Yoron-jima

Yoron belongs to Kagoshima and to the Amami islands, but Okinawa is the neighbour you can see: Cape Hedo is about 23 km away across the strait, and islanders still cross to Naha for school and for the hospital. About 5,000 people live here, most of them in and around Chabana. The town named its main shopping street Ginza-dori in the tourist boom before Okinawa's reversion in 1972, when Yoron was the southernmost island in Japan. The island's own language is Yunnu futuba, and Wikipedia describes its sounds as close to Okinawan and its grammar as close to Amami.

The sea is the point of the trip. Off the east coast the sand flat at Yurigahama surfaces about 1.5 km out from Oganeku beach when the tide falls far enough, and glass-bottom boats run out to it from Oganeku and Minata beaches and from Mugiya harbour. The island's few heritage sites cluster in the south-east, where the unfinished Yoron Castle of a Hokuzan prince became a national historic site in March 2025 and the Yoron Minzoku-mura keeps old houses and bashofu weaving alive.

The evenings belong to the izakaya of Chabana, and to Yoron kenpo, which is how the island welcomes guests with shochu. The host fills a large red lacquered cup with 20% Shima Yusen kokuto shochu from the island's distillery, gives a short speech of welcome and drinks; then the cup goes to each guest in turn, who speaks and drinks, then returns the cup without ever setting it down. The ritual leaves room to bow out: say 'too' (enough) while the host pours, or give your speech and hand the full cup back, and the host drinks it for you.