Kyushu, Japan · Remote island, Sea / Beach, Mountain
A subtropical island of rainforest and mangroves, a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site since 2021, with a culture all its own: shima-uta folk songs, mud-dyed tsumugi silk and a brown-sugar spirit made nowhere else. Includes Kakeromajima, across the Oshima Strait.
Ferry or plane — Most people fly: JAL/JAC from Kagoshima (about 55 min, several flights a day; Skymark flies the route too), Haneda (about 2h20), Itami and Fukuoka, plus Peach from Narita and Kansai. The airport is at the north end of the island, about 55 min by bus from Naze (¥1,100, roughly two an hour). Alternatively, the overnight Marix Line or Marue Ferry (A-Line) boat leaves Kagoshima-Shinko port at 18:00 and reaches Naze around 5:00 (about ¥11,000 in second class, daily with the two lines alternating; the port is 20 min by bus from Kagoshima-Chuo station). The island is big and buses are sparse: renting a car is close to essential.
Japan's second-largest mangrove forest, where the Sumiyo and Yakugachi rivers meet the sea. The park (which doubles as a roadside rest stop) runs guided canoe trips of about 70 minutes, 50 of them on the water, for ¥2,000: at high tide you paddle through green tunnels, at low tide crabs and mudskippers come out, so check the tide table and book ahead. Open 9:30-18:00 all year.
A 1.6 km dirt track through subtropical forest of hikage-hego tree ferns and giant oaks, the landscape behind the 2021 World Heritage listing. Since 2019 you can only enter with a certified Amami eco-tour guide and vehicle numbers are capped, so book a tour (around ¥6,000, 3.5 hours with pick-up in Naze, morning and afternoon slots). Wear long trousers and closed shoes.
After dark, on the forest roads in the middle of the island, you can see the Amami rabbit (an endangered species found only here and on Tokunoshima), Ishikawa's frog, the Amami spiny rat and the Ryukyu scops owl. Guided tours travel by minivan and hardly get out (because of habu snakes); expect about ¥8,000 for two hours with pick-up in Naze. On the Santaro road you need an online time-slot booking even if driving yourself; drive at walking pace, as rabbits are killed by cars, and never shine strong torches at them.
Amami's folk songs, sung in falsetto to a thin-stringed sanshin, are different from Okinawa's and still very much alive in contests and neighbourhood festivals. In Naze several island-food izakayas have a performance every night: Kazumi (the owner is a well-known singer; closed Mondays), Gintei in the Yanigo district, or Narabiya (sets around 19:00-19:30; closed Sundays). Budget ¥4,000-5,000 with dinner and book, as they fill up.
Rice you top yourself with shredded chicken, strips of omelette, shiitake, pickled papaya and tangerine peel, then drown in clear chicken broth; it began as banquet food for Satsuma officials. Two classic places: Minatoya in Kasari, which claims to be the original (from 11:30, cash only), and Hisakura in Tatsugo, which raises its own chickens (11:00-16:00). Both close when the broth runs out, so go early at lunchtime.
Naze's big summer festival, four days spanning late July and early August (30 July to 2 August in 2026): fireworks over the harbour, funakogi boat races, hachigatsu-odori dancing in the streets and a closing parade with dance troupes and portable shrines. Accommodation in Naze fills up.
Every winter humpback whales come down to Amami's waters to calve, and from mid-January to the end of March boats go out on roughly three-hour trips (around ¥8,800; six-hour days also exist). Operators in the Amami Whale and Dolphin Association follow approach rules. They don't sail in strong wind, so allow at least two nights of leeway and dress warmly.
An island of 1,300 people across the Oshima Strait, reached from Koniya, an hour's drive from Naze, on the municipal ferry (20-25 min, ¥360, four sailings a day to Seso). Low houses behind coral walls, the avenue of deigo trees at Shodon (red flowers from spring into summer), Tokuhama and Jikkyu beaches, and war remains such as Nomi-no-ura, a suicide-boat base where the novelist Shimao Toshio served. Small cars or e-bikes can be rented at the port if booked; many Amami rental firms don't allow their cars across, and the ferry stops in strong wind.
Amami's tsumugi is a silk with astonishingly fine patterns whose threads are dyed dozens of times with sharinbai bark and then in iron-rich mud ponds. At this workshop and garden in Tatsugo you see the whole process from thread to loom and can mud-dye a scarf or T-shirt yourself (booking recommended). Entry ¥550, 9:00-17:00; the shop is free.
At Ōchon shrine in Shodon, on Kakeromajima, an all-male village troupe performs eleven pieces of dance and farce in paper masks, with sanshin, drum and conch. The tradition, which legend credits to Taira no Sukemori, a Heike noble said to have fled here some 800 years ago, is an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan. It takes place once a year, on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month (in October); check the date with Setouchi town hall.
