As I was studying abroad two years ago, I visited many places. And along all the place I visited in Japan, this island is still my favorite. Just imagine all the positive vibes you got from all the fluffy cute not-afraid-to-human rabbits. Urgh they’re so cute I just urrghh urrghhh <3333 *making unidentified noises
So cute so cute so cuteeeeee ><
So where exactly is this island located? It’s located near Hiroshima. You can check it up on google for the map. As for the access, you can use train until Tadanoumi Station (you can see the hint easily lol). After that goes to Tadanoumi Port to board on a ferry to the island.
The ferry doesn’t come very often so pay attention to the time when you go there. At the port you can wait inside a wooden building, which is a part of the port. There you can buy rabbit food, it’s not being sold in the island so if you want to feed the rabbit buy it beforehand here at the port. There are also commemorative stamps as a sign you have visited rabbit island, so don’t forget to bring your agenda or small notebook to stamp it to (I don’t bring any at that time and very disappointed with myself lol, I stamp it on the pamflet I got).
After you got down from the ferry, you can get on the bus to reach the main island. From the moment you come down the bus you can found the rabbits anywhere, literally anywhere lol. You will find hotel after you got down the bus. The hotel have many rabbit related ornament and symbol in it. There are also restaurant, cafe, and rabbit related goods as souvenirs for you to bought. You can also rent bicycle to bike around the island and meet all the rabbits.
I came in evening that time so I have to spend one night in the island hotel. If you book room at the hotel you will be served with buffet food which you can eat as much as you want. The buffet serve basically everything from western food, japanese food, ice cream, and many more, and of course you will be served with food made by the island local ingredients. You can also use onsen inside the hotel. It feels very good, espescially if you’re coming to the island in the freezing winter season (which I was). The rooms are traditional japanese rooms, with tatami and futon, and of course your pajamas would be yukata. When you wake up in the morning you can see the rabbits playing in the ground from your hotel room.
Finally next day! Me and my friends rent bicycle and went around exploring the island to meet the rabbits! You can found many everywhere around the hotel though lol.
YAY! LET’S START THE EXPLORATION! YAY! YAY! *even remembering the experience made me excited lol
The island is small, and there were no houses as far as I saw, but there are bench for people who want to laid back and enjoy the scenery. The small island feels like resort nowadays, but it actually have a dark history. It have been erased from the map for some period. It was a place where japan made chemical weapon to use in world war 2 period, poisonous gas then spread around the island and it’s called poisonous gas island. There were rabbits being kept as object for the experiment but they are all died after the gas incident.
Now the question is: How could there are so many rabbit there? Don’t worry, I have the answer for that ヾ(*´∀｀*)ﾉ . So, in 1971, there were children who release 8 kept in school rabbits so they can live in the wild. And in the island where there were no people the rabbits keep multiplied until now. There are more than 700 rabbits living in the island now.
The island is small so you can bike around it in like…hmm… 1 hour (?) or even faster but why biking so fast when you can take all your time playing with the rabbits? XDD I spent 2 hours biking but that was because I need to get to the bus in time to go to the next travel destination. If I have more time I would spent a day there and not being bored at all lol. It’s really fun and refreshing. The nature is beautiful, the air is clear, and there are rabbits everywhere to soothe your tired heart.
While exploring the island you can find the sea, beach, cave, abandoned power generator building (the one being used to make the weapon I guess), forest, and many more. I’ll just put the photos so you can see it yourself XD
(The photos are in slide show because there are so many good photos I want to show XD)
If you plan to travel to Japan, this place is my recommendation, especially for you who like animal. I also plan to visit them again sometimes when I have enough saving of course lol. So my report ends here~
Till we meet again, cute rabbits! <3
幸せの欠片 