1 / 6Irabu Ohashi crossingPhoto: Rsa / CC BY-SA 3.0
Tap a photo to see it large. 6 photographs, every one credited.
Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
The longest toll-free bridge in Japan — 3,540m humped over open turquoise. The crossing itself is the sight; the far-side lookouts face back at the span.
- Our number 2 for Miyakojima, out of ten. It is the first thing we would spend the hours on.
- Short enough to be certain of: 1 hr 30 min door to door, so even a tender day works.
- Free to visit — that is the point of it.
- On a 4–6h ashore call our verdict is "The pairing" — cross to irabu and shimoji, walk 17end if tides are kind, and pair with maehama or sunayama.
- Always — high wind can close it — rare.
- 1 hr 30 min door to door needs a 3.5-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 Irabu Ohashi crossing is famous
At 3,540 metres this is the longest toll-free bridge in Japan, opened in January 2015 after nine years of construction. It changed Irabu island from a ferry community to a suburb. Driving it is the point: shallow reef water on both sides the whole way across.
Opened in 2015 after nine years of building, Irabu Ohashi runs 3,540 metres from Miyako to Irabu island — the longest bridge in Japan that charges no toll. It humps in the middle to let ships pass beneath, which gives the road a rise and fall like a slow wave, with Miyako blue on both sides the whole way.
For the five thousand people of Irabu it ended a life ruled by ferry timetables and weather — the school run, the hospital, the airport all became a road. For a visitor it is the rare landmark where the experience is the crossing itself: nothing to queue for, nothing to buy, just the water and the engineering.
Things worth knowing
- Do not stop on the bridge — there is no stopping lane, and it is enforced. The photographs belong to the lookouts on both ends.
- The far-side lookouts on Irabu face back at the full span — better than anything from the Miyako side.
- On Shimoji island beyond, the 17END lagoon by the airport runway is closed to cars: park before the gate and walk in. Low tide reveals the sandbar.
- Rental cyclists cross it too; if you ride, respect the wind — gusts over the hump are real.
Irabu Ohashi crossing and your ship
Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.
Where the 1 hr 30 min goes
Counted from the moment you step off the gangway, about 30 minutes after the ship arrives. The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside.
10 minutes each way is the measured figure for car ~10 min to the bridge, not the optimistic one. If your ship is late, cut the 1 hr 10 min in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.
Questions people send us
Can you walk or cycle across Irabu Ohashi?
Yes — there is a walkway and cyclists cross regularly, but respect the scale: 3.5km each way with a climb over the shipping hump, no shade, and real wind. Most port-day visitors cross by car and walk the lookout ends instead, which delivers the same views for a fraction of the clock.
Is 17END worth adding to the bridge?
At low tide, emphatically — the lagoon beside the Shimojishima runway drains to a white sandbar in impossible water. The road to it is closed to vehicles, so you park before the gate and walk about fifteen minutes. Check the tide before committing a short call to it.
Routes that already include it
Each one is a finished day timed from the official timetables, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
3 hr for bothMiyako soba at an old house
Flat noodles, clean pork-and-fish broth, toppings hidden under the noodles in the old tax-era style — the story of the island in one bowl..
See the detail
3 hr 20 min for bothSunayama Beach
Over a sand dune and down to a cove with a wave-cut arch.
See the detail
3 hr 20 min for bothMango, whole, in season
June to August the island’s farms serve their own fruit over ice at parlour counters.
See the detail