Japan’s hidden tropical island: Aogashima

Tofugu has a short article on this unusual and beautiful Japanese island: Aogashima.

Aogashima (“blue island”) is a tropical, volcanic island in the Phillipine Sea. Despite being over 200 miles away from the country’s capital, Aogashima is governed by Tokyo. In fact, a whole stretch of tropical and sometimes uninhabited islands called the Izu Islands are technically part of Tokyo. Volcanic islands? Not typically what comes to mind when you think of Tokyo.

As you might imagine, Aogashima isn’t the most crowded place in the world. As of this year, only about 200 people live on Aogashima. The island only has one post office and one school.

There are two ways on and off the island: by helicopter or by boat. There’s only one, small harbor where the boats go in an out of, and it seems to be a little unreliable. Because Aogashima is so remote and isolated, it can sometimes be hard to get a boat to or from the island safely.

A fellow named Izuyan has been traveling to isolated islands of Japan and taking excellent photos. Here's his Flickr set for Aogashima.

Japan’s Hidden Tropical Island: Aogashima(Via imgur)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

Japan could solve its financial troubles by selling that place to any number of evil genius types.

They could sweeten the deal by offering to carve the face of the villain in that outcropping of white rock.
- http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki
  
  Assuming China and Russia don’t just decide to lay claim to it.
  - noah django
    
    late-to-the-party threadjack!
    here’s a screenshot I grabbed to get a sense of scale as to where this isle actually is, so no one else has to do it.
    - Beanolini
      
      So, not actually tropical then. Not by a long way.
      - wizardru
        
        No, but it’s roughly the equivalent of Florida, if I read the map right. Still probably pretty nice most of the year, I’d wager.
- niktemadur
  
  This island needs a soundtrack:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avAeh9L3Txw
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Des-Akkari/100001144745158 Des Akkari
    
    yes, awesome…. but do we take the jet pack or the mini sub?
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  Seriously, I think that cone in the middle opens up to reveal the death ray.
- http://www.lightning-rose.com/ LightningRose
  
  To the best of my knowledge, volcanic magma rock is never white, so I’m thinking it’s guano – perhaps not the best choice of media for portraits of evil villain overlords. :)
  - SomeGuyNamedMark
    
    Could be layers of pumice which is off-white
http://twitter.com/areyouthatguy NNelson

‘shopped!

There’s not one giant flying moth or even a shadow of Gojira in that pic so it MUST be a fake.
- http://avarana.blogspot.com MarlboroTestMonkey7
  
  …two minutes later…
- ihavenomouthandimustscream
  
  Actually that would be the Ogasawara Islands where Monster Island aka Monsterland is located. Most notable being the location where a giant squid(of course) was caught on film live for the first time and Iwo Jima.
http://www.facebook.com/robert.beech.77 Robert Beech

This looks like the “home base” of Captain Nemo from the 1954 film.
- http://twitter.com/matcatastrophe mat catastrophe
  
  I was going to say it was Dr. No’s island.
http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

First saw this on Pic of the Day thread on the Rogan board and NO ONE could believe it wasn’t shopped. Truly a stunner as far as islands go.
- HahTse
  
  It’s good to see, that I wasn’t the only person whose first thought was “Wow, that totally looks als computer generated.”
http://twitter.com/cautioustrain Cautious Train

Isn’t that Kakariko Village from Ocarina of Time?
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=15711913 Stephen Nowicki
  
  I was thinking more towards that Island you get Knights of the Round from in Final Fantasy VII.
  - http://twitter.com/cautioustrain Cautious Train
    
    I know exactly what you mean there. And how about Monkey Island? I can imagine little pixel guybrush running all over it…
  - Ian Carrico
    
    I was just thinking the same… it looks JUST like the island in FF VII.
Jonathan Badger

While, yes, this is a cool volcanic island and not what one expects when one thinks of Japan, I have to find the line “Despite being over 200 miles away from the country’s capital, Aogashima is governed by Tokyo” amusing. Normally, being over 200 miles from a country’s capital isn’t very noteworthy, unless you are talking about Liechtenstein or something.
- Jonathan Badger
  
  Okay, the point was that it is part of Tokyo rather than just being governed by it?
  - teapot
    
    Yeah, the assertion is that it’s much closer to other Japanese states (prefectures) but is governed by the prefecture of Tokyo-to which, like NY, is the name of both a city and a state. Check this google map and you can see on the left it’s listed as “Aogashima Tokyo, Japan”.
    
