What Life on a Japanese Island With Only 11 People is like

What Life on a Japanese Island With Only 11 People is like

This is an island in Japan where only 11 people live. It's a tiny island in Japan seas between Hiroshima and Ahime Prefecture. The people out there must be so isolated. It made me think, what's it like to live there? And how do only 11 people survive on the island? Well, there's only one way to find out. I'm going to the island. I'm traveling almost 10 hours to get to this place. First by train, then by bus, and now by boat. I am almost there. About 1 hour away. Oh, so here's my mission. Meet all 11 people on the island and give them a gift. Go inside one of their homes and bring back a for Wolfie. >> So, I've gotten my ticket and we're on our way. So, I actually had to catch a boat from the port that only runs four times in the day. >> This is Babasan, [music] the person who I contacted so I could stay overnight on the island. This place is cool. >> So, this island is called Takai Kamishima, literally translated high God's island. The island itself is about 1.3 km, about 333 acres or just a little bit bigger than Disneyland, California. But all the residents here live on only one small sliver of the island. At least that's what I've been told. Oh, and that's where I'm staying today. >> [music] [music] >> Thank you so much. Okay, so we just met Babaan. Um, he runs this entire lodging. Um, this is like the only lodging in the entire island. Luckily, they have it. So, I'm going to be staying here for the night. It's actually pretty cool. You can already see that there is manga like drawn all over the buildings here. I just needed to get a little bit settled down and then we'll see if we can meet some more people. Um, finally just going to take these guys off. This was just in case we had rough waters. Help me with motion sickness, but it actually wasn't so bad at all. Then this room isn't bad at all. Also have a cool little turtle here. Looks pretty real. I feel like it's looking at me. Let me just get the gibbs. Here we go. These are made only in Tokyo, so I wanted to bring them some wagashi for them. Japanese sweets. We got 11 total. So, let's see if we can find every single person on this island. So, it's getting kind of late right now, so I don't know if we're going to be able to find people. I've got a backpack filled of omiyag. I think if I don't find anyone, I'm just going to go grab some food. There's like apparently [music] just one place, like a cafeteria, and that's it. There's like no other place to get food. There's a person walking way down there. Wondering if we should catch up with her. She disappeared to one of the buildings. These buildings are actually pretty cool. Says Macho Sensei. So, guess she's a teacher. This place is just so quiet. This is the place that we're going to go eat right now. Huh? I don't see anyone in the kitchen. >> Hi, I'm Poa from Tokyo. Merry Christmas. Do you live here? >> Seriously? Well, then here's a welcome [music] gift from Tokyo. Can I ask your name? So, why did you decide to live on the island? [clears throat] That's it. Amazing. >> Sure. Huh. That makes it 12 on the island, which means I'm going to be short one gift. I guess I'll just have to sort it out later. >> Yeah, pretty steep. She's taking me to her house. He says that she just moved in yesterday, so she's in the middle of unpacking. >> Crazy. So, where did you live before? >> Nice. >> The bath is really clean, too. She says that she paid 3 months of rent as a security deposit. So, 30,000 yen, about $200 total. That's not bad at all. Okay. She says she's not going to climb the stairs. Not sure why, but still I can check out this place. Wow. Bring the light up here. Turn this view of the ocean right [music] here. This is dope. Got this whole room that she hasn't set [music] up yet, I guess. And I think there's another room just through here. Wow. Look at this. All this for 10,000 yen. It's [music] like 50 60 I don't know. 60 $70. It's like monthly rent to live here. Ah, hey, you must be pretty young. 81. [laughter] Well, I'm so sorry to bother you. Oh, thank you. Nice. First mission completed. That was our second person we've met on the island. They are the only one I've given omeiyag to. So that's one. Okay, let's go back here and see if we can get some food. Cool. Babasan's here. I brought you a gift from Tokyo. >> No worries. Apparently, she's Babasan's wife. Now that's three gifts done. Nine to go. Awesome. Thanks. So Babaan and his wife helped open this cafe last October. And this building used to be a warehouse. Babasan, when did you move here? Oh, so what brought you here? He then one day happened upon a regional relocation website for Aheime Prefecture. He found seven job postings and one of them was from here. It turned out to be a town revitalization project which he thought was the perfect opportunity to take on a new challenge. Plus, it allowed him to spend more time with his family. Island fried chicken moti right here. This is what we are eating tonight. Try this fried chicken. That's some good fried chicken. Great dinner. Thank you. >> Just had dinner. That was super awesome. I don't think we're going to see anyone else tonight. So, I think we're just going to call it and I'll see you guys tomorrow morning. >> [sighs] >> Nothing like starting the day with my Ty's coffee. I really should get sponsored by these guys. Ties, if you ever see this video, hook it up. That's the way to start the morning. So, I slept pretty well last night. It's just [music] after 5:00. It's still dark outside, so just got to wait another