Islands #2 - "Tanegashima"

The first island of the Satsusan Archipelago is Tanegashima Island, which became famous for its white beaches, spaceport, and Spanish guns.

A long, narrow, and largely flat island, Tanegashima is almost 60 km long from north to south, and 5–12 km wide from west to east. Its area is 445 km2, making Tanegashima the largest island in the Ōsumi archipelago. The island's name comes from its flat, elongated shape: "tane" means "seed" in Japanese. The coastline is 165 km long, and the population is 36,000.

Although the island is dotted with southern villages, they are all quite small, with most residents living in and around the largest port city, Nishinoamote, in the northern part of Tanegashima. Ferries from Kagoshima dock here, and there are also some good small eateries and minshuku ("minshuku" means "inn" or "boarding house"). There are also some excellent restaurants, but apart from the above there is nothing of interest in Nishinoomote. The most attractive tourist attraction for the traveler is the excellent Rifle Museum, which I will talk about below.

Overall, the island is sparsely populated. Indeed, a large area of ​​Tanegashimi looks wild and deserted. Although sugarcane has already grown, no one is harvesting it, as on the other Ryukyu islands. Here the fields look forgotten, as if they were just random sugar plantations here and there.

To describe Tanegashimi as a "flat" island is technically correct, but this term does not really fully describe the shape of the island; the terrain here is slightly hilly, with picturesque hills at almost every turn. The highest point on Tanegashimi is Mount Tenyogakura, at 282 m. It is located on the north side of the island, about 8 km by car from Nishinoomote. Tanegashima is a very nice island for road trips. By the way, it has beautiful beaches. They are very diverse: from black basalt formations, such as the Otatsu-Metatsu rocks (Dragon and Dragon Rocks) along the west coast, to wonderful white-sand beaches that can be found in several towns, but the most popular of them are located along the entire length of the southern tip of the island. On the south coast you will see the Chikura Caves, a group of water-formed caves on a white beach. The caves can be visited at low tide. There are also picnic tables; you can buy them right on the beach.

Most visitors arrive on the island by sea or by air (there is an airport for this). By sea there are 3-5 high-speed hydrofoils per day, the "Toppy" and "Rocket", depending on the season. The cheaper company Cosmo Line runs the passenger ferry "Princess Wakasa". This is a beautiful vessel that provides a comfortable journey in less than 4 hours. Most of the year, the Wakasa Princess operates all week except Sundays; during the busy bathing season, the ship operates daily.

From Tanegashima's second most populous city, Shimama, near the island's southwestern port, there is a ferry to Yakushima, but it is not very frequent. If you plan to use this port, check your ferry schedule first.

For those in a hurry, Tanegashima has a small, modern airport located more or less in the center of the island, about 15 km from Nishinoomote. There are usually 5 flights a day to Kagoshima, taking about half an hour, and less frequent flights to Osaka and Fukuoka. All flights are operated by Japan Air Commuter turboprops.

Tanegashima is quite famous for at least two reasons. For the first time, on August 25, 1543, the southernmost point of the island, Cape Kadokura, was the landing of the first Europeans who arrived in Japan.

R. Walker, "Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands: The First Complete Guide to the Entire Ryukyu Island Chain"

That's all for now, tomorrow I will publish the continuation of the chapter: about the Spaniards, the gun museum, the spaceport, etc. d. Translating is not so easy, so I invite everyone who uses English. If you know such a person, please tell him about this site and ask. Of course, such work will be voluntary, but I think that together it will be more interesting and faster.

*The original language of the post is Ukrainian, so the translation may be inaccurate.