Cape Hedo

The cape is a flat karst top on coral limestone cliffs, with the Pacific on one side and the East China Sea on the other. The Japan Reversion Struggle Monument went up in 1972, when Okinawa returned to Japan. Under US administration people lit signal fires here and met boats from Yoron at sea on the 27th parallel to call for reversion.

The tourist information office HEAD LINE opened in April 2019, and upstairs the Fushikubu Café looks out toward Yoron and the Asumui peaks. The cape moved from the old Okinawa Kaigan Quasi-National Park into Yanbaru National Park when that park was created in 2016. Look back south-west and you see the Yanbaru Kuina Observatory, shaped like a giant rail, on the hillside above the road.

For riders the cape is the turnaround of the long Yanbaru day up Route 58. Reliable food stops thin out north of Hentona, so treat the café and the parlour by the car park as a bonus and carry what you need. In winter the north wind blows head-on along the last stretch to the cape, so budget extra time for the outbound leg.