Henza-jima

Before the road, people on Henza walked to the main island across the tidal flats at low water and took a boat when the tide was in. An American oil company built the Kaichu Doro in 1971 alongside its oil terminal, and in 1999 the prefecture rebuilt it with two lanes each way and the 280 m Henza Kaichu Ohashi so boats could still pass. The tanks now cover the north of the island and the reclaimed land toward Miyagi.

The village keeps to the old sandspit on the south shore, and its calendar still runs on the sea. Up to about 1940 more than 100 Yanbaru trading boats gathered here, carrying awamori and rice north and coming back with firewood and timber. Each year from the third to the fifth day of the third lunar month, Henza holds Sangwachaa to pray for good catches and safe fishing. Upstairs in Umino Eki Ayahashi-kan, Uruma's Sea Culture Museum keeps a model of a maaran trading ship that the city lists as a cultural property.

For a rider Henza is the junction of the whole island network. Turn south for the 900 m Hamahiga Ohashi, or go north past the tanks to the 17 m Tobaru Bridge and on to Miyagi and Ikei. The run along the terminal fence is short and exposed, and in a winter north-easterly it can be the hardest stretch of the day.