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

 

May 2019

Date			Sandbar Appearance Time	Length of Time
1		Wed	10:15 ~ 12:40	2h25m
2		Thu	10:20 ~ 13:40	3h20m
3		Fri	10:30 ~ 14:30	4h
4		Sat	10:45 ~ 15:10	4h25m
5		Sun	11:10~ 15:55	4h45m
6		Mon	11:35 ~ 16:35	5h
7		Tue	12:05 ~ 17:15	5h10m
8		Wed	12:40 ~ 18:00	5h20m
9		Thu	13:25~ 18:40	5h15m
10		Fri	14:20 ~ 19:00	4h40m
11		Sat	15:30 ~ 19:00	3h30m
12		Sun	*The tidal range is small, so the sandbar doesn’t appear.	×
13		Mon		×
14		Tue		×
15		Wed	9:30 ~ 12:10	2h40m
16		Thu	9:40 ~ 13:25	3h45m
17		Fri	10:00 ~ 14:25	4h25m
18		Sat	10:25 ~ 15:15	4h50m
19		Sun	10:55 ~ 16:00	5h5m
20		Mon	11:30 ~ 16:40	5h10m
21		Tue	12:05 ~ 17:20	5h15m
22		Wed	12:45 ~ 17:55	5h10m
23		Thu	13:30 ~ 18:25	4h55m
24		Fri	14:25 ~ 18:50	4h25m
25		Sat	15:30 ~ 19:10	3h40m
26		Sun	*The tidal range is small, so the sandbar doesn’t appear.	×
27		Mon		×
28		Tue		×
29		Wed		×
30		Thu	9:35 ~ 12:00	2h25m
31	Fri		9:40 ~ 13:05	3h25m

June 2019

 

Date		Sandbar Appearance Time	Length of Time
1	Sat	9:30 ~ 14:20	4h50m
2	Sun	9:55 ~ 15:05	5h10m
3	Mon	10:20 ~ 15:50	5h30m
4	Tue	10:55 ~ 16:35	5h40m
5	Wed	11:35 ~ 17:25	5h50m
6	Thu	12:15 ~ 18:05	5h50m
7	Fri	13:05 ~ 18:50	5h45m
8	Sat	14:00 ~ 19:20	5h20m
9	Sun	15:10 ~ 19:20	4h10m
10	Mon	*The tidal range is small, so the sandbar doesn’t appear.	×
11	Tue		×
12	Wed	8:10 ~ 10:40	2h30m
13	Thu	8:30 ~ 12:15	3h45m
14	Fri	8:50 ~ 13:25	4h35m
15	Sat	9:20 ~ 14:25	5h5m
16	Sun	9:50 ~ 15:15	5h25m
17	Mon	10:25 ~ 15:55	5h30m
18	Tue	11:05 ~ 16:35	5h30m
19	Wed	11:40 ~ 17:10	5h30m
20	Thu	12:20 ~ 17:45	5h25m
21	Fri	13:00 ~ 18:10	5h10m
22	Sat	13:50 ~ 18:35	4h45m
23	Sun	14:40 ~ 19:00	4h20m
24	Mon	15:45 ~ 19:15	3h30m
25	Tue	*The tidal range is small, so the sandbar doesn’t appear.	×
26	Wed		×
27	Thu	8:15 ~ 9:50	1h35m
28	Fri	8:25 ~ 11:30	3h5m
29	Sat	8:40 ~ 12:50	4h10m
30	Sun	9:00 ~ 13:50	4h50m

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

（From Chiringa-shima）

Category : Information , Sighthtseeing Info , text @en

Tag : 日本の文化