Into the rabbit hole: Okunoshima (大久野島）

 

After leaving Takamatsu, I set out on my next adventure. Going to Okunoshima, which is also known as the "Rabbit Island".  To give a little bit of background, originally, between 1929-1946, this island was used as a production facility for various poison gases that were to be used in the wars, before it was eventually shut down.  So why all the rabbits?  Well, from what I understand, at some point there was a school or some residents who had pet rabbits, and they were either released or escaped to the outdoors, and then proceeded to do what rabbits do, and there was a resulting population explosion of rabbits. And in case you were worried at all, the poison gas was all destroyed or removed from the island, so no need to worry about that.  Now, as far as I could tell, there aren't really any permanent residences on the island, but there is one large resort/hotel.  Not many people at all though.



Cute, aren't they?

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's go back to the beginning. The trip from Takamatsu to Tadanoumi (the port where you catch the ferry to go to the island) took just under 3 hours by train, so I was able to arrive around 9:00.



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Once I got to the ferry terminal, I bought my ticket from the machine (620 yen for a round trip), and got a bag of rabbit food for 100 yen to bring along to feed the rabbits. I ended up waiting for a while because the ferry didn't leave until 9:40.




Rabbit food

Waiting for the ferry

View from the ferry

 

The ferry ride took about 15 minutes, and then I was free to explore the island, and have some quality time with the rabbits.

 

I would just like to point out before I get into all of my pictures about rabbits, that this island is itself a beautiful place with some really nice scenery.  The only problem was that the wind was really strong that day, so it made it kind of chilly along the coast, although in the trees it wasn't nearly so bad.  And in case you were wondering, the circumference of this island is only 4.3 kilometers, so, yes, it's really easy to go all the way around.  There is a main path that goes along the coastline, and then other smaller paths that go up the mountain and to various sites from the poison gas facility.

 

 

 

 

 

I know it's hard to see, but there's a ship-building facility out there...I passed it on the train ride in the morning

 

Sun dial type thing --where you stood was based on the date. (I took this photo at 11:08)

 

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Memorial area

 

 

So? What do you think? The view are pretty nice, right?

 

Now, let's get into what I'm sure you've been waiting for...the rabbits!  There were various rules posted around the island regarding the rabbits. (The rule board was labeled as "A pretty please from the rabbits")  Mostly common sense things though.  Things like: don't pick them up because their bones can break easily, don't put your hands in their mouths because they might bite you, don't feed them along the roads because it's dangerous, don't give them human food like cookies, you can't take them home or leave other pets there...

 

It was okay to pet them while feeding them though.  They are really friendly, and will start climbing up on you if they think you have food.  Sometimes they seem to be a bit mean to each other though... They seem really healthy and there are bowls of water left out all around the island for them, and I saw many places where there were just piles of food that they could go to whenever they wanted.  I also saw a few people dragging wagons of rabbit food around, feeding the rabbits en masse. 

 

It was also really interesting, because most wild rabbits would run away when they hear a loud sound, right? But these rabbits are the opposite.  It might seem like there are no rabbits around, but if you stop anywhere, they just come out of nowhere and start sniffing or following you around, wondering if you have some food for them or not.

 

Here's a prime example of coming out of nowhere.  He just appeared and had the attitude of, "I won't let you by til you feed me!"

"Do you have food?"

 

Cutie cleaning ears, and a bit of the view....
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You can see those food piles here...

yum, yum, yum...

 

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"You have food?!!"

I might have died a little from all this cuteness

 

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Some different colors on this one

 

 

He was really mean to the other rabbits.  And he didn't want his picture taken.

This one was kind of creepy...he kept coming closer even though I didn't have any food for him.  He finally stopped to listen to a really eerie birds sound.

 



These guys were super friendly.  I gave them the last of my food and they let me take lots of photos and pet them.  They even came back to see me after I gave them all my food and was looking at some other things. <3 <3

 

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They are so adorable!!! And so soft!!! I really want one!  This black and white one was so ridiculously friendly....

 

Well, that's about it for rabbit stuff...now onto the more historical, poison gas ruins stuff...

 

**Also, as an aside, I'm going to show some pictures of signs...if they're too small to read, if you click on the picture, it should open up in a new window, and you can zoom in on it from there...**

 

The lay of the island

This was the first thing that I came upon: the remains of an air raid shelter.

 

The island also has a visitor center and poison gas museum that are both supposed to be open from 9, but for some reason no one was around, so I couldn't go in. :(

 

 

This is the remains of a search light control station:

 

 

This is the remains of the poison gas storehouse:

 

 

I'm not sure about this one, but walking by it, I had a strangely uncomfortable feeling...

 

 

These next ones were at the central battery location.  It was really weird there. Extremely quiet and kind of eerie....

 

 

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This is the remains of another poison gas storehouse:

 



 

 

 

As the sign says, this is all that is left of a Japanese garden...

 

 

This was a really big storehouse for the poison gas.  If you can, I really suggest you try to read the sign.  It seems interesting.

 



 

 

These photos were from the northern battery area. These first photos are the underground barracks and power station. The last one is a tunnel that goes to where there were cannons and a storehouse.

 

 

 

Next we have the area where they kept gas tanks along with some cannons....

 

 

More locations for cannons, as well as a small room, I'm not sure what it was for....

 

 

This is the remains of a powder magazine that stored ammo and gunpowder.

 

 

 

These next photos are the remains of the power plant:

 

 

And finally, these are photos of the original pier that was used to get onto the island:

 

 

And that concludes this post about Okunoshima...not just a place to hang out with super cute rabbits, but also and educational trip to a place with some really nice views!!