沖永良部島

Okinoerabujima - Okinoerabu Island


沖永良部島 (Okinoerabujima, Okinoerabu Island) is one of the Satsunan Islands, part of the Amami archipelago between Kyūshū and Okinawa. The island consists of coralline limestone and has a coralline and has a length of 20 km and width of 7 km. Mount Ōyama (246 m asl) is the highest elevation.

As the island is made of limestone and located in a humid subtropical climate, it is riddled with caves. It has around 300 caves, including some of Japan’s largest limestone caves. There is a single show cave with spectacular rimstone pools, but also numerous cave trekking tours. Two cave organizations offer cave trekking tours. The 沖永良部島ケイビング協会 (Okinoerabujima Caving Association) was founded in 2011 and was the first caving organization on Okinoerabujima. The second is 沖永良部島ケイビングツアーNEXT (Okinoerabujima Caving Tour NEXT), formerly the Okinoerabujima Caving Guide Association. There is an obvious danger to mix the names up, so that’s probably why they changed the name. Both are guiding operations, and despite calling themselves cavers they are simply earning their living by guiding caves tours. That not a bad thing, and they actually do a lot to protect the caves on the islands. Both are offering tours to four different caves リムストーンケイブ (Rimusutōnkeibu, Rimstone Cave), 大蛇洞 (Daijado, Great Serpent Cave), 水連洞 (Suirendo, Water Lily Cave), and 銀水洞 (Ginsuido, Silverwater Cave). Both are certified by the Japan Caving Federation for their cave trekking trips. Both offer rented equipment, changing rooms, transport, lockers and even provide pictures from your trip when you are too busy climbing and crawling.

We do not have separate pages for the four caves, because actually we do not have enough info for those caves. But at least we have a sort of tour description for the tours. Nevertheless, there may be different variations offered by the two companies, and the tour may be adapted to the skills of the group.

  1. リムストーンケイブ (Rimusutōnkeibu, Rimstone Cave) is the beginners course, a short section of the Oyama Suikyodo
  2. 大蛇洞 (Daijado, Great Serpent Cave)
  3. 水連洞 (Suirendo, Water Lily Cave)
  4. 銀水洞 (Ginsuido, Silverwater Cave)