Islands in Kyushu, Japan

Amami Islands · 8

Amami-Oshima 568.43 km² The road from the airport at Kasari runs south for a long time before reaching Naze, and the landscape on either side shifts between sugarcane fields, mangrove inlets, and ridges of evergreen forest.
Tokunoshima 247.16 km² Sugarcane fields run almost to the edge of the limestone, and beyond them the coral coast catches a low, even light.
Okinoerabujima 93.37 km² The runway at Erabu Yuri no Shima Airport sits on the eastern edge of an island shaped by uplifted coral, and the ATR turboprops that arrive from Kagoshima, Amami, and Okinawa set the tempo of the week.
Kakeromajima 77 km² The ferry from Kotsu Port runs only a handful of times a day, and the schedule sets the tempo for everything that follows.
Kikaijima 56.57 km² The island rises, still — two millimeters a year, lifted from the coral reef that became its bedrock.
Yorontō 20.49 km² The reef encircles the island completely, holding a shallow band of water two or three meters deep, and from the air the line between lagoon and open sea looks drawn in chalk.
Ukejima 13.29 km² The town-run ferry from Koniya runs roughly once a day, stopping at Ukeamuro and Ikeji, the two settlements that make up Uke-jima.
Yorojima 9.31 km² Coral stone walls line the lanes, stacked low and weathered by salt air, marking out a settlement whose proportions belong to a much older population.

Tsushima · 5

Tsushima 439.64 km² Signs in two scripts greet you at the ferry terminal—Japanese above, Hangul below—a small reminder that the Korean peninsula lies closer than much of Kyushu.
Unioshima 245.93 km² The ferry from Wanitsura runs only a few times a day, and most travelers do not board it.
Shimayamajima 4.68 km²
Okinoshima 2.61 km² The data here describes a place one cannot enter.
Akashima 0.62 km²

Goto Islands · 17

Fukuejima 324.98 km² The ferry from Nagasaki cuts across open water for several hours before Fukue Port comes into view, and that crossing already changes something in the traveler's sense of distance.
Nakadōrijima 167.63 km² Ferries arrive from Nagasaki, Sasebo, Fukue, and Hakata, and the rhythm of the island sets itself by their schedules rather than by trains.
Hisakajima 37.08 km² The ferry from Fukue arrives at Tanoura, and the harbor opens onto the horseshoe curve of Hisaka Bay.
Wakamatsujima 31.01 km² The U-shaped coastline of Wakamatsu Island folds in on itself, creating inlets where small boats sit moored against quiet water.
Narushima 23.58 km² The ferry from Fukue arrives at an island whose coastline folds back on itself, cutting bays deep enough that the water sits still even when the open sea moves.
Kabashima 8.65 km² The木口汽船 ferry from Fukue leaves three times a day, and the crossing takes only as long as a slow lunch.
Shimayamajima 5.48 km²
Arifukushima 4.83 km²
Ryoikeurajima 4.83 km²
Sagashima 3.15 km²
Kashiragashima 1.85 km² Stone walls of pale yellow rise from the slopes, cut from the island's own bedrock and stacked without mortar.
Kijima 1.38 km²
Kuroshima 1.12 km²
Akashima 0.56 km²
Maejima 0.51 km²
Kirinokojima 0.08 km²
Warabikojima 0.07 km²

Iki Island · 4

Ikinoshima 134.04 km² The ferry from Hakata cuts across the Genkai Sea, and by the time the hull settles into Gōnoura port, the air has changed — saltier, slower, carrying the faint scent of barley from somewhere inland.
Wakamiyajima 0.6 km²
Harashima 0.54 km²
Nagashima 0.51 km²

Koshikishima Islands · 3

Shimokoshikijima 65.27 km² Cliffs drop sharply into the East China Sea along the western coast, and from the small harbor where the high-speed boat from Sendai Port arrives, the island reads first as geology — Cretaceous layers stacked in plain view, the kind of strata where ceratopsian fossils have been found.
Kamikoshikijima 44.02 km² The ferry from Kushikino takes a little over an hour, and the high-speed boat from Sendai port somewhat less.
Nakakoshikijima 7.25 km²

