Aoshima and the Devil’s WashboardPhoto: Cher V / CC BY 2.0
- Getting there
- JR Aburatsu 08:53 → Aoshima 09:44, back 12:32 → 13:23 (or 10:59 → 11:50, back 14:00 → 15:10); ¥870 each way. By taxi 47 km, about ¥16,900 each way (our estimate)
Checked · Researched, not yet visited · times from official timetables and our estimates · Takumi Yamada
A small island of subtropical trees joined to the shore by a causeway, with a shrine in the middle and flat rock ridges, the “Devil’s Washboard”, running out into the sea around it. The coastal train from Aburatsu takes about 55 minutes and runs rarely: it fits a ship in by about 08:00, or by 10:00 on a call that sails at 17:00 or later. The 08:53 out and the 12:32 back give about 2 h 50 min on the island.
- Needs the ship in by 08:00, or the ship in by 10:00 and a sailing at 17:00 or later (trains leave JR Aburatsu for Aoshima at 08:53 and 10:59, and the useful ones back are the 12:32 and 14:00): the call length alone does not decide it.
- 5 hr 30 min door to door needs a 7.5-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
Where the 5 hr 30 min goes
The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside. The minutes are our estimates from timetables and maps, not timed on the ground.
If your ship is late, cut the 2 hr 40 min in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
See · ~3hUdo Jingu, the shrine in a sea cave
A vermilion main hall built inside a sea cave at the tip of Cape Udo, with the Pacific breaking on the rocks below.
See the detail
See · ~3.5hObi castle town
The Ito lords ruled from Obi for 280 years, and the town has been a preserved district since 1977: the rebuilt Otemon gate, mossy stone walls, a cedar grove where the keep stood, and samurai lanes.
See the detail
See · ~3hThe moai of Sun Messe Nichinan
Seven full-size moai stand on a lawn above the Pacific, made with the permission of the Rapa Nui elders after a Japanese team re-erected the fallen moai of Ahu Tongariki in the 1990s.
See the detail