Ogasawara Islands

The Ogasawara Islands lie roughly a thousand kilometres south of Tokyo and belong to it administratively, which is one of the odder facts of Japanese geography. They have never been connected to a continent, so plants, snails and birds evolved in isolation, and UNESCO listed them in 2011 for exactly that. There is no airport. A single passenger ship runs from Takeshiba pier and takes about twenty-four hours, and its schedule sets the shape of every visit: you arrive, and you leave when it leaves, usually five or six days later. Chichijima and Hahajima hold the settlements, and the rest are closed or need a guide.

History

Prehistoric tools and carved stones found on North Iwo Jima and Chichijima show that an unknown Micronesian people once lived here, but the islands were empty when the Spanish explorer Bernardo de la Torre sighted Hahajima on 2 October 1543. Japan found them in 1670 and sent a shogunate expedition in 1675, calling them Bunin jima, the uninhabited islands, but made no plans to settle them, and Isaac Titsingh brought the first published description to Europe in 1796. Whalers called from the 1820s, and in 1830 the first permanent settlers arrived from the Kingdom of Hawaii, among them Nathaniel Savory of Massachusetts, Richard Millichamp of Devon and Matteo Mazzaro of Ragusa, with men and women from Hawaii. In 1876 the islands were placed under Japan's Home Ministry; after the Second World War they were under US administration until they were returned to Japan in 1968, and on 24 June 2011 they became a natural World Heritage Site (Wikipedia, Bonin Islands).

What's there

• The crossing - twenty-four hours of open ocean each way on the only public link.
• Whale and dolphin trips - humpbacks in winter, sperm whales and dolphins in summer.
• Endemic snails and birds - the quiet reason for the World Heritage listing.
• Minamijima - a limestone islet with a sunken bay, entered on guided visits under a quota.

When to go

Ships sail roughly weekly and the timetable is published well ahead, so the length of the trip is decided for you. Humpback season runs about February to April, sperm whales and swimming weather from June to October. Typhoons can delay sailings in late summer. Cabins, especially the cheaper berths, sell out early for holiday departures.

Practical notes

There is no way to shorten or extend a visit, no flights, and no leaving early if the weather turns or you dislike the place. The crossing is long and rough enough to matter if you get seasick. Everything on the islands costs more because it arrived by that same ship, accommodation is limited, and several areas can only be entered with a licensed guide.

Nearby

Hahajima, two hours further south by local ferry, is the only other inhabited island.

Key facts