hour. Probably take a shower and then get out and see if we can find the rest of the people today. I asked Babasan if they had any water in here. And he said that they have a jetto hamiki. They have a vending machine, but it's often sold out, so I decided to bring my own water just in case there was no water. I think you can probably drink the the water from the faucet. Babasan also told me last night when I was having dinner is that I probably shouldn't go out at night. Apparently, there's Enoishi running around here. I could potentially get attacked, so decided not to go out. That said, let's get ready for the day. It's 6:30 now. Let's head out and see what we can find. Let's go. No one is out yet. Fairly quiet out here. Let's go by the dock. Few boats here. So, they might go fishing or something. I think I count like 1 2 3 4 5 6 to 20 homes here, maybe. So, no one is up yet. 6:30 in the morning. Maybe they're up. They're just in their houses. So, I don't think I'll be able to go into the houses for right now. It is quite windy today. >> Yeah, I was able to sleep all right. Good morning. Looks like you're getting in your morning workout. Do you always wake up this early? Oh, really? Well, enjoy the rest of your day. There's a guy there. >> Hi, I'm Paulo. I'm from Tokyo. Hey, wait. I got something for you. Hold up. You're going too fast. You didn't want to talk. Let's just give this to anybody. getting freezing. Now, that did not work out as planned. I guess some people live on this island for a reason. They don't want to get bothered. I definitely respect that. Found a person, but I guess they didn't want to be found. Hopefully, the rest of the day doesn't go like that. So, now that's four people we've met on the island and a dog, actually. Okay, just after 7 and I think there is a kid going to school. >> Is it okay to give omiyag to your daughters? >> Hi. This is a gift from Tokyo. >> Good morning. This is a gift from Tokyo. >> So, you're going to school, right? Cool. What grade are you in? >> Awesome. Have a great day. They're actually Babaan's daughters, the only children on the island. Since there's no school here, they have to commute every day by boat. But many years ago though, there were apparently more than 100 kids living on the island, all growing up together and going to the same school, also on the island. It's crazy to think that this island was once filled with children running around, laughing, and playing. But who knows, maybe in the future more families like Baba Sons will decide to move here and grow the community. She's still going. She just keeps walking the pier. Oh, it's not even a pier. The dock. Dock. Hi. >> Yeah, of course. I'd love to. Thank you. She just invited me to lunch. So, guess that's what we're going to be doing for lunch today. Just wanted to take a closer look at this place. This is maybe their only mailbox in this entire place. I wonder if they could even get Amazon. And then I think this is the office. Let me see if it's open. It's like the waiting area. I think this is their one and only vending machine on the island. Got Kalpus water. They got some peach drinks. They do have water, so maybe I didn't need to actually buy that, but they said it sells out once in a while. It's 7:40 [music] now and it's dead quiet out here. Maybe got to wait until the next boat comes. The next time maybe we'll see people. There's another dude over there. See another guy. Maybe we can catch him. He's moving quite fast though. Hi. Good morning. Good morning. Another silent Sam. Hm. Just looked at me very strangely, but makes sense. >> Accepted the gift. Mission completed. [crying] He's a busy guy, so just let him do his thing. And now we can move on. Glad to share a little bit of Tokyo loveliness. Hey, so where are we at now? We are at It's 7:50. Got an entire day here. This is like the main street. If anyone [music] goes anywhere, see them from this vantage point. I'm going to see if I can give that gift to the wheelchair guy. Actually, no. He already said no. Feel kind of bad. I don't know. Just like life, you know. Sometimes people want to talk to you, sometimes they don't. It's just how it is. butt can extend that olive branch. Let's just see how it goes. Wow, it is just so quiet here. Let me show you. Okay, let's do a little bit of exploration. Okay, so there's like a lot of abandoned places here. I'm not sure about these specific ones, but Babasan told me that there are many abandoned homes on the island that are difficult to touch since many of the original owners have passed away. They'd have to track down each one of their children, which is a difficult task in itself. But then they need to get permission from every heir to use or purchase the home, and all of them must agree. And with Japan's strict inheritance laws and high taxes, heirs are often discouraged to claim ownership. So sadly, many of these houses are left behind, slowly decaying over time. An old middle school. There freaking spiders. That's what I'm afraid of. It's going across one of those spiderw webs right there. Let's see the old swing sets here. Soccer goal. So, this school closed down in 2004. Like I said earlier, it used to be filled with kids. I could kind of imagine them walking up the hill in the morning every day [music] to class, the yard filling up with students during lunch breaks, and even balls flying over the fence and hitting nearby houses. This looks like their toilet area here. I'm so scared what's going to happen if I open this door. I don't know if there's going to be something that comes out and like bites me. A snake or something. Looks