(Sept. 14-16, 2024)
There are total 9 Islands in Tokyo Prefecture. Most of them are just several hours away from Tokyo by large passenger ship (Tokai Kisen), or a few hours away from Tokyo by high-speed jet ferry. Then, you’ll come to totally different world, beautiful sea and nature all around. I am particularly fond of the cheapest 2nd class Japanese-style cabin in large passenger ship. They always leave at night about 23:00, then take take a good night sleep on the ship, in the morning you’ll wake up at the island, so time-effective and cost-effective.
Niijima was the 4th island that I have visited, for camping, hiking and hotspring. We had enjoyed the best weather and best free hotspring that I highly recommended.
The main Maehama port and town are at the western side of Niijima, while the free public campsite (Habushiura Campsite) that we stayed were at the remote eastern side of Niijima, about 3km away, so we rented bicycles to commute around, which worked out quite well, except that northern and southern sides of Niijima are quite hilly, so we could hardly cycled there, so we mostly only travelled between eastern and western sides.
We set up our tent on top of hill, that could even see the sea. However, it rained at night, that we had to walk long distance from the toilet and cooking area down the slope, but it was still a very nice free campsite. It even had free open cold shower, but we never used, because we always went to the Roman-style free hotspring (Yunohama Roten Onsen) near the main port, which has different pools of different temperatures, free locker, cold shower and changing room. It is open 24 hours and has Seaview. The Sunset view from the top of Yunohama Roten Onsen was amazingly peaceful.
It was a sunny day, so after we set up our tent, we tried to cycle to the White Cliffs. Unfortunately, there were some road block due to landslide, so we changed our destination to the Ishiyama Lookout instead. We parked our bicycles and hiked up to Ishiyama Lookout. It was a really great view. It was interesting that the hiking route was full of white sand like beach. Also, black dried up lava could be found on the way.
After that, we cycled down to Yunohama Roten Onsen along beautiful Maehama, and tried to grab late lunch in town, but all the restaurants were closed. Apparently, there were very few restaurants, cafes or stores in the island. After 2pm, we could hardly find anything open. Finally, we rested and charged our phones in the air-conditioned Visitor Center near Maehama port. The Visitor Center has boards showing which restaurants were available in the island, and their opening hours.
At night we just bought some foods from the few available supermarkets in the island, and cooked our dinner at the campsite.
Next morning, we cycled to Habushiura Shore from our campsite. It was only like 5-10min from our campsite, very convenience. It has the longest white sand beach and beautiful strong waves, perfect for surfing. We walked down the quiet beach for a long time.
In the afternoon, we took a swim in the sea, cycled down a narrow route suggested by Visitor Center. It led us to a grant gap along the White Cliffs. We had to walk down long steep stairs to the beach, but from there we could finally see the magnificent white cliffs. There were also quite long white sand beach, plus shadow from the hot summer sun behind the white cliffs. We took a nap on the beach, and returned to Yunohama Roten Onsen for sunset.
At night, we took a walk to the Habushiura Park next to our campsite. We found out that it actually led us to the beach. In the dark, we could still hear the strong waves and sea wind. It was so peaceful at night.
We only spent 2 short days on Niijima, but I think it was the island that I enjoyed the most, especially the Habushiura Shore and Yunohama Roten Onsen. They were the best.
Also, we found two nice restaurants for breakfast or lunch, Pool and Shima Restaurant Maruko.
I think we may come again, to visit the Niijima Glass Center and Moyai statues that we had missed…
