Okunoshima - Rabbit Island

November 16, 2025, from the itinerary: Okunoshima - Rabbit Island

Today was about 5 hours of train travel for three hours on Okunoshima, but I have been looking forward to this for five years, so considered it well worth it.

My hotel does not offer any meals and, frankly, I’m so happy I don’t have to eat today.  I’m also happy that somehow my trousers still fit.

I stopped at 7 eleven for coffee.  Everything is completely automated once you put the cup in, but I wasn’t aware of the process.  At one point I thought cup was going to tip over because the machine puts it at an angle to get a better mixture of foam to coffee.  I couldn’t open the door to adjust it and was glad the cup righted itself before there was a mess all over everything.

The train journeys (3) were unremarkable, other than they were on local trains and I could really get a good view of the villages and countryside. 

This was really beautiful and an unexpected benefit.  None of the photos really turned out. Fukuyama had a beautiful castle. Here is the best shot I could get from the bullet train on the return trip.  

Another unexpected pleasure were views of the inland sea. 

There happened to be a ship under construction in dry dock.

Also quite beautiful with the local boats.  The weather also played in my favor.

I finally got to the ferry terminal and it was everything rabbits. 

I bought some overpriced rabbit food and brought some grapes from the Inn which I was sure would be my secret weapon to lure all the rabbits.

It was a short journey to the island,

and then the expectations and myth evaporated into disappointment.

Sasha mentioned in passing that the island was used as a secret poison gas factory, but I hadn’t expected the scale of the operation.  They made not one, but four types of gas and had done since 1929 until the Allies took over in 1945.  It wasn’t just one factory, but many.  The island was taken off maps to keep secrecy.  The local population, happy for the jobs, knew they were working on armaments, but supposedly didn’t know what kind.  To make matters worse, their gear would sometimes leak and they were poisoned by the same gas they were making.

After that depressing start to my visit I was ready to find “rabbit hotspots”.  The problem was it was Sunday and everyone was out with their small children.  To make matters worse, they brought big bags full of carrots and cabbage.  I found it hard to find any hungry bunnies.  

The first ones I found I tried to give grapes, which our buns loved. 

These wouldn’t touch them and would only eat one pellet of food at a time.  

I ended up circumnavigating the island and managed to find some hungry ones that would run up to you when they saw you.  Some were very shy (I consider this a good thing) and they would run away at the first noise of someone walking by.  I had to coax them back.  There were no visible older rabbits and I saw several with sores from fighting.  Maybe the old ones were the smart ones that hid and I’ll go with that.

To make a longer story shorter, 3 hours was enough and I was glad to get back to the train.  On the return I took a bullet train which got me back a bit earlier.

On the way back to the hotel I walked through the old town. 

I ended up at the Achi Shrine Complex at sunset which had a wonderful view of the surrounding area.

Dinner tonight was at a sushi restaurant called Kiraku.  I understood it was about 10 minutes away, but couldn’t find it on Google or Apple Maps so used the printout provided by the hotel.  I also hadn’t factored in that it was completely dark.  The restaurant was very small and did not have any signs in English.  I didn’t have the restaurant name in Japanese.

So I just entered on the chance it was correct and found a 7 seat sushi bar that was the correct restaurant.  This turned out to be a sushi heaven that I will not soon forget, starting with Fugu and ending with miso soup with clams.  Well worth the money.  I was surprised to see Japanese eating sushi with their fingers, but I guess that is done.  I used chopsticks.

Forgot to take photo of the rolled egg omelet.