鴻島

The ferry from Hinase port takes about fifteen minutes, and the timetable runs only a handful of times a day. Steep slopes meet the water almost immediately on arrival, and the terraced groves climb upward in narrow tiers — mikan country, where the land has been worked into shelves because there is little flat ground to speak of. This is one of the islands of the Hinase archipelago, at the eastern edge of the Seto Inland Sea national park, and the rhythm here is set by tides, by the small ferry, and by the citrus calendar.

Yokoyama Farm, the island's single mikan-picking grove, has been running since the mid-1960s, and the varieties shift through the season: gokuwase, wase, Setoka, Harumi, Dekopon. The bathing beach at the cove dates from the bubble-era resort years, and around it stand the cottages built in that same period — several hundred holiday houses scattered among the groves, many quiet now, some reoccupied by people who have retired and come to stay. The permanent population is small, smaller than it once was, and the silence on weekdays is almost complete.

What distinguishes the texture here from the Seto coast on the mainland is the compression: the island is barely two square kilometers, the rainfall light, the horizon stitched with other islands. The observation train La Malle de Bois now arrives at Hinase station from Okayama, bringing a different kind of visitor to the pier. The island absorbs them without changing pace. Mornings smell of citrus peel and salt; afternoons belong to the boats returning.