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Okunoshima “Rabbit Island,” Japan
In the Seto Inland Sea, there is a small island named Okunoshima that has a dark past but the current residents are darn cute! I am talking about Rabbit Island, in Japan’s Hiroshima Prefecture! **This post contains affiliate links. If you click on one of the links or banners throughout the page, whether it be TripAdvisor, Booking.com. Agoda.com, or any other affiliate, I might receive commission at no extra cost to you. For more information, you can visit my affiliate link page here. Thanks for the support! How did Okunoshima become known as Rabbit Island? So how did this island become known as rabbit island? The obvious answer is that this island is inhabited by bunnies. There are no cats or dogs allowed on the island, so it is overrun by a thousand cute, furry, adorable bunnies! Before it became Rabbit Island, Okunoshima was a typical island, no different then any of the others. So how did they all get here? There are a few theories on how the bunnies got here, remember these are just theories, no one truly knows how they got here. A popular theory is that the bunnies were released on the island by a group of school children, another theory suggests it was a couple from the U.K. But there is a darker history that occurred here. In the late 1920’s the Japanese Military used this island to create and test chemical weapons and they used rabbits as test subjects. After WWII the island was destroyed by allied forces and it is likely all the rabbits were killed, but there is no guarantee, which leaves the mystery unresolved. How to get to Okunoshima (Rabbit Island) Okunoshima “Rabbit Island,” is secluded, but is reachable by public transportation and a short 12-minute ferry ride from Tadanomi Port. The Port is a quick 3-minute walk from the Tadanomi Train Station. The easiest way to arrive at the Tadanomi Train Station is by the Mihara Station. Both Kodama Shinkansen coming from either Hiroshima or Osaka make a brief stop here. If driving to Rabbit Island from the Hiroshima area, you can stay on Route 2 through Higashihiroshima before taking a right onto Route 59 all the way to Tadanomi Port. If arriving by vehicle, there is plenty of free parking next to the General Store at the port. Ferry tickets and rabbit food can be purchased from the general store. There is an automatic ticket machine within the store. Tickets are ¥310 one way; I recommend buying round trip tickets right away. Rabbit food can also be purchased here for ¥200 a bag. The ferries depart regularly starting at 8:00 am until around 7:00 pm, there is a ferry schedule in the store. The Gateway to Rabbit Island site has a lot of good information and pictures of everything related to Rabbit island to include getting here, ferry time tables, and exploring the island. Apart from rabbit food and tickets, the shop also sells souvenirs, ice cream, and drinks. Once the ferry arrives, there will be an individual collecting tickets outside the ferry. The ferry conditions are not the most comfortable but it’s a quick and easy 12-minute ride. Enjoy! Rabbit Island is small, but there is a lot to see! Of course, the second you get off the ferry, there are bunnies everywhere. Logically, you would think they would just hang out by the terminal since that is where all the tourists get off and feed them. That is not the case as they live all over Okunoshima. There is a trail around the whole island, my recommendation is to start walking right away to give yourself space from the potentially crowded port area. The trail was only a few kilometers in length and was well maintained. Cars are not allowed on the island, but there are bike rentals. But please, ride slowly and watch out for the bunnies. Along the trail there are gorgeous views of the sea and surrounding islands as well as the remains of the gas factories and forts. There are many other trails leading to the center of the island, unfortunately, when I went all these trails were roped off. There is even a luxury hotel on the island with a restaurant and café. If you love the outdoors, there is a small campground on the island, make sure to book in advance to reserve a spot. The Rabbits With over a thousand rabbits occupying Okunoshima, you are guaranteed to encounter them everywhere! The second you get off the ferry, you will be greeted by hordes of adorable bunnies. I recommend walking the paths around the island right away. Don’t worry, the rabbits are plentiful along the trails. It is quite entertaining to see a few running toward you and then out of nowhere there can be upwards to ten or more curious bunnies surrounding you. I purchased food to feed them (from the general store on the mainland). The rabbits are not shy, they will climb on your lap to get food, they will even eat directly off your hand if you are daring enough to feed them this way. I try to make sure everyone gets a few pellets. If you really want to feed the bunnies, I recommend not wasting all the pellets on the rabbits near the port, they get plenty of food from visitors that don’t walk the trails. Instead, save the pellets for the bunnies on the trails a bit further out, if you have left over pellets at the end, go ahead and share it to the smart bunnies near the ferry port. The rabbits on Okunoshima are wild animals, but thankfully they are well cared for. There are water bowls scattered throughout the island so they always have fresh water to drink. They get fresh vegetables to eat from caretakers as well. All the bunnies appeared to be in good shape and very happy! Please, follow the rules of the park and respect the rabbits. Don’t pick up the rabbits or forcefully try and pet them. If you want to feed the rabbits, purchase food specifically made for them which can be bought for ¥200 at the general store (there is no place