Amami Oshima 奄美大島

Beautiful island in the South of Japan- hidden gem

Amami Oshima has it all- undisturbed nature, beautiful ocean, unique history and culture, great food and hospitality. It is part of Kagoshima prefecture and located North of Okinawa islands. From Tokyo, you can access by Japan airlines or Vanilla air from Haneda and Narita respectively. It is a 2.5 hours flight.

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Amami Oshima and the surrounding islands are aiming to be designated as UNESCO world`s natural heritage sites by 2020. (In Japan, Yakushima/Kagoshima, Shiretoko/Hokkaido, Shirakami/Aomori and Ogasawara/Tokyo are already designated as such.)

There are lots of activities available for the active tourists, like cayak/canoe in the jungle, snorkelling/scuba diving in the ocean, island`s unique dyes to create your own unique shirts/accessories, kimonos, learning to cook and play instruments.

Here are some sites in English, although most of the other sites are only available in Japanese.

https://www.amami-tourism.org/en/

奄美のこと(en)

WHERE TO STAY? NEST at AMAMI

NEST at Amami- comfortable cabins, right in front of the ocean, great food, friendly staff, highly recommended. Y25000/adult incl. breakfast and dinner.

http://www.nestatamami.com/

Some pictures of the room- there are about 40 rooms available, all detached cabins. Ours had a little outdoor bath on the veranda. There is a spacious shower/bathtub as well as a state-of-the-art TOTO toilet. (please refer to the article here on Japan`s high tech toilets. http://hiddenjapanguide.com/archives/97 )

Dinner course changes daily, so you won`t be bored. We stayed for three nights four days and enjoyed all the different breakfast as well as dinner.

Breafast-you can choose European/American or Japanese

Lunch-a la carte menu available.

Tibit:

What is Keihan? 鶏飯

Traditional Amami　speciality　that　was　prepared　for　special　occassions,　especially　for　visitors from Satsuma　(present　day　Kagoshima) who ruled Amami Oshima. Lots of special garnish (chicken, egg, sea weed, shiitake mushroom, and so on) with rice, with specially prepared dashi (chicken broth) poured over. It is very delicous as well as healthy.