Way down yonder at the tail of Japan

Pick up any book about Japan and you’ll read that the country consists primarily of the four main islands of Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido. But even the Japanese sometimes forget about the part of the country that fans out over a large area southwest of Kyushu. This is the Ryukyu archipelago, of which the primary island is Okinawa. The islands in this archipelago comprise Okinawa Prefecture, which is remote enough from the rest of the country to have developed its own traditions and a dialect that other Japanese can’t understand.

The Ryukyus were nominally independent until 1879, when they were made an administrative unit of the Japanese government. Despite becoming a prefecture, Okinawa did not become part of the Japanese political mainstream until after the United States returned it Japan in 1972. The islands retain a strong sense of regional identity: they were independent for so long, given short shrift by the national government, burdened by heavy taxes, suffered terribly during the war, and were occupied the longest by the United States. American installations still occupy almost a fifth of Okinawa Island, and roughly three-fourths of US bases and more than half of the American troops stationed in Japan are on Okinawa, which accounts for 0.6 percent of Japanese territory. It’s no surprise that some Okinawans quietly nurse the dream of independence, but that’s unlikely to happen.

These feelings are heightened by the archipelago’s distance from the rest of Japan. The flight to Naha Airport from Tokyo is 2 1/2 hours, and about an hour from Fukuoka City in Kyushu. They are tropical islands, making them a perfect spot for a vacation in the fall, winter, and spring. (People who’ve lived there have told me it’s so hot in summer only the natives can handle it.)

But as Dr. Seuss found more letters in the alphabet in On Beyond Zebra, there is more to Japan and Okinawa Prefecture on beyond Okinawa Island. At the extreme southwest of the Okinawan chain lie the Yaeyama Islands (more here). This is the spot in Japan where people really go to get away from it all without having to use a passport.

One of these islands is Taketomi, six kilometers square, where 90% of the island’s income is derived from tourism. How far is it from the rest of Japan? Taiwan is closer than Okinawa Island and The Philippines are closer than Kyushu. Getting there requires another hour-long flight from Naha and a 10-minute ferry ride. An excellent article about Taketomi in the Japan Times explains just how remote it is:

Of all the places in this country, the Yaeyamas are the one where you feel least like you are in Japan. And this perception of otherness is certainly felt by the Taketomi islanders themselves: On the huge map in the visitor center “Japan” is written over distant Honshu in the same script and style as “China” is inscribed below Beijing, as though signifying some foreign land.

I’ve wanted to visit these islands ever since I first heard about them more than 20 years ago, and after reading this article I was ready to pack my swimming trunks and buy a plane ticket. There’s one serious obstacle, however—our household has the classic seashore/mountains split when it comes to vacation spot preferences. I could move to a beach community tomorrow and stay there forever, but my wife, who grew up on a riverbank, yearns only for the cooler mountains.

I’ll get there eventually, but there’s nothing stopping you from getting there first!