    I still find the part that goes “Volcanic islands? Not typically what comes to mind when you think of Tokyo.” to be the most odd considering that Japan is a volcanic island and that you can see the country’s biggest volcano from tall buildings in Tokyo’s center.
- http://twitter.com/Kevinhalse kevin Halse
  
  Wow! 200 WHOLE miles? That must make Kushiro and Naha the wild untamed city-states!
  - benher
    
    Ah! You’ve been to Naha I see!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bilbo-Douchebaggins/100003580953517 Bilbo Douchebaggins

Kind of like Japan’s Azores, then?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Lianne-Burwell/100000837925963 Lianne Burwell

Wow. Evil genius territory, or the best place to hide out during the Zombie apocalypse
- dao_tao
  
  As long as there is no outbreak on the island, then it’s the worst place to hide.
  - HahTse
    
    Only 200 possible “infection vectors” (aka: targets) there, though.
  - falnfenix
    
    treetop sentry point/lookout + 500 rounds of .223 (accounting for errors and practice) = safe from zeds.
  - kartwaffles
    
    President Madacascar disagrees and would like to have a word with you, but he can’t because they just
    …
    SHUT
    DOWN
    EVERYTHING
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness
  
  Kind of like at the beginning of the original Dawn of the Dead.
  
  ”We’re going to the island.”
  “What island?”
  “Any island!”
Culturedropout

Do they have high-speed internet and UPS? Because I am _so_ moving there if they do…
- http://www.tumbleweed.net/ tyger11
  
  I would be willing to bet the answers to your questions are no and … not likely.
  - teapot
    
    Actually… this company seems to offer 1Gbps connections there and I imagine they’d have Kuroneko Yamato (Japanese UPS).
    
    For anyone else wanting to nerd out on this I found a few interesting things:
    This page has links to their town’s newsletter (with pictures!).
    This link is supposedly for a live camera (which I cant see through the work firewall)
    This page sells local specialty products, including a type of sho-chu.
    Japanese Wikipedia entry for the island.
    Geologic survey of the island (?)
    - niktemadur
      
      @Culturedropout:disqus
      There it is, my man – start packing!
- http://twitter.com/Kevinhalse kevin Halse
  
  No fast access to the rest of the country AND I get to be a social outcast? Sign me up!
Daniel Orf

Some more details on Aogashima with maps and pictures here: http://www.oddgeo.com/2012/04/30/aogashima/
Preston Sturges

It probably had an underground base in WW2, or at least something like the bunkers atop Diamond Head in Honolulu.
http://narrowstreetsla.blogspot.com David Yoon

I never did finish playing Myst.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness
  
  My excuse for not finishing Myst was Master of Orion 2.
- igpajo
  
  LOL, you stole my comment! First thing that came to mind when I saw that picture was Myst!
grimc

I can’t wait for the new SimCity to come out.
- niktemadur
  
  Beat me to it, I was gonna say that if they ever came out with SimIsland, this is very much what my island would look like.
A C

I think I remember seeing a pic of this place in some obscure travel book in Japan- I can’t believe that place exists. It’s the most beautiful island I’ve ever seen. Stunning. I must go there now!

This is why I love BB- even when I thought I’d seen all Japan, something even more beautiful than Rishiri island pops up. Thanks Mark!
http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai

Fire Lord Zuko lives in STYLE.
freshyill

I’m willing to bet that boat and helicopter are the only way off 99.999% of all islands.
- noah django
  
  the .001 percent is Staten Island. you could probably swim it if you had to.
- morcheeba
  
  Even Easter Island is accessible by space shuttle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_abort_modes#Chile
- Beanolini
  
  I’ll take that bet. If it’s true that there are 180497 islands in the world, then you’re asserting that boat and helicopter is the only way off 180497*99.999%=180495 of them. So if there are 2 islands with a runway large enough for an aeroplane, you’d lose the bet. There are 20+ commercial airports in the Greek islands alone…
  - EvilSpirit
    
    Not to mention the islands you can reach via bridge, of which I’ve lived on 2.
  - freshyill
    
    Touché. I have to admit that I didn’t even consider airplanes. Still, the vast majority of islands are tiny specks in the ocean only accessible by boat or helicopter.
- Wreckrob8
  
  You can get a train to the British Isles until we flood the tunnel to stop all the Euro crisis refugees trying to get in. Haha.
pjcamp

I see people living inside a caldera. And I thought residents of Portland were crazy.

This will not end well.
- http://www.facebook.com/tmctigue Teresa McTigue
  
  If I read the translation of their town newsletter correctly, the last eruption was in the 1700′s. The main economy appears to be salt production and some agriculture.
  
  Can you imagine being a teenager on the island? Any place you go, your parents are going to hear about it within minutes. For younger kids, it’d be paradise. Imagine the adventures.
  - HahTse
    
    The main economy appears to be salt production and some agriculture.
    
    That sound’s like a real cliché – “We are an island. Our main exports are salt and water.”
    
    Imagine the adventures.
    
