Surrounded by corrugated rocks called “devil’s washboard,” the island has a circumference of 860 meters, an area of about 4.4 hectares, and a height of about 6 meters.
The opposite shore is called Aoshima Beach, a major tourist attraction that includes Aoshima Beach. Aoshima is connected to Aoshima Beach by the Yayoi Bridge.
More than 200 plant species have been identified on the island, which is covered with approximately 4,300 bilou trees and 27 species of tropical and subtropical plants.
It is the northernmost subtropical plant community in the northern hemisphere, and because the large colony of Bilou is particularly valuable, it is designated as a special natural monument of Japan as the “Aoshima Subtropical Plant Community.
The Kuroshio Current flows from southwest to northeast along the southern coast of Miyazaki Prefecture, and the coastal current flows from north to south along the northern coast of the same prefecture. These currents collected fragments of shells and other materials and deposited them on a raised wave-cut platform, forming Aoshima Island. It is becoming a land-locked island.
Because of its unusual topography, it is designated as a national natural monument as “Aoshima’s Rising Sea Bed and Oddly-shaped Wave Erosion Scar.
It is the seat of the Aoshima Shrine, and because it is a sacred place, it was forbidden to the public to enter except on festival days until 1737.
15 minutes on foot from Aoshima Station