As nature intended: Japan's Oki Islands

Before he left his home in the country, novelist David Mitchell gave me a piece of advice: “If you only make one trip while you are in Japan, make sure it’s to the Oki Islands.” They were, he assured me, a little patch of old Japan as yet untainted by pachinko, high-rise apartments or junk-food joints.

A mere three-hour ferry ride across the Sea of Japan, or East Sea, separates the islands from the north coast of Western Honshu, but taking it feels as if you’ve travelled three centuries back in time.

The first islands – black volcanic humps, like debris from some cosmic collision – come into view a couple of hours out of Matsue, in Shimane prefecture. Soon the ferry is weaving through a veritable maze of these humps, some just bare rocky mounds, others large and rugged, dark with pine trees. There are some 180 islands in the Oki chain; none are very big and only four are inhabited. Our destination is the second largest: Nishinoshima, population 3,900.

The kind folks at the Matsue Tourist Information Office phoned ahead to book us a minshuku (a small, family run bed and breakfast) and our landlady is waiting for us on the quayside, smiling and waving a flag. We are easy to spot, being the only non-Japanese on board.

Our minshuku is across the street from the ferry terminal. On the wall outside, my name has been written in chalk on a slate; this would not be a good hideaway for fugitives.

Nishinoshima boasts several must-sees but our priority is a boat tour of the island’s spectacular Kuniga coastline: a seven-kilometre stretch of wave-eroded basalt cliffs, including the perpendicular Mantengai. At 257 metres, it’s Japan’s tallest cliff.