https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200212/p2a/00m/0na/020000c
Sarushima, an island located off the Miura Peninsula city of Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture, eastern Japan, is the only uninhabited island in Tokyo Bay.
Accessible from the mainland by boat in just 10 minutes, the small island boasts untouched nature and historic structures. Partly thanks to increased exposure on social media, it reportedly welcomed over 200,000 visitors in the previous fiscal year.
With no need to make a reservation, and tour guides available for short trips around the island, I took a leisurely visit to discover the island's charms.
On a weekend at the end of January, I set off for Sarushima on a regularly scheduled boat leaving Mikasa Sanbashi, a pier in Yokosuka. As the island hovered into view, I could see its rocks eroded by rough tides, and the evergreen trees that cover its surface.
I was there taking part in an exploration tour of the uninhabited island started in December 2019 by Tryangle, a boat transportation company. With an efficient course around the island completable in about 45 minutes, participants can take the returning boat leaving an hour later, so the tour is reportedly popular with groups on a tight schedule.
Led by our guide, we started walking from a small beach; in about five minutes the atmosphere had completely changed. A stone passage cut through hills, almost crossing the whole span of the island, appeared before us.
Upon seeing it, some of the others on the tour gasped audibly, and shutter sounds from people's phones as they took photos began going off all at once. Along the path we also saw a munitions dump and barracks constructed from bricks during the Meiji era (1868-1912).
From north to south, the island measures about 450 meters, and has a low elevation of around 40 meters. From the days of feudal government up until World War II it served as a defensive outpost in Tokyo Bay, and had gun batteries deployed on it.
Passing through a dim tunnel measuring some 90 meters long, we arrived at a platform on the island's edge with sprawling views of Tokyo Bay. Looking in the opposite direction, I could gaze at the Boso Peninsula, and to my right the Miura Peninsula and the cape of Kannonzaki.
Listening to our guide as he described the firing range of cannons of the period, and the roughly 7-kilometer distance between Futtsu in Chiba Prefecture on one tip of the bay, and Kannonzaki on the other, I imagined the soldiers of the time and their work on sea-based defenses. Following a look at an observation deck and the remains of a gun battery, the tour finished.
Among the people I saw on the island that day were couples on dates, families out for picnics, seniors with a passion for history, inbound tourists, people fishing, and young people posing for cosplay shoots. The around 500 people on Sarushima's shores that day came from all walks of life to enjoy its atmosphere.
From the 1990s, the city government has maintained the island as a park, but there is very little in the way of administrative and management services, and very minimal outlay of restaurants and other facilities.
Hiroaki Fujino, 48, head of Tryangle's business division, said, "Sarushima's appeal is that it's not a built-up area, and its nature is largely untouched. We want people to land here by boat and have a relaxing, extraordinary experience."
I took photos on the island right up until getting on the returning boat. At one point I found myself in a break from the other tourists, and for a moment totally alone. I felt enveloped in a wondrous atmosphere, almost like I could hear the island's quiet breathing. I recommend coming here before the visiting season starts in earnest, and the area bustles with visitors.
Access and info:
Mikasa Sanbashi, the pier to take the boat to reach Sarushima, is accessible in around 15 minutes on foot from Yokosuka-chuo Station on the Keikyu Main Line. In its summer schedule from March to November, each day boats to the island depart every hour from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. From December to February, it runs only on weekends and holidays, hourly from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Return trips on the service cost 1,400 yen for general adult tickets, and 700 yen for elementary school age children. To enter the park itself costs 200 yen for people age 15 or over, and 100 yen for elementary and junior high school students.
In addition to the tour taken by the Mainichi Shimbun, the Sarushima guide association offers a 90-minute course with visits to the munitions dumps and barracks. From 2019, it has also started offering tours onto the artificial sea defense island, No. 2 Sea Fort, which is situated in waters off Futtsu.
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