Shikinejima! the long awaited island! I’ve been waiting to come here since Golden Week, when I went to Niijima.
This time, we took the night boat, which departed Takeshita Harbor at 23:00 and arrived this morning around 7. The ride actually was not as bad as I expected. Since there were eight of us, and the people who sat in the same row as me wandered around the boat, I was able to lay on my back to sleep.
People camping on the boat, spending the night watching the view of Odaiba, playing cards, and talking.
The ticket we booked can be considered "middle class", I guess. We had reclining seats.
sunrise from the horizon (photo credits: Kai Kienzle)
When I got off the boat, I was greeted by the same beautiful blue waters I was greeted by three months ago. It felt so nostalgic; I could still remember everything clearly, and anticipated the rest of this trip.
welcome to Shikinejima!
There was so much to do here, from scuba diving, snorkeling, surfing to camping, biking, and sightseeing.
Shikinejima is significantly smaller than Niijima and the most common form of accommodation was camping. I didn’t mind camping, since I’ve never really done it before (in a tent and all), and was actually quite excited to try, but it was just really hot and the blazing sun made it worse.
100th year anniversary of the opening of Shikinejima
and once again, these strange stone statues.
Well, we set up our tents, set down our baggage, and immediately headed for the beach!
camping grounds
The beach we went to was called Nakanoura.
People even set up tents here.
The water was clear, temperature was good for swimming, but colder than I expected (with respect to the hot weather).
And what better way to cool down than having kakikoori (shaved ice)?
white sand!
One of the things you must do at Shikinejima is snorkeling and scuba diving because there are many fish in the ocean. I’ve never swum in an ocean before, though (I usually swim in pools), so I was a bit hesitant. Usually, when I go to the beach, I only go in as far as my thighs, but since I really wanted to see the fish, I made this an exception. I rented a pair of snorkeling goggles and attempted to swim. It was pretty scary--I'll admit--especially when the water covered my head, I got pretty scared. So in the end, I asked my friend to carry me lol. The breathing tube was also quite difficult to use (probably because I wasn’t used to it). I wasn’t used to breathing with my mouth closed, so a couple of times I forgot there was a tube and I opened my mouth and water would go in. I must’ve drank a cup of water. Dx It was really salty.
Also, the corals of the ocean were quite sharp and scratchy, so walking on the ground was really painful and hard to bear. My feet were scratched up and I cut the sole of my left foot, which made walking difficult, especially since there was sand everywhere and I was wearing flipflops.
I did see a lot of fish, though. There were all different shapes and sizes, and since they were saltwater fish, they were especially bright and vivid.
Midday, I fell asleep on the sand (the sun made me so tired) and was nearly burned by the sun. Thankfully, I had a towel covering my face, so my face and neck were okay, but my arms and legs turned brown.
buried in the sand!
and a pretty rock I found.
group photo! jump!
beach soba
We returned to our camping grounds later and picked up some necessary items for the onsen. The onsen was more like just a public bath, though. I was pretty disappointed at that particular place due to it's small size and the fact that there was only one bath, but we all needed to shower.
nakanoura beach
We made it out in time to watch the sunset.
photo credits: Kai Kienzle
Then, the camping began!
food&drinks
We brought food with us on the trip, but while we were away on the beach, our stuff was unfortunately attacked by a crow. The crow ate everything! and left a mess. We didn’t know what it was (it just looked like some animal came and rummaged through all our stuff) until we asked the people of the island and they told us it must have been a crow. In fact, there were a lot of cats in Shikinejima and they told us that a crow ate one of the kittens! :(
Luckily, there was a convenience store, so everything was okay.
We started a fire and starting barbecuing meat. There was also salad and a ton of snacks. Not to mention, marshmallows! The best. I’ve had marshmallows over a fire before, but never at a camp setting.
After dinner, we went to do hanabi (fireworks) by the water. I had so much fun. Fireworks are banned in New York, so it was my first time doing it in a while.
bought at don quixote
senko hanabi
The only thing that bothered me was the mosquitoes! They kept biting me! :(
Check out my friend's blog post about Shikinejima (written in German).
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