Japan
Sasebo and Kujukushima
Pine-capped islands scattered across a bay like a spilt jar of green marbles.
The islands sit in the bay like a jar of green marbles tipped into still water. Some are barely larger than a fishing boat. Others carry dense pine forest on their backs. From the observation decks above Sasebo, the scatter looks random until the light shifts and every island casts a shadow that reaches for the next.
Kujukushima means ninety-nine islands, the old expression for a coast too crowded to count, and the real number is far higher. The islands are the drowned ridges of a ria coast inside Saikai National Park, in Nagasaki Prefecture, and pleasure boats thread the sheltered channels between them past oyster rafts, while kayak operators paddle the quieter reaches. Sasebo itself has been a naval town since the Imperial Navy founded its district here in 1889, and after the war the US Navy took over part of the base — which is how the Sasebo Burger was born around 1950, from a recipe handed over by American sailors, and why more than twenty-five shops in town still argue over the best one. In winter, oyster shacks along the coast grill Kujukushima oysters in the shell from October to March; in summer the fat rock oysters take over.
Family
The island-hopping boats captivate children, the aquarium at Pearl Sea Resort sits right at the harbour, and a Sasebo Burger taste test turns lunch into a game.
Couple
Sunset from the observation decks, with the islands dissolving into gold, is one of Kyūshū's most romantic views; a kayak through the channels and oysters at a coast shack complete it.
Friends
Kayaking between islands, a burger crawl through competing shops, and evening beers at the harbour make this an easy, sociable base for western Kyūshū.
- Ninety-nine islands is an undercount — pine-capped islets scatter across the bay like green dots on blue glass, seen from the Tenkaihō observation deck.
- Boats thread the sheltered channels past oyster rafts, and kayaks reach the quiet coves between uninhabited islands.
- The Sasebo Burger was born around 1950 from a US Navy recipe — more than twenty-five shops in town still compete over it.
- Kujukushima oysters, fattened on the nutrients of that intricate coast, are grilled in the shell at oyster shacks from October to March.
The Sasebo Burger — soft sticky bun, a hand-formed patty, bacon, egg and a heap of lettuce — Japan's answer to the American classic since the naval base era.
Kujukushima oysters roasted in the shell at a coast shack in winter, or the bigger rock oysters in summer.
Laguna San Rafael
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Milos
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Lunar white cliffs drop into turquoise coves carved by volcanic fury over millennia.
Hermanus
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Southern right whales surface five metres from shore beside a cliff path through town.
Manuel Antonio
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Capuchins patrol the sand beneath dozing sloths where rainforest walks into the ocean.
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Lavender fields running to the mountains in ruler-straight purple rows.
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Dig your own hot spring in the riverbed — hot water seeps up wherever you scrape.
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Wind-rippled dunes rise above the Sea of Japan, with camel rides across the sand.
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Powder so dry and deep that falling into it feels like sinking into cold silk.