Chiringa-shima (知林ヶ島)

Chiringa-sima is an uninhabited island just inside the entrance to Kinko bay near National Park Resort IBUSUKI (Kyuka-mura IBUSUKI / 休暇村指宿).

An 800m long sandbar appears at low tide during the flood tide or the middle tide from March to October.

The sandbar appears as a little winding path in the sea, and you can cross to the island along this path.
It gives you a special feeling to walk across the sandbar from the Ibusuki side to the island. It takes about 20 minutes to the island. The longest time the sandbar appears is for five hours.

 

Matchmaking Island

The island is known as a matchmaking island. This place was used as a shooting location for a TV drama, and many couples visit the island.
There are several things for these people there.

♡ Chirin’s Heart

Two different sized objects are placed on the Ibusuki shore. Depending on the angle to see these objects, they look heart-shaped. It is a good place to take some pictures against the background of Chiringa-shima.

♡ Chi-kai (Chi貝)

Tie a shell on which you write your wish on a chain on the “Chikai-no Oka (誓貝の丘) at the entrance of the sandbar.
Shells (200 yen each) are sold at Ibusuki City Tourist Information Center at JR Ibusuki Station and National Park Resort IBUSUKI (Kyuka-mura IBUSUKI / 休暇村指宿).

The shells which are tied on the chain will be dedicated to Ryugu Shrine (龍宮神社) in Ibusuki after a while.

♡ Chirin’s BELL

Chirin’s BELL is located on the hill of Chirin-ga Shima. It is said if you ring the bell praying for happiness, your wish will be fulfilled. The view from this place is great, too.

 

Walking Across The Sea

Waking across the sea is really an exciting experience.
But, it is still the sea, so you need to be careful. If anything happened, a fun day could be turned into a terrible day.

Please do not try to walk across to the island in bad weather.

The path disappears very quickly once the tide starts to come in, so check the appearance time of the path and give yourself plenty of time to across back.

The tide current is very fast around the sandbar, so if the sandbar isn’t visible, please do not walk across.

Some blue-ringed octopuses (Hyomon-dako / ヒョウモンダコ) have been seen on the shores of Ibusuki city. They are about 5cm~10cm long and they have brown patches like Panthers’. When they are agitated, iridescent blue rings or clumps of rings appear.
If you are bitten by one of them, you might not feel it directly; however, it injects a venom powerful enough to kill a human. The venom causes respiratory arrest.

Do not touch them. They live in shallow water and coastal rocks.

 

Sandbar Appearance Time (predicted) And The Amount of Time Visible

 

March 2019

 

Date			Sandbar Appearance Time	Length of Time
1		Fri	*The tidal range is small, so the sandbar doesn’t appear.	×
2		Sat		×
3		Sun		×
4		Mon		×
5		Tue	12:10 ~ 13:55	1h45m
6		Wed	12:20 ~ 14:40	2h20m
7		Thu	12:35 ~ 15:20	2h45m
8		Fri	12:55 ~ 16:00	3h5m
9		Sat	13:15 ~ 16:35	3h20m
10		Sun	13:35 ~ 17:15	3h40m
11		Mon	14:05 ~ 17:55	3h50m
12		Tue	14:40 ~ 18:20	3h40m
13		Wed	15:25 ~ 18:20	2h55m
14		Thu	16:30 ~ 18:20	1h50m
15		Fri	*The tidal range is small, so the sandbar doesn’t appear.	×
16		Sat		×
17		Sun		×
18		Mon		×
19		Tue	11:25 ~ 13:20	1h55m
20		Wed	11:35 ~ 14:25	2h50m
21		Thu	11:55 ~ 15:20	3h25m
22		Fri	12:20 ~ 16:10	3h50m
23		Sat	12:50 ~ 16:55	4h5m
24		Sun	13:20 ~ 17:40	4h20m
25		Mon	14:00 ~ 18:20	4h20m
26		Tue	14:45 ~ 18:30	3h45m
27		Wed	15:45 ~ 18:30	2h45m
28		Thu	*The tidal range is small, so the sandbar doesn’t appear.
29		Fri		×
30		Sat		×
31	Sun			×

 

April 2019

 

Date		Sandbar Appearance Time	Length of Time
1	Mon	* the sandbar doesn’t appear.	×
2	Tue	11:25 ~ 12:45	1h20m
3	Wed	11:25 ~ 13:45	2h20m
4	Thu	11:35 ~ 14:30	2h55m
5	Fri	11:50 ~ 15:15	3h25m
6	Sat	12:05 ~ 15:55	3h50m
7	Sun	12:25 ~ 16:30	4h5m
8	Mon	12:55 ~ 7:10	4h15m
9	Tue	13:25 ~ 17:45	4h20m
10	Wed	14:00 ~ 18:30	4h30m
11	Thu	14:55 ~ 18:40	3h45m
12	Fri	16:00 ~ 18:40	2h40m
13	Sat	*The tidal range is small, so the sandbar doesn’t appear.	×
14	Sun		×
15	Mon		×
16	Tue	1040 ~ 1:55	1h15m
17	Wed	10:40 ~ 13:15	2h35m
18	Thu	10:50 ~ 14:20	3h30m
19	Fri	11:15 ~ 15:15	4h
20	Sat	11:40 ~ 16:00	4h20m
21	Sun	12:10 ~ 16:45	4h35m
22	Mon	12:45 ~ 17:25	4h40m
23	Tue	13:5 ~ 18:00	4h35m
24	Wed	14:10 ~ 18:30	4h20m
25	Thu	15:10 ~ 18:50	3h40m
26	Fri	16:30 ~ 18:50	2h20m
27	Sat	*The tidal range is small, so the sandbar doesn’t appear.	×
28	Sun		×
29	Mon		×
30	Tue		×

 

*The sandbar appearance time will be updated as required.
Map (Chirin-ga Shima)

（From Chiringa-shima）

Category : Information , text @en

Tag : 日本の文化