Hokkaidō
is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
. It has an area of . The town of Okushiri and the Hiyama Prefectural Natural Park encompass the entire island. It has many pastures, beech tree forests, and a rocky coastline. There are two elementary schools, one junior high school, and one senior high school. Okushiri currently has no colleges or universities.
Etymology
The name Okushiri comes from the
Ainu
Ainu or Aynu may refer to:
*Ainu people, an East Asian ethnic group of Japan and the Russian Far East
*Ainu languages, a family of languages
**Ainu language of Hokkaido
**Kuril Ainu language, extinct language of the Kuril Islands
**Sakhalin Ainu la ...
name ''I-kus-un-sir'' (). The phonetic word ''ikus(un)'' means ''other side'' and ''sir'' means island. However, the Japanese meaning of the two ''
kanji
are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...
'' used for the name mean "deep inside/innermost" and "buttocks/hips".
Geography
Okushiri Island is located roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of mainland
Hokkaido
is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...
. It is oval in shape with a coastline of 84 kilometers (52.2 miles). The island spans 27 kilometers (16.8 miles) from north to south, and 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) from east to west. Mount Kamui is the island's highest peak, and reaches 584 meters (1,916 feet).
Climate
Communities
Two main towns, Aonae at the southern tip and Okushiri in the central-eastern portion, contain the majority of the island's population and infrastructure. Additional small communities and individual households are found near the coast, and are connected by a road that circumnavigates the island.
History
Okushiri has been struck by several natural disasters, including the
1983 Sea of Japan earthquake
The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call.
Events January
* January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...
on 26 May 1983 which killed two, and the more deadly 1993 Hokkaidō earthquake and tsunami on 12 July 1993. The 1993 earthquake had a magnitude of 7.7 on the
moment magnitude scale
The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pa ...
and a maximum felt intensity of VIII (''Severe'') on the
Mercalli intensity scale
The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the ef ...
. It triggered a major
tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...
that caused deaths on Hokkaidō and in southeastern
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
, with a total of 230 fatalities recorded. Okushiri Island was the hardest hit, with 198 casualties from the
earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...
, tsunami and a large
landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environmen ...
. The tsunami inundated large parts of Okushiri, despite its tsunami defenses. The island subsided by . After the tsunami, the number of residents slowly declined, and continues to do so.
Transportation
Okushiri Airport serves the island with daily flights to and from
Hakodate Airport
is an airport located eastAIS Japan of Esashi (2 hours and 20 minutes) and Setana (1 hour and 40 minutes) are provided by Heartland Ferry, and time timetable changes seasonally.
A local bus service operates year-round.
Tourist activities
Okushiri Island is known for Nabetsuru Rock, which translates to "pot-handle rock," a small rock arch sitting offshore of Okushiri Town. Okushiri Island has one operating
hot spring
A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...
, and opportunities for fishing and swimming. The Okushiri Moonlight Marathon was started in 2013, and is the largest attraction on Okushiri Island for visitors, attracting runners from around Japan and some foreign countries. The race starts at 3 pm and often finishes as it is getting dark. Local villagers turn out in large numbers to cheer on the runners. At the finish line, the race concludes with a seafood banquet and awards ceremony.