Last Updated: Dec 20, 2023

Osaki Kamishima

Backyard Tourism Vol. 13

Welcome back to another installment of Backyard Tourism. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the island of Osaki Kamishima in Hiroshima Prefecture. Located 30 minutes off of the coast in the ever-picturesque Seto Inland Sea, this island rarely, if ever, welcomes overseas visitors to Japan. Hell, if the one-off comment made by the owner of the ryokan that I stayed at can be taken at his word, this part of the country isn’t even a place that domestic tourists frequent! While this might sound off putting, it is precisely because it is so undiscovered that you ought to consider spending a night in this part of Hiroshima.

Now, like with every other location featured in the Backyard Tourism series, the following account of my travels is not necessarily an attempt to get you to visit Osaki Kamishima. Instead, what I want to do is showcase how just about any area of Japan can have niche appeal if its narrative is properly told online. Through good storytelling and liberal use of copywriting, I’ll try to paint an image for you of why even this extremely rural slice of Japan is worth considering if you’re a repeat visitor.

So on that note, who would actually enjoy losing track on time on an island like Osaki Kamishima? Well, for starters, the landmass is actually…