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Ogasawara NP, Tokyo
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Those looping lines across John Beach’s white sand are hermit-crab tracks. A village ranger even spotted one nearby carrying a striped Katamai-maimai land-snail shell.
John Beach takes its name from a real resident called John, according to a local place-name study. The surrounding area was known as Minamisaki; a local guide places John’s residence there in the Meiji era (1868–1912).
The dazzling sand has a geological explanation: Minamizaki, where John Beach lies, is the only limestone area on Chichijima. That unusual bedrock gives this small stretch its bright, pale beach.
John Beach is also a documented green-turtle nesting beach. Nearby Buta Beach shares that role, so these quiet coves are part of Chichijima’s breeding habitat as well as a striking seascape.
The route to John Beach was once a military road. A village ranger also recorded the remains of a small stone-built defensive position near the water’s edge—a surprising trace beside the quiet shore.
Across Minamijima Strait, limestone terrain continues underwater as “submerged karst,” a rare Japanese landform protected as a Natural Monument. Reefs in the strait make the pattern of sea and rock change with the view.
Tobacco growing wild near John and Jinny beaches is not native: it came from South America by way of Hawaii with European-descended residents, and was cultivated during early settlement and again after World War II. Rangers now remove it.
Some of the shore’s sand has hardened into flat slabs called beachrock. These natural rock layers form right at the water’s edge, making John Beach a place where loose sand and solid stone meet.
