There’s a good amount of info out there about visiting Tashirojima, but after visiting last week, I thought it might be useful to consolidate here for prospective visitors, especially those trying to make it a day trip from Tokyo.
**Some background**—Tashirojima is one of the two cat islands that are most well-known (there are many other smaller ones), the other being Aoshima which is much harder to access for most visitors. The island itself is fairly small and is home to fewer than 80 people and, of course, at least a hundred cats.
Due to ferry schedules, it’s not really possible to visit Tashirojima as a pure day trip from Tokyo. You would only be able to spend roughly 1.5 to two hours (depending on the seasonal schedule) on the island, which I don’t think is enough, but leaving late the day before and spending the night in the area is more than doable and probably the best option for most visitors.
**Step 1: Shinkansen to Sendai**
From Tokyo, take the Shinkansen to Sendai, which is only 90 minutes away on the fastest Hayabusa service on the Tohoku Shinkansen. This roundtrip costs more than the 7-day JR East rail pass, so even if you don’t get any other use of the rail pass, it’s still worth purchasing for 20,000 yen, plus you can use it on the Narita Express on your way to/from the airport.
We took the 9:36 PM Hayabusa 47 from Tokyo Station, which got us to Sendai by 11:06. This is a very popular train so reserve seats in advance if possible. 9:36 PM is late enough that it shouldn’t cut into any plans that day, so this still counts as a day trip in my book.
We chose to stay overnight in Sendai, which is a fairly sizable city with lots of of hotel options, including the very modern and clean capsule hotel, nine hours Sendai.
**Step 2: Local train to Ishinomaki**
The next step is to take another train to the small town of Ishinomaki, which is where the ferry for Tashirojima leaves. The fastest express service takes 55 minutes from Sendai Station to Ishinomaki Station, and this was a fairly scenic ride with a view of the countryside. On our visit, the 7:24 AM departure got us to Ishinomaki by 8:19 AM, which is more than enough time to catch the ferry.
This is a JR East train so your rail pass will cover it. There’s a convenience store as you leave Ishinomaki Station called “NewDays”, and is a good place to get any last-minute supplies for the day.
**Step 3: Get to the ferry terminal**
Here is where my advice diverges from most guides I’ve seen. The ferry service to Tashirojima leaves from two ports in Ishinomaki—Chuou (terminal) and Kadonowaki (first stop). Most guides suggest taking a bus to Kadonowaki, which is roughly 2.2 km (27 mins) away on foot. Because the bus isn’t super frequent, missing this bus because you couldn’t find it would be a big problem because you’d miss the ferry. Instead, I recommend walking to Chuou, which is only 1.0 km and 13 mins away on foot.
The exact location of the Chuou Port is a bit harder to find, however. The location in Google Maps is more or less correct, but the ticket office for the ferry is on the backside of the building, facing away from the street.
In Google Maps, walk to this exact location: 38.42925822064701, 141.30861165584227. These coordinates are for the staircase highlighted with a red arrow on the ferry operator’s website: http://ajishimaline.com/pg123.html. From there, follow the arrows on the second image to get to the ferry ticket office.
Note that both Google satellite imagery and Street View are outdated here as the building is fairly new.
**Step 4: Take the ferry to Tashirojima**
The ferry costs 2,500 yen roundtrip per person to Tashirojima and is 25-45 mins. I believe the ticket machine only takes cash, so make sure you have enough. The ferry schedule is posted on the ferry company’s homepage: http://ajishimaline.com/index.html. Due to weather and mechanical issues, sometimes the ferry is delayed or cancelled, but they’re pretty good about posting updates to their Twitter account (in Japanese but easy to transalte): https://twitter.com/ajishimaline
Ishinomaki is either Chuou Port or Kadonowaki Port, depending on which one you chose in step 3. The island itself is either Odomari Port or Nitoda Port (more on this later). Note that the ferry schedule is different in the winter, but I believe this only affects the return ferry schedule.
See that the only way to get a reasonable amount of time on the island is to take the 9:00 ferry from Chuou. The next ferry doesn’t get you there until 1:30 PM, which only gives you two hours until the last ferry of the day.
**Step 5: On the island**
The island has two ports—Odomari to the north and Nitoda to the south, which is where most of the buildings and residents are. They are connected by a road that is fairly hilly but worth exploring. The ferry goes to both ports on every trip.
There’s a cat shrine located on the road between the ports but I found it to be rather uninteresting. This shows up in a lot of guides for some reason.
You’ll definitely encounter cats as you walk around, but the real treat is to catch the cats being fed. One particular place you can do this is at a place called Island Station, which was definitely the highlight of the trip. Here’s a video of them being fed at Island Station: https://twitter.com/houndmound/status/1509792503267946502
The cats are fed at noon and the Island Station itself is a place where you can get some lunch and pick up some souvenirs. They post their hours on their blog here: http://tashirojima-no-kurashigoto.com/archives/category/shimanoeki. You can also follow them on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/shimanoekikrsgt. There are public restrooms here and if you visit, consider leaving a donation for cat food at the entrance of the store/cafe area.
There’s another souvenir shop and cafe closer to Nitoda Port called Kuronekodō (details can be Googled), which is on the site of the former post office. Their specialty is Neko (cat-shaped) Curry.
There’s also lodging available on the island if you want to stay overnight. Here’s a pretty good list: https://www.onegai-kaeru.jp/2015/09/17/where-to-stay-in-cat-island-7-guesthouses-on-tashirojima-island/. In particular, “Marine Life” has an English website: http://marinew.com/en/. Between May and October, you can also stay at Manga Island Lodge, which has cat-shaped cabins that are rented out by the City of Ishinomaki (Japanese website): https://www.city.ishinomaki.lg.jp/cont/10452000b/-kanko/-kankomap/d0040/20130224150619.html.
**Step 6: Getting back to Tokyo**
The above steps in reverse work pretty well. To give some sense of timing, if you take the ferry that leaves Nitoda around 1:40 PM, you can make the 3 PM express train back to Sendai and get to the station by 4 PM. From there, you can take the Hayabusa 32 and arrive at Tokyo station by 6:04 PM, leaving plenty of time for evening activities.
**One final note: There are many signs and notices asking you to not feed the cats on the island for their health. Many are very friendly and you do not need to feed them to interact with them.**
My girlfriend is a huge cat lover so Tashirojima was a must-do for us. It is a bit of a hike to get there from Tokyo, but we think it was absolutely worth it. The cats have been on Tashirojima since the late Edo Period so it’s been at least 150 years. Due to the aging and shrinking population of Tashirojima, however, it seems unlikely this place will be the same cat haven in another 150 years, so if you have the chance, I’d definitely recommend a visit.