Nansei Islands · 8

Nakanoshima 34.29 km² The ferry from Kagoshima takes most of a working day, and by the time Nakanoshima comes into view, the rhythm of the mainland has already loosened.
Suwanosejima 27.51 km² Ferry schedules from the mainland thin out to a handful of arrivals, and the island they reach sits in the southern stretch of the Tokara archipelago, its center occupied by a mountain that smokes as a matter of course.
Kuroshima 15.33 km² The village ferry from Kagoshima runs three times a week, and once it pulls away, the rhythm of the mainland recedes with it.
Kuchinoshima 13.28 km² The ferry from Kagoshima takes most of a working day to reach the island, and runs only twice a week.
Akusekijima 7.46 km² The ferry from Kagoshima takes the better part of a day to reach Yasura Port, and it arrives only twice a week.
Taira 2.07 km²
Kodakarajima 0.97 km²
Takarajima The ferry *Toshima* leaves Kagoshima port twice a week, threading its way south through a chain of volcanic islands strung across the East China Sea.

Ojika Islands · 6

Ojikajima 12.21 km² Ferries pull into Fuefuki port at hours dictated by tide and weather, the timetable for routes from Sasebo and Hakata posted plainly at the small terminal building.
Nozakijima 7.08 km² The ferry from Sasebo docks at Ojika Fueki, and the rhythm of the day reorganizes itself around the timetable of the port.
Madarashima 1.58 km²
Ōshima 0.67 km²
Nōshima 0.65 km²
Mushima 0.64 km² The ferry "Hamayu" leaves Fuefuki port two or three times a day, crossing a short stretch of sea to an island shaped like a long ridge.

Hirado Islands · 6

Ōshima 15.1 km²
Takushima 3.55 km² The ferry from Hirado-kō slips north across a narrow channel, and within a short crossing the long, thin shape of Takushima rises from the water.
Aoshima 0.92 km² The ferry from Mikuriya port takes only twenty minutes or so, but the crossing is enough to shift the register entirely.
Kuroshima 0.91 km²
Tobishima 0.52 km²
Takashima 0.26 km²

Amakusa Islands · 5

Goshoura-jima 12.49 km² A Tyrannosaurus head sculpture marks the arrival pier at Goshoura Port, an unexpected greeting on an island whose shoreline is mostly given to fishing boats and tidal flats.
Makishima 5.56 km²
Yokourajima 1.13 km²
Yushima 0.74 km² The fishing port at Yushima sits on one of the smaller islands strung between Kyushu and the Shimabara Peninsula, where the boats come in without much announcement and the harbor wall holds the day's quiet.
Yokoshima 0.03 km²

Kuroshima Islands · 3

Kuroshima 5.05 km²
Kuroshima 5.05 km²
Kuroshima 4.64 km²

Chikuzen Islands · 8

Oshima 7.16 km² The ferry from Kōnominato cuts across the boundary where the Genkai Sea meets the Hibiki Sea, and within minutes the mainland recedes into a low gray line.
Jinoshima 1.62 km² The municipal ferry from Konominato crosses a narrow strip of sea before tying up at Tomari, one of the two small harbors on Jinoshima.
Ainoshima 1.21 km² The town-operated ferry from Shingū harbor takes less than twenty minutes, but the crossing reorganizes the day.
Genkaijima 1.16 km² The municipal ferry from Hakata Pier takes about half an hour to reach the small harbor at Genkaijima.
Himeshima 0.78 km² The municipal ferry from Kishi takes a quarter of an hour or so, crossing a short stretch of the Genkai Sea to reach a small island whose northern face drops into cliffs and whose southern slope eases toward a harbor.
Aishima 0.7 km² The ferry from Kokura slips out across the Hibikinada, calls briefly at Umashima, and arrives some thirty-odd minutes later at a long, low island shaped like a thin ribbon laid north to south.
Oroshima 0.46 km² The ferry from Meinohama runs once or twice a day, and on the crossing the Genkai Sea opens out until the basalt cliffs of Oroshima rise from the water.
Umashima 0.31 km² The ferry from Asano docks for only a few minutes before pulling away again toward Ainoshima.

