Miyake-jima

The ferry from Takeshiba gets in around 5:00 in the morning after about 6 hours 30 minutes at sea, and the first thing you see in the half-light is black rock. Mt. Oyama has erupted again and again, in 1962, 1983 and 2000 among other years. In 1983 lava from a fissure on the southwest slope swallowed part of Ako, and the Volcano Experience Trail, a wooden boardwalk laid in 2007, crosses that flow past the old Ako elementary and junior high school, left as the lava found it. The 2000 eruption was worse. The summit collapsed into a caldera about 1.6 km across, and after the eruptions died down so much volcanic gas poured out that the whole island stayed evacuated until February 2005. The village still sets restricted zones under a volcanic gas ordinance, and the crater can only be approached on seasonal guided tours that stop about 100 m short of the rim. The quieter side of the island is Tairoike, a freshwater lake ringed by old forest, and the Akakokko-kan nature center, named after the Izu thrush, a national natural monument. About 250 bird species have been recorded here. For dolphins, the boats go from Mikurajima, the next island south.