Leaving late on a Friday isn’t ideal, but it’s the only option if you want to spend Sunday relaxing.
Hopping into my kei truck, I set out for what should have been an easy one-hour drive. But after about 40 minutes, the exhaustion from a busy Friday started to catch up with me. The yawns turned into tears, and I realized the best thing to do was stop and crash in the back of the truck… before I really crashed.
I hadn’t properly planned my Saturday, but I knew I wanted to go for a walk and probably visit an island somewhere. In general, islands tend to be the most fun, with not too many people around. If the bees and vegetables aren’t bugging me, I like to get out of my neighborhood on my days off and walk or cycle somewhere new.
Just before nodding off, I checked the map and decided I’d head to two islands: Megijima (女木島) and Ogijima (男木島).
It’s good to set aside a day when visiting a small island in Japan… you never really know what kind you’re going to get. I figured I’d do both islands in one day since my main goal was just to enjoy a nice walk.
Technically, we’re still in rainy season, but it’s already starting to feel like summer. Not exactly great walking weather… oh well.
First stop Megijima
As per normal, when I go somewhere, I don’t like to research it online. So when I got off the ferry and saw a sign about caves, I decided to walk up the mountain to see what it was all about. Most people took the bus, but since today was about walking, I went for the 2km hike up the hill. At the top, I paid the ¥600 entrance fee for the caves… and I think an ¥800 bus ride back to the port, because I would’ve missed the boat to the next island if I hadn’t walked it.
The caves! 😀 These tourist traps have always amazed me in Japan. I can’t even get angry at them anymore… just weird. The good thing about the cave was that it was nice and cold inside, around 16°C… outside was 30-something, so that was nice. And since I’m a fan of the Momotaro story, that part of the cave… I guess was kind of interesting.
Next on to Ogijima
I was a little pressed for time… these islands really should’ve been a two-day trip. So the next stop was all about getting lunch, flying my drone, and going for a little walk… maybe not much of a walk, because I knew I’d miss the ferry back if I wasn’t careful.
Ogijima was actually super interesting, and I’d like to spend a bit more time walking around it. I only got to visit the port town, but it looks like they have campgrounds and other things to see. My lunch was spectacular, and for the size of the port, there was a good number of coffee shops. After chatting with some of the locals, they mentioned that half the population is now made up of people who never lived on the island before… and half of those are from the Kanto region of Japan.
My two cents… grab lunch and a drink at Ogijima, skip the caves in Megijima. Maybe Megijima is better for swimming?
