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Ikema Ohashi & the north capeIkema bridge in MiyakoIkema Ohashi BridgeIkema Bridge in MiyakojimaIkema Ohashi & the north capeHigashi-Henna Cape
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See in Miyakojima · #6 of the port's ten

Ikema Ohashi & the north cape

~1.5h — the round trip from the gangway, with the 60-minute margin kept aside.

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Photo: Raita Futo from Tokyo, Japan / CC BY 2.0

Tap a photo to see it large. 6 photographs, each credited.

Round trip
1 hr 30 min
From the ship and back
Fits
a 2–3 hour stop ashore
Margin already counted
Getting there
Car ~30 min
See the rides below
Booking
Just turn up
Nothing to reserve
Why we send people here

The 1992 bridge to a fishing island, with the Yabiji reef — Japan’s largest coral table — under the horizon beyond. Pair with the salt works on the cape road.

Why it earns the hours
  • Short enough to be certain of: 1 hr 30 min door to door, so even a tender day works.
  • Free to visit — except the lighthouse climb.
  • On a 4–6h ashore call our verdict is "Yes, one anchor of two" — pair it with the east-coast viewpoints, or trade beach time for it.
Before you count on it
  • Cape always; lighthouse ~9:00–16:30 — lighthouse ~¥300.
  • No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
Read the full Higashi-Henna Cape guide →
The story

Why Ikema Ohashi & the north cape is famous

The 1,425-metre bridge to Ikema island, opened in 1992, running over some of the clearest water around Miyako. The north cape beyond it looks out on the Yaebiji reef, and on a low tide you can see the coral flats from the road.

The island’s southeastern corner narrows to a two-kilometre blade of raised coral, ocean on both sides — the Pacific beating the cliffs to your right, the East China Sea lying flat to your left, sometimes in visibly different moods at once. It is a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty, and the island’s one great walk that involves no sand.

Along the path sit house-sized boulders that look decorative and are not: they are tsunami stones, thrown onto the cape by the great Meiwa tsunami of 1771. The prettiest walk on the island is also its most legible geology lesson.

The full Higashi-Henna Cape guide →
Before you go

Things worth knowing

  • Climb the lighthouse — around a hundred steps, ~¥300, and the only view that shows the cape’s full blade.
  • Wind is the cape’s weather even on calm days; hats need a hand on them.
  • Easter lilies carpet the cape in April–May, which is its single most photogenic window.
  • There is shade at the parking end and none on the walk — carry water in summer.
Where it is

Ikema Ohashi & the north cape and your ship

Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.

The arithmetic

Where the 1 hr 30 min goes

Counted from the moment you step off the gangway. The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside.

Out30 minCar ~30 min
There30 minWhat you came for
Back30 minTo the gangway

30 minutes each way is the honest figure for car ~30 min, not the optimistic one. If your ship is late, cut the 30 min in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.

If you have longer

What fits alongside it

Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare on a 6-hour stop ashore.

Mango, whole, in season2 hr 10 min for bothJune to August the island’s farms serve their own fruit over ice at parlour counters. Out of season, honesty says skip it — frozen mango is not the same argument.Snow salt & awamori2 hr 10 min for bothYuki-shio powder salt from reef seawater, and the island distilleries’ awamori — the two bottles that carry Miyako home in a daypack.Higashi-Henna Cape2 hr 30 min for bothA two-kilometre grass blade of cliff dividing two seas, lighthouse at the tip. Nationally designated scenic beauty, and the island’s best walk that is not a beach.
Asked about Ikema Ohashi & the north cape

Questions people send us

Is Higashi-Henna Cape worth the drive from the cruise port?

On calls of six hours or more, yes — it is the island’s best non-beach sight and its finest walk. On short calls the 80-minute round-trip drive eats the day; the Irabu bridge delivers comparable drama at a quarter of the distance from the quay.

What are the huge boulders on the cape?

Tsunami stones — coral blocks the size of houses thrown onto the clifftop, most of them by the Meiwa tsunami of 1771 that devastated the Miyako and Yaeyama islands. They are studied, dated and left where the sea put them.

The day this belongs to

Routes that already include it

Each one is a finished day we have walked and timed, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.

The west-side loop4–6 hours · ~4h door to doorPre-booked charter or rental — the bridge and the great beachThe grand loop8 hours or more · ~6.5h door to doorLong calls with a charter — the whole island, without the rush
Pairs well with

What to put beside it

Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.

Build your own day →
2 hr 10 min for both

Mango, whole, in season

June to August the island’s farms serve their own fruit over ice at parlour counters.

See the detail →2 hr 10 min for both

Snow salt & awamori

Yuki-shio powder salt from reef seawater, and the island distilleries’ awamori — the two bottles that carry Miyako home in a daypack..

See the detail →2 hr 30 min for both

Higashi-Henna Cape

A two-kilometre grass blade of cliff dividing two seas, lighthouse at the tip.

See the detail →
The one rule: be back on board 60 minutes before all-aboard. Build the whole day on the Miyakojima plan page.