Kume-jima

Kume sits about 100 km west of Naha, and the 2020 census counted 7,155 people on the island. The tourism association tells how islanders once dammed the springs that ran out of the rocks to build rice paddies, and dictionaries link the old name Kumi to rice. Today the town pipes deep ocean water ashore, and the tourism association says its intake is the largest in Japan. Silk weaving reached Kume in the early seventeenth century, the association says, and the cloth is still called Kumejima tsumugi.

Most visitors come for Hatenohama. Its three sandbars run about 7 km in all by the tourism association's count, from Menu-hama in the west through Naka-no-hama to Hatinu-hama in the east, and only tour boats from Tomari Fisherina go out to them. On the main island, Eef Beach runs about 2 km down the east coast and is one of Japan's 100 selected beaches. Across the short bridge on Ou-jima, the Tatami-ishi columns have been a national natural monument since 29 July 2014.

The north of the island climbs higher. From about 200 m at Hiyajo Banta you look over the reef to Aguni, Tonaki and the Keramas, and the Uegusuku castle ruins sit on the summit of Uegusuku-dake at about 310 m. Gushikawa castle ruins stand on cliffs above the north-west coast. On a wet day the tourism association points you to the Kumejima Museum, the Firefly Museum, the Sea Turtle Museum on Ou-jima and the Yuimaaru-kan tsumugi hall.