1 / 6Hirakubozaki, the northern capePhoto: Raita Futo from Tokyo, Japan / CC BY 2.0
Tap a photo to see it large. 6 photographs, every one credited.
Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
A white lighthouse on a grass headland with water on three sides and cattle grazing up to the fence. An hour each way, so it only works on a long call — and on a clear day it is the best view in the Yaeyamas.
- 4 hr door to door needs a 6-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
- It is a view, so it is weather. Check the morning sky before you commit the hours.
- No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
Why Hirakubozaki, the northern cape is famous
The northern tip of Ishigaki, a lighthouse on a green headland with reef water on both sides and nothing built behind it. It is about an hour's drive each way from the port, which is the entire problem on a short call and the entire reward on a long one.
Hirakubozaki, the northern cape and your ship
Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
See · ~4hTaketomi island
Coral walls, red-tiled roofs weighted against typhoons, shisa on every ridge, and white sand lanes that residents rake by hand every morning before visitors arrive.
See the detail
See · ~3hKabira Bay
The water really is that colour — shallow, white-sand-floored and lit from below.
See the detail
Eat · ~2hIshigaki beef, at lunch
Island-raised black wagyu, grazed on subtropical grass and finished here.
See the detail