Okun­oshi­ma- Rabbit Island

Published Categorised as Japan, Nature, Photography, Popular Posts, Travel No Comments on Okun­oshi­ma- Rabbit Island

You can see more photos from other places in the Japan category of this blog, and also read about the trip in the zine I wrote.

While I was in Japan we visited the island of Okun­oshi­ma. In the Second World War it was a top secret chem­ic­al weapons plant, but now is a nature reserve famous for its free-ranging tame rabbits, who are prob­ably the descend­ants of the lab rabbits.

On the ferry out to the semi-trop­ic­al, fern-covered island, we joked about it being like Juras­sic Park but with rabid fluffy bunnies. They turned out to be even tamer than I had expec­ted, prob­ably tamer than a lot of pet rabbits. They’ve never seen pred­at­ors, and all their exper­i­ence of humans is being petted and fed in return for being friendly, so if you even sit down, a load of rabbits will pile onto your lap.

I was feed­ing this one while sat on the ground, and all its friends came piling onto my lap. A tv crew were film­ing tour­ists on the island, and I ended up being inter­viewed for some Japan­ese tv show. I’m afraid I have no idea what one.

Pals

I’ve never seen a rabbit beg like a dog before

This little shrine had some very nibbled paper crane chains

Wasn’t me. Honest.

I wonder how often these are replaced.

I fits, I sits.

Sam ‘n’ Max hit the beach.

This little badger-furred guy was my favour­ite.

Seaweed-covered steps down to the water

Climb­ing up the paths to the top of the island, the rabbits become shyer. I guess the bold ones like to hang out at the port, where the people are.

They don’t even seem to both­er with burrows much on the island. No pred­at­ors I guess.

This is the peak of the island.

No fear.

Juras­sic Park.

It became weirdly exhaust­ing after a while, strok­ing and feed­ing so many rabbits. Which was prob­ably not helped by the fact that we had left Naoshi­ma at 6am and been on two ferries and three trains to get to Okun­oshi­ma.

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