Yakushima to Tanegashima trip: alternatives to the ferry

Hi everyone,

Great to be back here—it’s been years!

We’re heading to Japan with the family in mid-July and will mostly explore Kyushu for this second trip. We’ll wrap up with 3 days on Yakushima, but we’re planning to fly back to Osaka from Tanegashima after stopping by the space center. To get from Yakushima to Tanegashima, I’ve found two options: - Depart from Miyanoura port and go to Shimama with the Taiyo II ferry, but it arrives a bit too late for us (it gets in at 10:05 AM, and we need to be at the space center by 10:30 AM…) - Depart from Anbo port, but in that case, the boat goes to Nishinoomote, which is all the way at the north of the island—super inconvenient since the space center is at the very south!

Does anyone here know if there’s another way to make the Miyanoura/Shimama trip besides the Taiyo II ferry (like a private boat, a fisherman’s boat, or something else)? It feels silly to go all the way to the north of the island just to head right back down…

Thanks in advance! !

Hello and welcome to Kyushu! Unfortunately, there aren’t any other alternatives to the ferry. However, since Shimama Port is only a 20-minute drive from the Space Center, you can hop in a taxi and you’ll arrive just in time.

Thanks for your reply. That could actually work (even though the instructions say we should be there by 10:20 AM...)! By the way, do you know if there are usually taxis waiting at the port normally?

I have no idea. If it were me, as a precaution I’d contact the tourist office to get the info. If there’s no taxi, try asking them to book one for you. They should be able to do that.

Contact Tanegashima tourist office: https://en.tanekan.jp/ (email at the bottom of the page).