Kumejima

December 8, 2025 – Kume Island – 24 km day ride – EN Resort

December 9, 2025 – Kume Island – 26 km day ride – EN Resort

December 10, 2025 – Kume Island – 35 km day ride – EN Resort – cycling total: 103 kms – Island count: 3 (Okinawa, Kumejima and Oujima)

Gordon:  We have now spent a few days poking around Kumejima.  This is a fairly remote island located 100 kms west of Naha, Okinawa.  It’s about 30 kms around by road, and home to 8700 people and six traffic lights.  We are enjoying it so much that we have extended our stay by a few days.

It’s entirely pleasant to be here, starting with the weather.  The temperature range today was 20 to 22 degrees, a daily variation of only two degrees.  Our thermostat at home doesn’t keep the house within such a tight range.  Cooler, moister weather is coming, but so far the weather has been perfect, day or night.

Cycling on Kume has been a pleasure, with good road surfacing and light, respectful, slow-moving traffic.  

Kume has the highest hill in Okinawa Prefecture, 310 metre high Mount Ueno.  I still suffer from a touch of testosterone poisoning, so we cycled there first.  Mount Ueno is crowned by the ruins of a 15th century castle, and provides a panoramic view of most of the island.  Notable in that view is the seven kilometre long sandbar of Hate-no-Hama, which points to the east like a white and aquamarine finger.

On the return ride from Mount Ueno we stopped at a silk cloth co-op, where we were shown around like dignitaries.  The labour involved in the production of this gorgeous cloth is ridiculous, with individual threads marked and aligned to create the patterns.  A variety of plants and minerals are collected for the all-natural dyes.

We have been snorkeling a couple of times, including from the beach in front of our hotel.  It has been a little underwhelming, though there is quite a bit of live coral, and a variety of colourful tropical fish.  

On our first snorkeling outing I saw a sea snake.  Most of these are venomous, so I gave it a wide berth.  The following day we once again encountered the snake, this time on the beach just above the waterline.  On this occasion we were able to get a good look and identify it as a black-banded sea krait.  They are described as being mild tempered and unlikely to bite unless provoked.  However, if they do take a dislike to you and take a chomp, their potent neurotoxin is fatal in more than half of untreated cases.

Yesterday evening we once again encountered our serpent friend, lying dead on the beach near where we had last seen it.  I suspect that someone killed it.  I was saddened to think that the world was just a little less wild.

Today we visited a number of interesting sites on the island.  Most notable of these is Yajaagama cave.  This is an unlit 800 metre limestone cave in good condition.  Some of the formations are still “live” (in the process of formation) and there has been little vandalism.  This is possibly because Yajaa is also a burial cave, and hence a respected space.  In the past the deceased were left exposed for a period of time, and then their bones were washed and placed in pottery urns.  There are several places near the mouths of the cave where there are still collections of these urns, some broken and the contents strewn about.  There are also bats and some shockingly large cave bugs.  Access to the cave was surprisingly casual, with a sign outside cautioning visitors to use a light and be careful of the cobras.  (There aren’t actually any cobras on Okinawa, but there are several species of venomous vipers known as habu.)  Ruth was a bit jumpy on our walk through the cave, but she was steely enough to make it end to end.