    Not to speak of all the hilarious ways to DIE.
  - pjcamp
    
    True enough, but it is difficult to distinguish a dormant volcano from an extinct one. Fourpeaked mountain in Alaska had been silent since 8000 BC when it erupted in 2006. Pinatubo, in the Philippines, also seems to have dormancy periods on the order of several thousand years between eruptions.
http://twitter.com/ErnestValdemar Ernest Valdemar

I first noticed this when I watched the film Inugami a few years ago, but there is something about rural Japan that reminds me so much of rural Kentucky (USA).

The lush greenery, the amazing hospitality of the natives (until you cross them), the hillsides, the highway cuts, the rundown tourist destinations.

Simple, rich, flavorful foods. Odd traditions that you just go along with for the hell of it. the contrast between folkways and modernism. The pragmatic balance between industrial resource exploitation and natural beauty exploitation.

The only difference is that I’ve spent some time in rural Kentucky, and no time at all in rural Japan. But looking at that obscene greenery overwhelming the planned tourist locales in Aogashima reminded me of so many similar planned-yet-forgotten tourist spots in Boone County, KY.
CH

“As of this year, only about 200 people live on Aogashima. The island only has one post office and one school.”
Only one? I would think the selling point would be that even though there is only 200 inhabitants they actually have a school and a post office.
http://www.facebook.com/adrian.m.neville Adrian M. Neville

As I recall, the only way to get to this island was via Golden Chocobo…
http://twitter.com/RoboRon Ronaldo

James Bond could save a lot of time if he started every movie looking for the bad guy on that island.
http://www.pghsesolutions.com/ petrotexghse

wow amazing i like too
zuben

What are those parallel lines on the dome within the caldera?
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZH5LQHHJPERMWNVHCR2Y5GRHHE Jose
  
  Those are areas where swaths of trees have been cut down. Based on aerial imagery, it looks like they are working their way around the Maruyama dome in a clockwise fashion. The older cuts on the north side of the dome appear to have filled in to some extent, while the newer cuts are on the southeastern side of the dome. Maybe it’s a sustainable forestry strategy.
  - zuben
    
    I wonder how that wouldn’t lead to rapid erosion and deadly mudslides. Maybe they’ve got advanced tech to keep the soil intact?
    
    It’s also interesting that the inner valley hasn’t been clear-cut for crops, husbandry, habitation, etc. Reminds me a bit of the Eden Initiative in Anno 2070.
http://profile.yahoo.com/QHUZKKHDS4WRQTLO6BXYMMVPPU Patrick

Wow this is like an islet to me! I’d never want to live there, low access to other cities.
bbonyx

The most exclusive club in the world:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/izuyan/5668666495/in/set-72157626606763266/

Unce unce unce unce….
- niktemadur
  
  Holy cow, a disco ball!
  Those not shaking their booties, sit on the edge of the dancefloor, seiza-style.
Matt Staggs

Not sure if anyone here grew up playing D&D, but this is almost identical to the island in the Expert Set module “The Isle of Dread”.
- zuben
  
  Aye. I had that module and still remember the flooded corridors of the submerged inhabitants of the island. I seem to remember a rather beautiful elf raising a sail on the cover as well!
benher

If we’re discussing cool/lesser known Japanese islands, may I invite curiosity seekers to throw Minamitorishima into your morning google mix?
jandrese

Looking at the Island I was curious how in the world you even got there by boat. The steep rock cliffs surrounding the island don’t look inviting at all to a boat, and I can’t imagine that they would want to haul everything in or out of the island all the way up the side of the caldera and back down.

According to Google Maps they have a tunnel from the center of the island out to a small pier on the coast. That must have been an expensive tunnel for 200 people. I wonder if it also does double duty as flood relief during the rainy season?

Most of the buildings on the island look to be barns, so I’m guessing the culture is very very rural there.
http://echofox3.blogspot.com efergus3

I wonder what sorts of dinosaurs are found on the island?
desiredusername

Is it me or is there a road that just drops you off of a cliff?
- http://avarana.blogspot.com MarlboroTestMonkey7
  
  That’s part of the charm, deadly charm.
Jeremy Gaynor

chocobo. golden chocobo.
TheMadLibrarian

This island can be seen on GoogleEarth. At least a couple of the photos show what looks like volcanic gasses or steam; the volcano may not be completely dormant. The road looks like the path that goes over the pali (cliffs) on Molokai, down to Kalaupapa Peninsula. Some of the path is concealed by rocks and greenery and is invisible from most vantage points.
toyg

This is clearly where they keep their giant robots, to be launched when the alien invasion comes. Proof: http://www.flickr.com/photos/izuyan/5668663141/in/set-72157626606763266
http://www.facebook.com/robert.beech.77 Robert Beech

Compare areal shot with this matt painting:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59287279@N00/7308092746/in/photostream/