like those were the classrooms back in Whoa. Almost hit a huge spider web. Oh my god, there's so many spiders here. I do not know. That is insane. Okay, I got to be careful. I don't even know if these spiders are poisonous. What I was trying to say earlier is, and [music] it's kind of sad seeing rundown schools because it means that they had a lot of kids here before. They've all grown up and kind of moved out. microcosm of what's happening to all of Japan, at least in the countryside areas in these like little areas. Everyone's moving to the city. >> Okay, [music] so I think over here it's a little bit sketch. Probably don't want to go that far. What a crazy walkway. And I just see a bunch of spiders over there. But man, [music] there's a house there as well. There's like spiderw webs all throughout there. That means that no one lives there. Like making videos, but not worth [music] getting a spider bite falling off that cliff or something. This exploration thing is kind of fun, but man, I don't know, guys. So, there must be a lot of empty apartments here because there's like four rooms here and another four over here. Hamasan lives in one of those. That's like eight. doesn't the map doesn't map with all the people living in here. So, I guess if you wanted you could live here. 10,000 yen a month. Cost you less than $1,000 to stay here for an entire year. >> Hey, Babasan, is this your house? Nice. And what are you up to now? Oh, that's nice of you. Hey, did you paint the house yourself? >> [laughter] >> That's DIY for you. >> Hey, so before we continue on, I want to give a quick shout out to the sponsor of this video, Squarespace. Now, if you don't already know, Squarespace is the number one way to build your online presence. In fact, I use Squarespace for my website, Coco Zebra. Here are just some of the reasons why I love using Squarespace so much. First of all, I've been promoting Squarespace on this channel for years now. And let's be honest, they still haven't let me down. And as the internet has evolved over the years, so has Squarespace. As they use cuttingedge design tools such as their blueprint AI and AI [music] enhanced website builder to get a fully custom website in just a few steps, making it easy for beginners. No matter where you start, Squarespace is so flexible with intuitive drag and drop editing, beautiful styling options, etc. And like I said, no experience is required. Also, if you want built-in analytics, Squarespace has you covered. Want to sell content online with a payment system? Squarespace has you covered. Want to make your dream website today? Yep, Squarespace has you covered. So, there you go. Go to squarespace.com [music] today for your free trial. And when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com/pallotokyo and get 10% off your first domain or website. We have a direct view of the ocean sitting in my room. And uh we can see if anyone walks by. So I waited I don't know how long. An hour maybe two. It's been a minute since I did absolutely nothing. I just sat here thinking what it'd be like living on this island. The everyday smell of ocean mixed in with the trees. The feel of the ocean breeze on my skin. The endless sound of the gentle waves and the absolute feeling that no one is going to bother me right now. Crazy. I don't know though. I enjoy the Tokyo chaos, but I also appreciate this escape. Man, this island has so much potential. Oh, there's one more guy. He looks friendly. >> Hi, I'm Paulo from Tokyo. >> Nice to meet you. Do you live here? >> That's interesting. So, he's not officially a resident here, but I'll give him a gift anyway. He's nice and he kind of lives here. What's that? >> Wow. Thank you so much. I knew he was nice. Both are peaches. out. >> So, he's actually the person responsible for helping revitalize the island by hiring manga artists with his own money to paint all of the buildings. He even started a manga school here for anyone to enroll in and also set up the guest house and the cafe I ate at. So, what's your goal right now? says that shipping the equipment here to build the scaffolding alone costs more than the painting itself. It looks [music] nice. This place used to be an okonomyaki restaurant and he renovated it. Do you use this? That sounds fun. Abbei's son's not actually from here, but his college friend is. Many years ago, when they were both living in Tokyo, his friend had to return to care [music] for his mother. He came to visit with his friend and almost instantly fell in love with this peaceful island. At the time, there were still about 40 residents, but over the years, their numbers continued to decline. When only seven people remained, HBO decided it was time to make a change, dedicating his life to revitalizing the island, hoping to restore community in the place he had grown to love. >> Yeah, I do. Sure. >> Thank you for inviting me. Cool. I've got plans for tonight. >> After this, he took me to the manga shrine he built to honor the manga artists as well as the community center. [music] He tells me that they face many challenges with attracting new residents. The biggest issue being the lack of a stable local income. In the past, most people made a living here through fishing, but now there's no one left to pass down that knowledge. To change that, he's been working on building new local industries [music] like farming, beekeeping, and charcoal production, hoping to create sustainable jobs to keep the island alive. The man with him is visiting today and helping with the projects. So, I haven't noticed there's like this one guy that comes when the boats