the globe says
Japan
There is no airport. A 24-hour ferry from Tokyo, once or twice a week — a thousand kilometers south into the Pacific.
Family-run minshuku on Chichijima — book before you board; the island knows who is coming.
Japan's Galápagos: endemic everything, humpback whales breaching offshore, WWII relics in the jungle, star-fields, and the strange intimacy of an island where everyone waves the ferry off.
Join the send-off: when your ferry eventually leaves, the island's boats chase it out of the harbor and everyone leaps into the sea. Until then — swim with the dolphins that live here.
March to May for whales; year-round subtropical
Arigatō gozaimasu — thank you; islanders add their own Bonin English history.
The Bonin Islanders by David Chapman — the strange multicultural history of these islands.
Hahajima, a further ferry south — half the people, twice the endemic birds.
The ferry schedule means the minimum trip is about six days, fixed. That commitment filter is exactly why it belongs on this site.