Green turtles graze on shallow seagrass off the Pacific beaches of Tatsugo, and shore-based snorkel tours find them almost every time: about ¥6,600 for two hours with wetsuit, small groups, from age 3. They run all year, but the water is most comfortable from May to October. No touching or chasing: you swim alongside at a distance.
Tanaka Isson moved to Amami at 50, painted its tropical plants and birds while working as a silk dyer, and died poor and unknown in 1977; he is now one of the most admired Japanese painters of the 20th century. The museum, built to look like raised takakura storehouses, is in Amami Park next to the airport: ¥520, 9:00-18:00 (19:00 in July and August), closed the first and third Wednesdays of each month. A good stop on arrival or before your flight.
The bluest water in the north of the island, ten minutes from the airport: white sand, reef a few metres out and a gradient from emerald to cobalt locals call 'Blue Angel'. There are toilets and a shower, but no lifeguards and strong rip currents running offshore; swim only in the shallows, and wear fins if snorkelling. Best with high summer sun.
Yanigo (Yanigawa-dori) is Naze's drinking quarter, the largest in the Amami islands: izakayas, tiny bars and snack bars where you order kokuto shochu, the brown-sugar spirit that by law can only be made in these islands. Try it with water, on the rocks or with soda, and ask for a local distillery's label. Taxis are scarce late at night, so staying in Naze makes sense.
Three floors by Naze port that explain the island: the sea and its reefs, a history shaped by the Ryukyu kingdom, Satsuma rule and US occupation until 1953, and dioramas of the forest and its wildlife. Handy on a rainy day. ¥400, 9:00-17:00, closed the third Monday of each month.
Amami has almost no hot springs; this west-coast hotel draws the island's only proper natural spring from 1,600 m down and opens its baths to non-guests: ¥3,450 including towels and loungewear, 9:00-22:00 (last entry 21:00), closed the third Wednesday of each month except in April and August. Adding the pool and outdoor sauna costs ¥5,210.
A Ministry of the Environment centre in Yamato explaining the island's unique species, the mongoose released in 1979 to fight habu snakes and declared eradicated in 2024 after three decades of trapping, and how to watch wildlife without harming it; it makes the night tour far more rewarding. Free, 9:30-16:30, closed Mondays.
A headland at the island's north-east tip with a lookout over the reef and the Pacific, with Kikaijima on the horizon. The park has a seawater pool, grass sledding, mini golf and a café with a view (9:30-17:00), about 8 minutes from the airport. Pair it with Tomori, the Tanaka Isson museum and keihan at Minatoya for a day in the north.
A ritual of Akina village in Tatsugo, part of the Arasetsu festival (an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property): at dusk, five women acting as noro priestesses on one rock in the bay and a drumming group on another sing and make the beckoning mankai gesture, calling the rice spirit from across the sea; at dawn the same day, the men rock a thatched hut until it collapses (Shochogama). It's a community rite, not a show: watch from the shore and stay out of the water. It falls on the first hinoe day of the eighth lunar month (19 September in 2026).
Island beaches such as Suri-hama and Jikkyu have reef right off the sand, very clear water and hardly anyone around; in summer, snorkel and kayak tours run from Setouchi. There are no lifeguards and barely any shops: bring water and food, watch for currents in the reef channels and check the time of the last boat back.
The makers of Sato no Akebono in Tatsugo run free tours showing how brown-sugar shochu is made: fermentation with rice koji, distillation, ageing cellar and bottling, with a tasting and labels sold only on site. Weekdays only (9:00, 10:30 and 13:30, about an hour), booked online. Drivers can't taste; the best time is January to June, when they are distilling.
At 694 m it's the highest point in the Amami islands and a sacred mountain in local tradition. From the Yamato side a boardwalk climbs through cloud forest of ferns and moss in about 15 minutes; the hour-long dirt trail from Uken is best done with a guide. The top is often in cloud, so come for the forest rather than the view. Habu live here: stay on the path.
The closest beach to Naze, in a seaside park with parking and showers; the swimming season is summer. It faces west, so it's where Naze locals go to watch the sun set over the East China Sea. Outside the marked areas there are currents: don't swim far out.
A small aquarium next to Ohama beach, with a 150-tonne reef tank, collections of Amami moray eels and shells, and green sea turtles visitors can feed every half hour. Bear in mind these are captive animals in modest tanks; if you want to see turtles in the wild, go snorkelling instead. ¥1,000, 9:30-18:00.
A whole hillside covered in sotetsu, the cycad that Amami people ate in famine years after leaching out its toxin, beside a tiny fishing hamlet on Tatsugo's north coast. Good sunsets over the bay and a shrine up 159 stone steps. People live here, so park where you won't be in the way.
A hill of about 200 m right behind central Naze with footpaths and a lookout over the town, port and bay. Free and with no car park of its own, so walk up from the centre. A short outing for your first morning if you arrived on the early ferry.
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