Yonaguni island loop by Irizaki and Agarizaki

Prefectural Route 216 circles Yonaguni, and Japanese Wikipedia reckons a bicycle can ride the whole island in three to four hours despite the steep ground. Our loop runs 26.6 km by our route data with 357 m of climbing. The longest rise gains 118 m over 3.2 km as the south-coast road climbs away from Kubura toward Higawa.

We leave Sonai west along Route 216 past the airport to Kubura, the fishing port where the co-op diner serves the morning catch, and take the short spur to Irizaki, Japan's westernmost point. The south coast is a line of cliffs and pasture, and the road climbs over it to Higawa before running east past Tachigami-iwa to Agarizaki, where the land ends 100 m above the sea and Yonaguni horses graze the slope.

Yonaguni is windier in winter than Ishigaki or Iriomote. On our counter-clockwise loop the north coast at the start and the run back from Agarizaki at the end face the wind, and the south coast in between sits in the lee. Rakuni Koto's e-bikes, with their large batteries, take the edge off the exposed sections.