to buy food for them once on the island). Do not feed them human food. Don’t try and sneak a rabbit off the island and make it your pet and don’t leave your pet rabbit on the island, trust me there are already plenty here and many signs regarding these warnings! Be kind and respect the rabbits and the island. Use common sense and enjoy their cuteness. The rabbits are curious and will come up to you and bombard you with cuteness. For photos, I found it fun to take ground level shots of them. Many times, when they get close they stand on their hind legs, perfect for unique photos! The Dark History of Rabbit Island, Gas Manufacturing Plants and Forts Obviously, the rabbits are the main attraction on the island, but when walking around it is hard not to notice the several large ruined buildings and forts scattered along the trail and throughout the island. Before WWII, during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), forts were placed on this island due to its secluded and prominent location. Today, many of the gun batteries and ruins from the Russo-Japanese War still remain and can be seen. In the 1920’s, the island was used as a secret location to develop and test chemical weapons in the form of poisonous gases. During the development of the chemical weapons, the Japanese went to great lengths to keep the island a secret, they even had the island removed from maps. After WWII, the gases were disposed of and the facilities were destroyed. Today, several of the storage houses can be seen throughout the island and there is a Poison Gas Museum near the Resort. So, Is Rabbit Island Worth Visiting? Visiting Rabbit Island in Japan is well worth visiting. Japan has so many animal attractions that are worth visiting. There are cat islands, a fox village, the snow monkeys, an island full of deer, and bunny island! I am so glad I had the opportunity to visit bunny island not once but twice. For being a small island I spent a solid five hours here and lifelong memories! Enjoying my photos and want to see more? Check out my Picfair Store. Plan Your Trip: 🗺️✈️🇯🇵 Booking Accommodations ⛺️🛖 For booking recommendations on the best deals and locations, check out Agoda or Booking.com Activities and Tours 🏖️🚁 Find fun activities and things to do through Tripadvisor. If you are looking for tours and day trips, Viator and Get Your Guide have a lot of great options. In need of a car rental? 🚗🚘 I recommend checking with Rental Cars. Train Travel 🚂🚊 For the JR Pass, tickets can be purchased on the JR Pass site.

Fun Cat Destinations Around the World
We all love cats, I mean who doesn’t want to pet and love a cat when they instantly see them? Cats all have their own silly personalities. Some cats love us and want all the attention in the world and then there are other kitties who want nothing to do with us. Either way, Jill really loves cats! Basically, everyone knows Jill as the cat gal. She doesn’t hoard them or anything, she just likes the cuteness. Every cat we see on our travels, Jill must say Hi!! After a while I started taking photos of her greeting her feline friends and it has kind of become a thing. We always do our research on new locations to see if there are any cat attractions. If not, we usually see them roaming around and now I make Jill take photos with them!!! [envira-gallery id=”1816″] Meet Minnow and Biscuit Minnow and Biscuit are our two kitties, both rescues. Jill rescued Minnow before I was even in the picture, she is her baby! When Jill first got her, she was obsessed with playing in the bath tub like a little fish, hence the name…Minnow. After we moved in together, we decided it would be nice to adopt a second cat for Minnow, so she wouldn’t be so lonely. I always wanted a gray cat, but somehow we ended up with Biscuit (originally named Meow). Looking at his profile he was the perfect fit for us. He ended up at the humane society in bad shape. It was so bad, they thought he was hit by a car. Once they cleaned him up, it was determined that he in fact was suffering from some sort of virus, it took him 6 months to recover. When we brought him home, he was so relaxed that he wouldn’t stop kneading everything he touched. For some reason cat’s kneading is also known as making biscuits, so that is where he got his name! We love them both! Kennedy Park aka Kitty Park, Miraflores, Lima, Peru Kennedy Park (Kitty Park), is kind of where it all began. We were in Miraflores which is an upscale area in Lima. We were visiting a Pre-Inca Ruin and the tour guide mentioned something about a cat park. Did we hear that right, “Cat Park?” We quickly asked the guide if he really meant a cat park, and sure enough, it was true. We arrived at Kitty Park and saw cats everywhere, Jill was in Heaven! I read that there are about 100 cats here give or take, and they are all cared for by a group that spays, feeds, and takes care of them all. For the most part they were all in good health, a few had bandages and medicine on wounds, but it is good to know they are cared for. We spent close to a week in Lima, I believe we stopped here at least three times. The cats were all friendly and enjoyed pets and belly rubs. It was funny, you could look into the bushes and see 5-10 curled up taking a cat nap. They were literally everywhere, on benches, people’s laps, tree’s, trails, etc.. [envira-gallery id=”1841″] Save a Gato, San Juan, Puerto Rico This has got to be one of my favorite cat attractions/rescues to date! Save a Gato is a rescue organization in San Juan that traps, neuters, and releases cats in Old San Juan. I believe they also foster and adopt kitties out. But once the cats are taken care of at Save a Gato, they are released back to their colonies, more places need to do this!! The best thing about the cats of Old San Juan is the location. You can walk outside the walls around the Forts along the coast and