My final post about our visit to Okinawa is about the very small, very remote island of Hateruma. A fleck in the ocean on the periphery of the Yaeyama island group, it’s pretty much as far away from Tokyo as you can get while still being in Japan – 2000km away in fact. It’s also famous for being the southernmost point in the country. In addition to that, it is a tropical haven, with sparkling azure waters, abundant marine life, and some of the clearest night skies you can find anywhere. Kenny and I spent 2 nights here and they were wonderful. Here’s what we got up to.

Hateruma is just 12.7 km² ; therefore seeing all the sights doesn’t take very long. We got picked up from the ferry port and brought to our B&B by the surly looking but surprisingly ebullient owner. After recovering from my seasickness, we jumped on the B&Bs aging rental bikes and went off to explore. There is a small town with a handful of restaurants and cafes… and that’s pretty much it. After a tasty lunch in a surprisingly modern and stylish cafe, we headed towards the Hateruma Observatory, not far from the island’s southernmost point. We took our obligatory photos, then carried on exploring the nearby coast.

There’s no question that the environment here is absolutely stunning. I’m always completely blown away by a dazzling white sandy beach and cerulean sea; being from England, I’m much more used to dreary grey seascapes. However we were really disappointed to see that one beach on the south coast was completely covered in junk and plastic that had washed up from the sea.  As we walked along we spied trash from China, the Philippines and even Vietnam. It was kinda heartbreaking to see. We picked up some of the plastic but it was clear to see after a few minutes that the job would have taken a lot of people a lot of time to complete. We sadly turned away and left, feeling a little complicit. But what can you do?

Neither Kenny or I are particularly fans of swimming. However, when the water is this blue, you can’t not take a dip, especially seeing as we were assured we would encounter wild sea turtles in the water. We visited the nearby Nishihama (west beach), rented some snorkels and went paddling about. As promised, we saw a number of sea turtles, as well as sea urchins, hermit crabs and loads of different types of tropical fish. I’ve never seen sea turtles in the wild like that before so it really was special. We visited the beach a few more times to watch the sunset, one of which was for sure one of the most wonderful I saw while on my travels.

Hateruma was a little slice of paradise. It had a distinct character and feel from the three other islands we visited in Okinawa and was a perfect relaxing stop after our stay on the wild Iriomote. Despite its remoteness, it still felt like Japan; cycling along the empty island roads, we were still able to stop and grab a coke from a vending machine; an amusing reminder we weren’t really that far from civilisation after all.

And with that, I’ve finished writing up my visit to Okinawa. I’m so thrilled I got to come here and get the opportunity to visit several islands, with a native Japanese. I count myself so lucky. For brevity, I often cite our stay in Okinawa as the biggest highlight of my 6 month trip, although if you’ve been following my blogs, you know the answer to such a question could never be that simple! Okinawa was also my last destination in Japan, aside from a quick pit stop in Tokyo. So finishing our stay here also meant my three months in Japan was coming to an end… but I’ll save my gushing and overly sentimental summary of Japan for another post 😉