Kakeroma Island

Kakeroma lies across the narrow Oshima Strait from Koniya, at the bottom of Amami Oshima, and on the map it looks like a coastline that forgot to stop: bay after bay, each with a settlement at the head of it. Setouchi town's ferry lands at two ports, Seso in the middle of the island and Ikomo in the east, and the island's own website puts them about 40 minutes apart by car. There are no taxis. You book one of the few rental cars, or ride the Kakeroma bus, which leaves the ports roughly once an hour to meet the ferries. Shodon, a short bus ride from Ikomo, is the place most people come for. A row of deigo trees said to be over 300 years old runs along the shore there, flowering red for about a week in May or June, and a house in the row was used as a location for the film series Otoko wa Tsurai yo. On the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, men of the settlement perform Shodon Shibaya at Ooton Shrine in paper masks called kabidira; local lore traces it to Taira no Sukemori, who fled here after the Genpei War, and it was listed as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1976. On Nominoura bay to the west, the writer Shimao Toshio commanded the 18th Shinyo suicide-boat unit from late 1944; the order to sortie came on August 13, 1945, but the signal to launch never did. He met Oohira Miho, a teacher at the Oshikaku school, here. A literary monument went up in 1988, and a replica boat sits in one of the tunnels. Bring cash, a torch for walking after dark, and food for the evening.