come, but I haven't been able to catch him. So, this time I'm going to try to focus on meeting him. I just have to wait for him to get here. While I wait for this guy to arrive, still got to think of what to get Wolfie. Got Michael covered already because, you know, we got the omiyag from the owner. They don't have an omiyag shop here and like any stores or anything. Oh, he's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. >> Hello, my name is Paulo. I'm from Tokyo. I wanted to give you a small gift. Please take it. You live here, right? How long has it been? >> Is this your job? >> Like mail? >> How many times do you receive mail? >> Oh, Tokyo. >> Oh, really? So, what brought you here? His [music] wife is originally from the island and now he takes care of both his wife and mother-in-law every day. What if you get sick? [laughter] Oh, do you have a hobby? Cool. Fishing must be delicious. >> Oh, I think he's on the move. He says that living costs are extremely low and it's relaxing to live here, but it's definitely inconvenient as there's no grocery stores or hospitals on the island. The only way to make life easier here is to have more people live on the island who run businesses to serve the community. That was cool, man. That dude works hard. >> Nice. Everyone is gathering for lunch. >> Oh, that's him. Hello, I'm Paulo. And yes, he accepted my gift. I'm getting closer. >> It's so peaceful here, right? >> Agreed. By the way, can I ask how old you are? [laughter] And Kimurasan tell me that they became friends through karate and even taught kids karate back in their Tokyo days. Kimoda son and his brother sitting to his right are one of the few who grew up here and returned. So I was supposed to have lunch with her, but the owner, he actually decided to get everyone together and have a lunch. So >> all right. So that was an interesting lunch. Kind of just nice to be able to talk to them, hang out. After lunch, I decided to go off the reservation to see if I could find, you know, the others. Oh, I think these fences are meant to keep out the Ino Shishi. Feel like my spidey sense is going off right now. Hopefully, I don't run into any more spiders. Through this path, I discovered this private beach that looks as if no one has been here for years. It's crazy. People actually used to live here. As soon as I started walking around on the beach, I finally knew exactly what omiyag I could bring back for Wolfie. Shells. He's going to love it. Okay, so I think we're good. Here's what I got for Wolfie. Got a shell. Maybe got a piece of glass. Ommyag completed. Time to head back. And then Hisan offered to take me out for a boat ride. It was kind of unexpected. I'm thinking if I accidentally filmed something that I wasn't supposed to earlier, then who knows? I might be swimming with the fishes or it's just going to be a beautiful trip around the island. You can see there's a little beach on that side. Walk bait is just so so steep. You can see there's no way to live here. That's why everyone lives on that side. Oh, you can see there's like fish jumping in the water. Okay, so we are just arriving back. The ship just actually came and it looks like the kids have actually gotten back. Okay, so that's kind of a nice ride. Problem is I still haven't found the last people. I know I'm running out of time. I think this is going to be my last chance to see if anyone is coming on the boat. This is the last boat of the day. All right. Well, there's the boat. It's leaving. No one got off. Guess that's it. It is dinner time now. As I promised, I visit Hassan's home for a final drink. Oh, I have a beer. Thank you. All right. So, this is the final send off, I guess. I suppose this is it. Mission not accomplished. I couldn't meet the last three people on the island, but apparently they were all bedridden inside of their homes. There's not much I can do about that. I'm just thankful for all the people I was able to meet and share stories with on this trip. stories that I'll carry with me for the rest of my life. A story about an island that's doing all it can to survive Japan's ever decreasing population. A story of a generation of kids who grew up here, left for the big city, and brothers who eventually returned. A story of a man through a lifelong friendship still believes in the island's future. Also, a story of a husband and a wife who decided to build a life here and raise their kids. Even a story of a woman who recently decided to start a new life here. And of course, a story of all the people working [music] to build a community together.

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This is Takaikami Island 高井神島, a remote island off Japan’s coast that is also known as Manga Island. It’s just 1.34 square kilometers—roughly the size of Disneyland California—but only 11 people still live here, all on a narrow stretch of land surrounded by sea and forest. Across the island, many homes sit abandoned. Without clear ownership, they’re left to decay, quiet reminders of the island’s past. Yet one man has refused to let the island fade away. Using his own money, he invited manga artists to cover the village in colorful murals, creating a place where art and nature coexist. He’s also opened a manga school, guesthouse, and café to draw in visitors and revive local life. But survival here isn’t easy. With fishing not really a sustainable livelihood, the community is turning toward new industries like farming, beekeeping, and charcoal production, hoping to create stable jobs and keep the island alive for another generation.

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