Nakanoshima by Bicycle

What?
Nakanoshima (中ノ島), officially called Ama-cho (海士町) is one of the three Dozen Island (島前), the other two being Nishinoshima (西ノ島) and Chiburijima (知夫里島). It is most famous for being a place of exile in the Nara period, more specifically that of emperor Go-Toba who lived there until the end of his days. His burial site is located next to the Oki Shrine and the local museum. Otherwise the island is a haven of tranquility which is best explored by bicycle.
Where?
Nakanoshima is part of the Dozen Islands which are part of the Oki Islands (隠岐の島). These island are under the Shimane Prefecture (島根県) administration. To get there you need to take the ferry from the mainland or nearby Oki Island. A ferry ride takes at least three hours.
URL
Oki Islands Tourism Association

When planning my trip to the Oki Islands I made sure I had a spare day in case the weather got bad, so I would be able to shuffle a bit with the things I wanted to do. Eventually, despite the typhoon that made most tourists cancel their trip, I did whatever I wanted to do at the day that I wanted to do it. The result? I had one day left to go and explore. I had the choice between visiting the eastern side of Nishinoshima, the island where I was staying, or to visit the third island of the Dozen Islands. Being based on Nishinoshima and having visited Chiburijima the previous day, I decided to hop on the inter-island ferry to Nakanoshima (officially called Ama-cho) after talking to the ladies of the Nishinoshima tourist office. Although Nakanoshima doesn’t have the sheer natural beautiful scenery boast, both ladies told me they lived on the island and loved it very much.

The absolute recommendation of one of the tourist office staff was to rent a bicycle and enjoy the scenery of the rice paddies, especially around the Uzuka Shrine. Due to the rolling landscape, neighboring Nishinoshima and Chiburijima don’t have such rice paddies, so I took her advice to heart and decided to rent a bicycle. But not before I hopped on the local bus tour (which was actually a taxi tour).
If I just wanted to see the sights of the island, renting the bicycle would have been enough. But the Oki Islands are known for being the place where some emperors were banned to in their lifetime, and one of them landed here on Nakanoshima and lived out his life writing sad poetry and collecting Japanese swords. I wanted to know a bit more about that, so a guide was essential. The guide was a local with ample knowledge of the subject. Though I did pick up a lot of things, I must admit that my level of Japanese was not good enough to take in all the specific terminology. I should have prepared better, but as my visit was a spur of the moment thing I just didn’t. I picked up enough for the tour to become interesting, but if an English speaking guide would have been available I might have learned a lot more.

Entrance to the Oki shrine.

View from the highest point of Nakanoshima.

Just enjoy.

The Akiya coastline.

After taking lunch I jumped on the bicycle and headed for the Uzuka shrine. Driving along the coastline I was hoping to glimpse a view of the three Saburo-Iwa Rocks a bit further into the sea. The tourist boat was held at bay due to weather conditions, and that’s a real pity because the rocks are lined up if you look at them from coastline. Hence, you can barely distinguish one from another.
So be it.
I was already lucky with the weather for every other day, so today I would just content myself with a relaxed drive on my electric cycle. Eventually I arrived at the Uzuka Shrine, but the rice was already harvested. The golden scenery that was advertised by the lady of the tourist office was no more. I sat myself down for a while at the next door fishing village and enjoyed some rays of light. I completely came to rest just sitting there watching some seagulls circling above me. It was in such a state of mind that I hopped back on my bike and started pedaling in a random direction. That was the right thing to do and it gave me the opportunity to take in the local island life. I enjoyed it so much that I didn’t notice the big grey clouds coming in. When I finally did I knew my day at Nakanoshima had come to end and I speeded up to reach the port and jump on the ferry back to Nishinoshima. Just then rain started pouring down. It’s unfortunate because I was enjoying the cycling so much that I thought of circling the whole island… well, I’ll have to do it another time.

I ended this last day on the Oki Islands cheering on the Japanese national rugby team, and after their victory had a drink and a karaoke session with the hotel owner and her friends. This visit will be one of my best memories for a very long time, and I’m pretty sure I will visit again, whether it being alone or with my family.