Japan
Hachijojima
Two volcanoes wearing jungle, cliff-top onsen over the Pacific, three hundred kilometres south of Tokyo.
Nearly three hundred kilometres south of Tokyo, the Pacific turns subtropical and two volcanoes rise from it wearing jungle. Hachijōjima is technically Tokyo — the same prefecture, a different planet. Tree ferns and hibiscus line the volcanic trails, cattle graze the slopes of Hachijō-Fuji, and the night sky is dark enough for the Milky Way from an island that shares its postal code with Shinjuku.
Hachijōjima is formed of two volcanoes, the last of which erupted in 1606; Hachijō-Fuji is the tallest peak in the Izu chain and the walk up it ends in views across the whole ocean. Before the 1900s the island was a penal colony where criminals and political dissidents were exiled, which is how a Tokyo island came to have its own dialect, its own fermented fish and its own silk — kihachijō, dyed yellow, red and black with island plants. The waters hold some seven hundred species, sea turtles among them, and divers and surfers come for them year-round, and the open-air baths at Miharashi-no-yu sit on the cliff looking straight out over the Pacific. Fifty minutes by air from Haneda, or ten hours on the overnight boat from Takeshiba Pier.
Friends
Surfing, climbing the volcano, and drinking island shōchū under the Milky Way — Hachijōjima gives a group an adventure that feels impossibly far from the Tokyo they left that morning.
Solo
The overnight boat, the volcanic trails and the cliff-top onsen make a solo trip that swings between physical effort and subtropical stillness. Being this far out is the point.
- An island of two volcanoes, the last eruption in 1606 — fifty minutes by air from Tokyo or ten hours on the overnight boat.
- Kihachijō silk, dyed yellow with island-grown plants, has been woven here since the days when the island was a place of exile.
- Some seven hundred marine species live in the surrounding sea, sea turtles among them, and the dive and surf spots run year-round.
- Open-air onsen on the cliffs look straight out over the Pacific, with nothing between the bath and the horizon.
Ashitaba — the island's bitter, invigorating herb — fried as tempura or folded into noodles at the harbour restaurants.
Kusaya fermented fish — an acquired assault on the senses, revered by islanders, best tried at a table rather than opened in your room.
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