Travel with me to Amami
Amami island, Kagoshima is probably my favorite places I visited so far in Japan.
Helllllo! Happy Summer! Can you believe that it’s already August? I’m kinda already having a withdrawal of summer already. My summer began with a lot going on... I just had my 30th birthday!!!! (I think I’ll write about this soon) I quit my job!!! (yes this is news I guess that not many people know because I haven’t been telling people so will touch on this later soon lol) and then I went on a solo trip to Amami to celebrate life!!! This letter is just travel stuff. But will separate it with a 2 part series because there’s so many places I went.
I hope you enjoy this travel entry. Amami was the best. I love summer and I want to fall in loooooove!!!
Day 1 Happy birthday to meeeee July 25.
I arrived in Amami on my birthday. Do I recommend birthday travel? Well it’s really up to you. I really needed to keep my mind off of things this time since I was turning 30. I was terrified of just sitting around and doing nothing, so even the travel time and starting my day from 6am heading to the airport and having my breakfast at McDonalds was truly a way to start off my day.
I stayed at a resort hotel for just one night since I wanted to treat myself. It’s only 10 min away from the airport called THIDAMOON. One thing I realized overall about Amami is that they are still not on board with tourism I think. They have limited flights coming in everyday, (I think about 3 flights a day?) due to the small airport. Apparently, in order to preserve the nature, they have no intentions of making the airport bigger is what I head from the locals. The hotels are kinda old. Wherever you stay, it doesn’t give you the ‘high-end lux’ experience like you can get in parts of Okinawa island. Amami is a place for people who are cool to get down with nature, get your hands dirty, and don’t care of lux experiences too much. It’s very different from the Okinawa tourism experience, so keep that in mind. Oh and of course, you need a car if you are there for more than 3days. I was there for 7 days, it was necessary to have a car. Amami is big, it takes time to get to places.
Beaches 👙
-崎原ビーチ/Sakibaru Beach
-ともりビーチ/Tomori Beach
Went to go see the sunset here. I think this was one of my favorite beaches. It seemed like it was a snorkeling spot.
Food
One thing you need to know, while you are up north, there are not a lot of places to eat. I intentionally booked a hotel for one night up north so I can enjoy the beaches there. (I haven’t seen a conbini either, but there was a supermarket.)
-タコ照/奄美照井農園
A takoyaki place!! in Amami! This was a recommendation from a friend, but it was good! I did takeout (ソースと塩) and went to the beach to eat it. They seem to be only open from 3pm for just a couple of hours.
-Hotel dinner/Breakfast
I am not one to have dinner at the hotel, I would rather explore outside, but the food was great. I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday dinner.
Day 2
Beaches ⛱
-手広海外/tebiro kaikaigan （A surfing beach）
-倉崎海外/Kurasaki Kaigan (Super beautiful and quite)
Places 🏊
-笠利崎灯台/Kasarizaki Todai
This is the most top tip of the island in the North. You can have a whole view of the island. It was fucking hot this day, it is a bit of a walk up top like 5 minutes?
Food🍙 (City of Naze/名瀬市内)
-やみつき唐揚げ/Yamitsuki karaage
I decided to go to this random Karaage shop near by, do take out, and eat at the beach, and honestly?? best choice ever. Their コロッケ was SO GOOD.
-みずき庵/Mizuki-an 10/10
Finally I am in the city center where I can drink and explore the food! Basically this map below is Naze city, and this is where all the tourists tend to stay and eat and where bars and stuff is happening. The first place I went was a beautiful small private owned Izakaya by a Obachan. The food, the vibe and everything was so good. (Cost¥3000 with 2 beers and 3 dishes)
Stay🏡
It’s a shared hostel and I stayed in a dormitory. Thankfully, maybe because of covid, I only had one guy for the first two nights, and since I was only there to sleep, I hardly saw him. The rest of the 3days, I had the place all to myself. for 5nights and 6days, it only cost me 19000¥ + parking (500yen/day). Super clean, new, and comfortable bedding.
Day 3 (Main event is surfing for the first time!)
Things to do
-Take Surfing classes 🏄♀️
I did surfing lessons for about 2 hours or so for ¥8000 with a one on one coaching. The place I did it with is a guest house called みーまん奄美。A friend of mine stayed here before and told me about it, and saw that they do surfing lessons for cheap so I just booked it. This is their instagram account (@miman.amami). He is a very chilled out guy and easy going, I definitely recommend it. Next time, I might even stay here. Oh how did the surfing lessons go? well it’s fucking difficult. lol I’m still sore from it, I got seasick lol , and I couldn’t stand even once… I have a lot of respect towards surfers now.
-二つの海が見える丘/The hill that you can see two oceans.
It was recommended to me by the guy at みーまん。He said it’s one of the power spots he’s been in Amami. I felt it. There are only two places in Japan where you can see two oceans at once, (the pacific ocean and East China Sea) here and Hokkaido. And there is just one big land that separates these two huge body of water. I guess nature decided to create something so beautiful out of nowhere.
-マングローブカイヤック/Mangrove kayak ⛵️
I was already in the area where there was the mangrove, so I decided to drive down to do mangrove kayaking. I went to the マングローブ茶屋. This one, you just go and pay and kayak on your own. No reservation necessary if you are just going through it alone. If you want a guide to tell you stuff, I think you might need it, but if not, easy in and out. I liked how most of the activities I have done so far has no strict reservation policies and you just go there and enjoy yourself style. Very helpful while traveling. (Cost: ¥1700 )
Beaches 👙
-大浜海浜公園/Oohama Kaihin Koen
This beach park is close to Naze city, and it is mainly for tourist to go to. Not many locals will go, but if you just want to chill at the beach and see the sunset, I 100% recommend this place for that.
Food 🍱
-サンドウィッチカフェあまみ/ Sandwich cafe Amami
This place seems to be famous amongst locals as well as the tourist. They are famous for their fruit sandwiches, which honestly I am not a fan of…but I tried. But they only had a blueberry jam sandwich with a bunch of whipped cream in it. Not my go-to but normally it seems like they have more variety.
Cost : ¥500 (Coffee + sandwich)
-カメG Amami島ダコたこ焼き＆お好み焼き/ Shimatako& takoyaki 10/10
After my surfing classes, there was a rain storm that hit, so I had to eat lunch in the car, but again!!! another Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki place!!! haha Why are there so many places to eat Takoyaki? Their Okonomiyaki was actually super good. Cost: ¥1200 (Okonomiyaki + takoyaki)
-鳥重/Torishige 10/10
Are you a yakitori fan? If so, go here. I did not expect to eat a full yakitori Omakase style in Amami, but I loved it. Every bit of it. (The locals say that the owner here is not that nice, lol but I didn’t think so) The quality of the food, I think was the best I had. Cost: ¥5600 （3drinks and a full omakase style. So cheap lol )
I feel like no one cares especially if you follow me on Instagram, it’s mostly places you’ve seen, but definitely a good reminiscing moment for me. This week, I’ll drop a #juststuff news letter your way since there’s a few I want to talk about!
Thanks always. Megumi x