Bunny Island Okunoshima

On April 17th, I joined Shannon, Chelsea, and Maria for a trip to the small island of Okunoshima. The island was formerly a secret chemical weapons testing facility during the Russo-Japanese War and World War II. What brought us to the island was not it's history, but it's current attraction, bunnies! After the wars and demolition of the chemical weapons, the island was populated with rabbits! The origin of the rabbits is unknown, some initially believed they were used for chemical testing and let loose after the war, but historians have refuted that claim. Another popular theory is the island was populated by middle-schoolers releasing rabbits on the island. Either way, due to it's remote nature (and rules against bringing pets) the island is now full of the fuzzy creatures.

Before we set off on the small ferry to the island, we bought rabbit food from the ferry dock. Due to the abundance of tourists, the rabbits are incredibly tame, and early approach the sound of rustling paper bags in the hopes of grabbing some treats. The island now has a hotel, golf course, tennis courts, and some easy walking trails, which makes the island a nice weekend getaway. We set off on the walking trails, which encircle the island and lead to the old military ruins. All along the way we were accompanied by furry companions, who provided endless entertainment.

On the southern tip of the island we found and old lighthouse with spectacular views of the Itsuki-nada sea and its various islands. The wind was quite strong on this side of the island, causing the foliage to be quite animated.

Other parts of the island were much calmer. And among the trees were ruins from the wars, which are being overtaken by nature and quite cool to explore. Running over the island are massive transmission towers, which I imagine head to the much larger Omishima Island from Honshu. You can get right next to them, and they hum. We ate lunch at the top at a small park which had some interactive educational attractions which allowed children to spot the height of the towers from their focal point.

Throughout the day, as expected we had a ton of fun feeding the adorable, friendly bunnies! What we were pleasantly surprised by was how beautiful the island and its vistas were. In that respect this little day trip exceeded our expectations! And I can happily report that I was able to make it to the bunny island, which was high on my list of places to go in Japan!