Bungo Islands · 6

Ōnyūjima 5.61 km² The ferry from Saiki Port reaches Ishima in the time it takes to finish a short conversation.
Ōshima 1.6 km²
Yakatajima 1.07 km²
Hodoshima 0.83 km² The ferry leaves Tsukumi port and turns toward open water, and within half an hour the shape of Hotojima rises from the Bungo Channel — a single hill of houses pressed against a slope, with almost no flat ground between the sea and the ridge.
Fukashima 0.8 km² The ferry from Kamae port runs three times a day, threading past Yakatajima before reaching the smaller island shaped like a gourd, two landmasses tied by a narrow strip of sand.
Jimukujima 0.34 km² The ferry from Tsukumi port is called Camellia Star, and the name tells you something before you board.

Genkai Islands · 6

Madoshima 4.22 km² The boat from Yobuko harbor takes a little over half an hour to reach Madarashima, and the passage itself rearranges something in the passenger.
Kashiwajima 1.38 km² The ferry from Minato harbor takes only a short crossing, but the shift is complete by the time the engine cuts.
Ogawashima 0.77 km²
Takashima 0.65 km² The ferry from Hōtō Pier takes about as long as it takes to finish a cup of coffee.
Matsushima 0.63 km² The fishing boats at Hado harbor work to a rhythm older than any timetable, and the line of the Genkai coast pulls the eye outward toward the islands.
Mukōshima 0.3 km²

Other Islands · 20

Yakushima 502.33 km² 鹿児島県 Rain finds its way into almost every conversation here.
Tanegashima 441.95 km² 鹿児島県 Ferries from Kagoshima slow as they round the long, low silhouette of Tanegashima, an island flatter than its volcanic neighbor across the strait.
中島 68.85 km² 熊本県
Kuchinoerabujima 35.68 km² 鹿児島県 The town-owned ferry Taiyō makes the crossing from Miyanoura on Yakushima just once a day, and that single timetable governs much of what happens on the island west of it.
Ukujima 24.8 km² 長崎県 The ferry crossing from the mainland is long enough that the geography of belonging begins to loosen.
大島 21.08 km² 長崎県
Shishijima 16.99 km² 鹿児島県 The ferry from Moroura harbor takes about the time of a slow conversation, and by the time the boat eases toward Shishijima, the coastline has begun folding in on itself — inlets, headlands, small coves arranged in no particular hurry.
Mageshima 8.14 km² 鹿児島県 Twelve kilometers west of Tanegashima, across the East China Sea, sits a low, flat island without a single river.
Himeshima 6.95 km² 大分県 The ferry from Imi pulls into Himeshima Port roughly once an hour through the day, and the rhythm of arrivals and departures becomes the closest thing the island has to a clock.
Matsushima 6.32 km² 長崎県 The fishing port at Egiri sits quietly along the coastline of Saikai, in western Nagasaki, where the land breaks into peninsulas and the sea threads between them.
Hirashima 5.45 km² 長崎県
Takashima 4.19 km² 長崎県
Ōshima 2.02 km² 宮崎県
泊島 1.3 km² 長崎県
Terajima 1.3 km² 長崎県
Takashima 1.19 km² 長崎県
Ikeshima 1.06 km² 長崎県 The ferry approaches from the Nishisonogi Peninsula, and the outline of the island resolves into concrete shapes: shafts, conveyors, and the long horizontal blocks of housing that climb the slope.
Tsukishima 0.23 km² 宮崎県
Katsurajima 0.17 km² 鹿児島県 A submarine cable carries electricity across the water to a circular island in the Yatsushiro Sea, and that single line is most of what connects it to the rest of Kyushu.
Shinjima 0.15 km² 鹿児島県 The white sand stretches along Habushiura, the kind of coast where the sound of the surf does most of the talking.