This weekend we went to Okunoshima A.K.A Usagi Jima or Rabbit Island. It is famous for the feral rabbits that now call it home. It is located two miles off the coast of the Japanese city of Takehara. It is a great day trip, you can get there by train or by car to hop the ferry. Why go there you ask, BUNNIES. So many bunnies!!! The ferry takes about 15 minutes and from the dock you can grab a map to find your way around the island. This was our second trip to Okunoshima. The first time we visited we took the path to the left. It winds along the water and leads to a hiking path with a bunch of stairs (no surprise there) and drops you off right in front of the resort on the island. We had lunch and then headed down the road, checked out the little museum and off we went back to the train station. This time we went took the path to the right, which leads you along the historical part of the island.
View from the top of the hiking path. This time we ran into a few bunnies on the hiking path however for the most part the bunnies congregate toward the dock and center of the island. The photos below are of the cute little varmints. We are currently under a higher emergency order than we were the last time we visited so it was MUCH more crowded than our last trip as we are not supposed to leave the prefecture. This means there were plenty of people to feed our feral friends and it was a little harder to entice them over than last time. On our last trip there were less people and the bunnies would rush up to you. Imagine shaking the bag of food and 15+ bunnies stampeding toward you... it was well weird. Like you know they can't do anything to hurt you but they were so aggressive but in a cute way. You might be wondering how rabbits came to overrun the island. The story is that they were originally used for test subjects and when the facilities were shut down the rabbits were released on the island. With few predators and plenty of food the rabbits did what rabbits do and boom an tourist destination of an island of feral rabbits was born. Don't want to pack a lunch? Check out the restaurant at the resort instead, you order at vending machine that gives you tickets that you turn in at the counter for your meal. The octopus dishes we had there were fantastic!
Bring cut up carrots or buy rabbit kibble at the ferry station as there is nowhere to buy some on the island. What is weirder than a stampede of bunnies running toward you? Them running away when they realize you don't have any food. Plan ahead if you can, if not the ferry station has bags for sale for 200 yen.
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