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Amami Guntō NP, Kagoshima
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The local word “fucha” means “to spout upward”—a perfect name for this 30-m-wide cave in uplifted reef limestone. In rough seas, waves send spray through its roof opening as high as 20–70 m.
Four blowholes once marked Kunigami’s coast. In 1963, 3 were deliberately broken up because windblown seawater was damaging crops; Fucha is the one survivor.
Fucha’s salt-sprayed coast made farming hard. Kunigami women concentrated seawater on hot rocks, then walked 30–40 km to trade the salt for rice—a skill local schoolchildren still learn today.
Fucha’s saltwater spray also shaped local farming: Kunigami growers selected salt-tolerant trumpet lilies. Today’s Erabu Yuri descends from native island lilies suited to salty sea winds and is shipped nationwide.
Green turtles are sometimes spotted off Fucha, where algae they favor grow abundantly. Because they breathe air, they must surface now and then—so a dark shell may briefly break the water’s blue.
From Fucha’s north-coast setting, the wider Okinoerabu sea has a winter giant: humpbacks arrive from Alaskan waters to breed and raise calves, with sightings around the island usually from late December to early April.
