Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Amami Islands form a green and mountainous chain.
Amami-Ōshima's airport (
奄美空港
; Amami-kūkō) is located 14 miles (22 kilometers)
northeast of Amami City. It takes 30-40 minutes to drive there from downtown. Amami is
about a two-hour flight from Tokyo. From Osaka it's around one and a half hours and from
Kagoshima a bit less than an hour. Flights from Okinawa also take less than an hour. By ship
from Tokyo it's approximately 37 hours, from Osaka close to 30 hours and from Kagoshi-
ma about 12 hours. From Okinawa it's around 13 hours sailing time, including the several
stops along the way. The Amami chain is especially well served by ferry service. Two ship-
ping companies, the Marix and “A” Lines, serve the route. Alternating daily departures with a
fleet of four great ships ensure that each island on the route is visited twice daily (one north-
bound, one southbound), every day of the year, barring severe inclement weather. Here's how
the service operates (both lines' scheduled departure/arrival times are within minutes of one
another, so give or take 5-10 minutes from all the times stated as follows). Each day a ship
departs at 7:00
AM
from Okinawa's Naha Port (
那覇港
; Naha-kō) and heads two hours north
along Okinawa's west coast, 35 miles (56 kilometers) to Motobu Port (
本部港
; Motobu-kō),
near the end of the Motobu Peninsula, arriving at 9:00
AM
. At about 9:15
AM
, the ship departs
and sails 50 miles (80 kilometers) north, about two and a half hours, to Yoron Island (
与論
島
; Yoron-jima, almost always called Yoron-tō). Arriving around 10 minutes before noon, it
departs about 12:10 after a 20-minute stop. The next port is Wadomari, 30 miles (48 kilomet-
ers) and about two hours later, at 2:00
PM
on the island of Okinoerabu (
沖之永良部島
; Oki-
no-érabu-jima), where the ship loads and unloads for half an hour.
Departing Okinoerabu about 2:30
PM
, the ship continues 35 miles (56 kilometers) north,
approximately two hours, to Tokuno (
德之島
; Toku-no-shima), where it arrives at 4:30
PM
.
The ferry discharges and reloads passengers and freight, taking about 30 minutes, then leaves
at 5:00
PM
. The next leg is 68 miles (109 kilometers), about three and a half hours north,
