Tokyo Monkey Island - Sarushima In Japanese - A Great Day Trip

by Honor
(Tokyo)

A visit to Tokyo comes packaged with loads of city type things to do. But... it's surprising how many day trips can take you into the middle of the countryside or seaside in the matter of an hour. The train system is so good in Tokyo that you really can get out and about to all kinds of places without worrying about how you'll get there.

In early November we went to Monkey Island near Yokosuka (just south of Tokyo) which is called Sarushima in Japanese. If all the literature you read is true this is the only totally natural island left in this area and it's definitely worth a visit in our opinion.

We shot 2 videos of our recent day trip. One is on the boat on the way there. The second shows a few spots on our walk round the island. We'll tell you how to get there below the videos!

Part 1

Part 2



Getting to Monkey Island from Tokyo is not that hard. Wherever you are in the city, a good central place to start from is Shinagawa on the Yamanote Line Map. From there, all you need to do is get on the Yokosuka Line and get off at Yokosuka station. It takes about an hour on the train to take a good book or something to keep you occupied during the journey.

Once you get to Yokosuka it's about a 15 minute brisk walk to the place where you take the ferry. If you're not sure how to get there, just ask someone how to get to Mikasa Park as this is where the ferry goes from - "Mikasa Koen wa doko desuka?" Use gesture to support your question and you can usually figure out from the answer what direction to go in by using gesture.