Iki island is reasonably rural and unknown. It has a past they would rather not talk about (which involved dolphin slaughter, but there is now a dolphin reserve on the island) and currently there is ample nature but little in terms of the convenience Japan is famous for. For us, this was just perfect as it made for an extremely relaxing and very beautiful get-away.

One of the sightseeing highs of the island is a rock that is shaped like a monkey. Ok, so it sounds like no big deal, and to be honest we were not really planning on spending much time here. However, when we found ourselves accidentally driving past the rock, we were pretty impressed! It really does look like a giant gorilla looking over the island and was made entirely by erosion and skillful nature.

We also discovered a nearby gun-house. I’m not too sure exactly what it should be called, but it is a cave that was created to store a large cannon and armaments. It is long abandoned and now has a rather creepy air as you enter the cold darkness from the warm sunshine. This, combined with the warnings about lethal snakes and unstable cracks due to a large earthquake in 1990s, made for a suitably scary excursion. Dan, in particular, was terrified! Though, he was wearing flip flops…

The fear became very real when, after ten minutes in the gun-house, we explored a small overgrown pathway at the back. On our retreat, we screamed like little children as a car came out of nowhere slowly creeping along. This, eventually, amused us and the driver of the car very much, but ended our trip to the gun-house abruptly!

Iki has another famous and more natural cave creation, Devil’s Footprint. It looks like a giant footprint with the light behind it and is rumoured by locals to have been created by the Devil itself. However​, I don’t think Trump has been anywhere near Iki as far as I’m aware, so I think it is just a case of erosion…the views from the cave are glorious and the ocean was crystal clear here as well.

Natural Iki is a beautiful sight to behold!