Amami Islands Voyage Tips and guide

The Amami Islands (奄美諸島 Amami-shotō) are a small archipelago south of Kyushu, Japan.

• Amami Oshima — the largest island in both area and population
• Kikai
• Kakeroma
• Yoro
• Ukeshima
• Tokunoshima
• Okinoerabujima
• Yoron

In addition, the Tokara Islands just to the north of Amami are sometimes lumped in with the Amami Islands.

The Amami Islands are geographically, linguistically and culturally a part of the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa), but in the early 1600s they were conquered by Satsuma (today's Kagoshima) and have been formally a part of Japan ever since. They escaped World War II largely unscathed, being briefly occupied by the US afterwards but handed back to Japan in 1953, almost two decades earlier than Okinawa.

In 2021, Amami Oshima and Tokunoshima became a UNESCO World Heritage site in recognition of their biodiversity.

Everybody on the islands speaks standard Japanese. English is rare.

The Amami Islands also have their own languages, or shimayumuta (島口), which are closely related to northern Okinawan but not mutually intelligible with Japanese. They are all endangered, with only elderly speakers remaining, and not officially recognized by the Japanese government, which calls them Amami dialects (奄美方言 Amami-hōgen).

As in Okinawa, each island has its own dialect. The largest are the Kikai and northern Oshima dialects, each having some 10,000 speakers left in 2010.

Amami Airport (ASJ  ^IATA) on Amami Oshima is the main hub for flights, with direct flights to Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Kagoshima, and Naha in Okinawa. Booking well in advance on low-cost carriers Peach or Skymark is by far the cheapest way to get to the islands.

The other islands have tiny airports with service only to Kagoshima and Amami Oshima.

The Amami Islands are served the cozy duopoly of A-Line Ferry, aka Maru-A (マルエー) and Marix Line, both of which run between Kagoshima (Kyushu) and Naha (Okinawa) via the islands on alternating days. Fares on both are identical, with a one-way Kagoshima-Amami Oshima trip (11 hours) costing ¥9,220 in 2nd class (二等), or ¥9,750 from Naha (13 hours). The exact schedules are complicated and change from day to day, but the main ports served, from north to south, are:

• Naze (名瀬) on Amami Oshima, served by all ferries
• Kitoku (亀徳) on Tokunoshima, served by some ferries
• Wadomari (和泊) on Okinoerabujima, served by some ferries
• Yoron (与論), served by almost all ferries

In addition, A-Line runs a service from Kagoshima via Naze that serves one extra island and some additional ports:

• Kikai (喜界)
• Koniya (古仁屋) on Amami Oshima
• Hetono (平土野) on Tokunoshima
• China (知名) on Okinoerabujima

Finally, there's also a once-a-week service on Ferry Toshima from Kagoshima to Naze via the Tokara Islands, but this is both slower (16 hours) and more expensive (¥11,620) than the direct option.

Kikai, Okinoerabujima, Tokunoshima and Yoron have small airports with service to Amami and Kagoshima only.

The Kagoshima-Naze-Okinawa ferries can be used for travel from island to island. If you're planning an island-hopping return journey through Amami to Okinawa and back to Kagoshima, the Yui Passport that gives 14 days of unlimited travel on both Marix and A-Line may be worth considering. At ¥30,000, it's not cheap, but still offers a discount on the ¥33,120 you'd usually pay for the return journey.

Food in Amami has strong Okinawan influences: see Okinawa#Eat for a primer. The best known Amami dish is keihan (鶏飯, literally "chicken-rice"), a bowl of rice topped with shredded chicken and a varying array of toppings ranging from shredded egg to pickled papaya. It's served with a rich chicken broth on the side, which can be poured on top.

Brown sugar shōchū (黒糖焼酎 kokutō shōchū), distilled from cane sugar using the rice koji, is a speciality of the Amamis. Essentially the same as white rum, the distillation process converts the sugar into alcohol so it's not sweet, and the taste is quite mild compared to the sweet potato shochu popular in the rest of Kagoshima.

The venomous Okinawan pit viper (ハブ habu) is endemic to the Amami Islands and has an unfortunate habit of entering homes in search of rats and mice. Antivenom is available and the fatality rate for bites is less than 1%.

• Tokara Islands, if Amami feels too overcrowded and frantic