Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
weekends the club is extremely popular with Ōshima's “in-crowd” and tee times are limited.
There's an excellent restaurant in the clubhouse and a nice 19th hole bar as well.
The ocean approach to Ōshima's Nazé harbor passes by tiny Yagi Island, which hosts a small resort hotel.
Golf at the Amami-Ōshima Country Club.
Due to its pristine condition, Ōshima is well known in Japan as a nature lover's destin-
ation. There are several large reserves. One is the Kinsakubaru Virgin Forest (
金作原原 生
林
; Kinsakubaru gensei-rin), which features several hundred hectacres of jungle with well-
marked paths for hiking. It's just south of Nazé. The forest contains many semi-tropical
plant species, including vast growths of dinosaur-era giant tree ferns. For vast quantities of
dinosaur-era sago palms, there's a great hillside in Tatsugō Town (
龍 郷町
; Tatsugō-chō)
that's covered in them. Primaeval, although perhaps not as primor-dial as the preceding two
dinosaur forests, another very interesting preserve is the man-grove forest at the estuary of
Sumiyō River (
住用村川
; Sumiyō-gawa) at the town of Sumiyō. It's a popular place to rent
kayaks and explore the river/swamp/ocean outlet.
Moving from brackish waters to salty ones, Ō Island is ringed by coral reefs and is also
popular with divers, although its more northern location means that most divers, snorkelers,
beach-goers and swimmers will visit in the summertime. If you are a beach lover, you'll most
likely be exploring Ōshima's northern end, where you will find innumerable coves, bays,
points and capes. It's probably the most twisted and hairpin-turned section of the island. Vir-