you will see cats everywhere along the trail, sunning on the rocks, in bushes, etc..it was quite fantastic! Cats love soaking up the sunshine by the beach just like we do I guess! If you come here, you are guaranteed to see cats. They all looked well taken care of and seemed to be friendly. Once you exit the trail and get back into Old San Juan, don’t worry, there are cats all around town. Hemingway House, Key West, Florida Home of the six-toed cats! That’s right, a visit to the Hemingway House is not only famous to view Ernest Hemingway’s belongings and works as a writer, but also to see the popular polydactyl (six-toed) kitty cats. His home lies within Key West, Florida on Whitehead St and is home to about 50 cats that sleep around both inside and outside the house. The cats even have their own replica of the Hemingway House. Apparently six toed cats were popular among sailors in the early 1900’s, for several reasons. They were considered good luck, the extra toe allowed for better grip while at sea and made them better mousers. Hemingway received a six toed cat from a sailor named Snow White and that is where it all began! Now a days, you can tour the Hemingway House and visit the cats. During the day, you can catch them sleeping on the furniture, under tables, or outside relaxing in the shade. The grounds also includes a cemetery for the cats and there is a vet that takes care of them all! Bonus – Crazy Cat guy in Key West, Florida We were walking the Westin Pier in Key West and stumbled upon a crazy street performer. Ummm.. it was very odd, but it included cats jumping through hoops and performing acts. The strange part about it was the man. I looked up the street performer online and he’s very popular. Dominique and his flying house cats. He sets up at the pier right before sunset and sets up the stage for him and the cats. He was very weird yet entertaining and had a thick French accent, I think it was real? Either way, his cats were well trained, I mean we could never get Minnow or Biscuit to do any tricks. It’ really hard to explain, one of those things you have to see it to believe it. So if you find yourself in Key West, head over to the Westin Pier before sunset to catch the show. With the sun setting in the background, it does make for great photos! Cashnip Kitty, Tulsa, Ok Jill found out about this one, I can’t remember if it was from a video online, but it was meant to be, because a few days after her discovery, we planned a road trip down to Tulsa, OK, home of Cashnip Kitty. The story goes, there is a small business downtown and they have an office cat. For a few days, the employees would come to work and see a few dollar bills laying right by the door. This would be almost a daily occurrence and they finally found out that drunk people would walk by the business, see the cat in the window and play with it using a dollar bill. Eventually the dollar would fall into the office and the cat would claim victory over their money!!!! Since this occurred so often, the business made it into a thing and now they donate all the money to the local homeless shelter. Cats of Dubrovnik There was not really a “cat attraction” in Dubrovnik, but the whole city seemed to be a playground for cats, they were everywhere! Dubrovnik seems to be the best place for cats, inside the walls, there are no cars, small alley ways, and plenty of fun places for kitties to explore. Around every corner we would see a kitty, especially in the evening times, there would be groups of them. All the cats were well taken care of. Apparently the restaurants leave out their leftover food at night for the cats, primarily fish. We would see piles of cat food in random locations. At one of the main bus stops, we saw a rough looking kitty, he’s been through a lot. It was great to see that no one forgot about him as he had food in the mornings. People in Croatia seem to love their cats. Plus the weather is always nice there! Kotor, Montenegro and their Weird Cat Obsession Doing our research prior to visiting Kotor, we read that they are obsessed with cats in this small medieval town. We were very much looking forward to visiting Kotor because of this reason. Apparently, back in the day, during time of plague, the cats would eat the rats that spread the horrible disease. Because of this, it is likely cats saved hundreds if not thousands of people, so they are basically worshiped in Kotor. There were cats everywhere, but not as many as we saw in Split and Dubrovnik, Croatia, not sure why? Smaller town and crowds perhaps. There was a cat museum in Kotor, no way in hell we could pass that up, besides it was only a Euro (Montenegro uses Euro’s). Umm, it was not quite what I was expecting. I was expecting displays of cat toys, or famous cats from the area. In reality it was full of very odd paintings, postcards with cats, and photos of men during war with cats on their laps. I don’t think I would say this is a must do, but for a Euro it was fun. [envira-gallery id=”1871″] Cat Cafe’s in Seoul, South Korea We really enjoyed our time in Seoul, South Korea. Prior to visiting S. Korea for our first time we were well aware of cat cafe’s. Surprisingly we only ended up going to one, we did go to a puppy cafe as well which was cute, but this is about cats right? Not dogs! We’ve been to other cat cafe’s around the world, but the one in Seoul stood out and it was around the corner from where we stayed. Here is how it works. You come in, take off your shoes and pay, usually drinks are included. Once you enter you can sit there and pet the kitties, play with them, or just take photos with them. It is funny being in a small space with 10-20 cats at one time. Some of them don’t want to be bothered by anyone while others just love to play. Either way, it is great that the cats get attention and used to people before hopefully being adopted!