Ao Island

visited on: 25th april 2025 / weekday come here before it’s too late! not as many cats left now as compared to a decade ago🥹 feeding the remaining ones still warms my heart most cats will come to you when you put down food, except very few shy ones hiding nearby (like the black&white one).. but if you put food near them and leave far, they will come out to eat. saw ao island’s cat mama right when my ferry reached i took the 2.30pm ferry and arrived after 3pm. i only had about an hour on the island, some say its sufficient, but i personally felt like it wasnt enough. i only played and fed the cats, and did not get to visit the other areas as indicated in the map attached in the images. i was not able to take the 8am ferry as the first train from matsuyama to iyo-nagahama (port’s nearest station) only reached the station around 8.05am😢 the afternoon ferry will make a loud call around 3 minutes before departure if not everyone is back yet. they also take note of everyone who got round trip to ensure no one will be standard overnight on the island due to the lack of ferries here (you write down your name). ferry schedule: to - 8am/2.30pm back - 8.35am/4.15pm if there is no ferry due to bad weather that day, it should be written on a sign infront of nagahama port. you will only know that day itself and no information would be found online, even on their semi-active instagram page, they do not announce (i have even tried to ask via DMs in Japanese language, to which there was no replies). no toilet on the island, but there is 1 on the ferry. no drinks on the island, but there are vending machines near the port.

Not a cat island anymore! Do not visit. This is a nearly abandoned island with very few cats now. The cats are sick looking and there are no people on the island, only crumbling old buildings and many paths are blocked off.

Cats, ferry comes twice a day. When u leave the ferry might have to run for the train if you need to go back to the matsuyama station. Bring some cat food unless you're okay with just watching them and other people feeding them

Hopefully some helpful tips: The island is currently not really open for people from outside the island. a) its not a tourist attraction b) the protect the population for sickness People are only allowed to be at the pier. So 8h there is maybe a bit boring. So I would recommend the second ferry. Which would give one hour to play with the gets. (Only two ferries to and from the island per day) You do not need to bring food or water for the cats! There are also not 200 cats. Maybe some come out when it’s autumn or spring but in summer maybe 20 cats hang out around the pier. The cats get fed by the captain of the ferry twice a day. He also looks after the water. The captain feeds the cats when the ferry arrives so just follow him and you will find the cats. And the residents also feed and give water to the cats outside the main feeding area. The cats are looked after and yes some old cats are just old and look therefore not the best. But they have been sterilized some wear collars and it looks like the ship captains favorite cat is the one without a tail. There is a place/ hut at the pier where you can pick up cat toys, leave cat food, rest and with a toilet. During the summer months the cats are mostly in the shade and outside the visitor area. Currently the island has also some construction work around the old school building done. Its beautiful and sad at the same time. Beautiful nature and sad to see that one day there will be only cats left on the island. And even the cats will be gone one day because they are sterilized. Cat with missing part of the ear= sterilized cat I spoke with one of the residents of the island. She was super nice and spoke with me about the island and its shrines. She was also interested to hear more about where I am from and why I came all the way to her island. If you speak Japanese, I highly recommend to speak with the residents. After all you are basically in their home and guests on their island. At least greet them in Japanese and say thank you. The island is perfect for people who love animals, nature, quietness, Japanese history and loneliness. Its not a tourist place at all. Again currently only pier allowed. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk ;)

Loads of misinformation around this island so hopefully this helps you not having the experience we had. We have gone there yesterday, on a Friday in July so supposedly high season. it’s quite hard to reach, but the morning ferry ride was EMPTY a part from us, the afternoon one (at 14 30) had 3 people on. I highly advise you to get the afternoon one so you don’t have to spend 7 hours on a very tiny island with no shops, cafes restaurants or vending machines, especially in Japan’s summer heat. The most disheartening thing about Aoshima is seeing the cats, loads of them are sick and in very poor conditions. They desperately need to see a vet and we questioned whether they are getting fed at all as loads of them are very skinny. I presume many of them have already died as we only met about 20-30 of them. If we knew we could at least have brought more water, a brush (loads of them are shedding hair and really struggling in the heat) and way more food, especially wet food like tuna cans as they seemed to love it. (We brought some food but it wasn’t enough as also we spent the whole day there with them). If you are a cat lover it might be really disheartening to see the conditions they are in and feeling powerless about it.

Information for future visitors: we couldn't get to the island today, on 13th May 2025. Both ferries were cancelled on the day, we're not sure for what reason as the weather was great and the ferry was docked there. Us 2 and 8 other people were waiting at the boarding until the last minute but obviously no one came. If you're willing to risk that you might not get to the island, please still visit as the cats will probably need some cat food donation as long as possible. We left our donation by the boarding booth along with other visitors wanting to go to the island and we hope it will get to the cats (there wasn't any dedicated drop off zone though, we just had to leave it on the bench). The port area is super rural with nice views but not much to do. We really hope the cats on the island are doing well and being taken care of. Gave it 5 stars because I couldn't skip the rating but wanted to add the information.

One of the best places to visit if you are a cat lover

Came today from Matsuyama to Nagahama port, but there was no ferries operating. The port where the ferry is supposed to arrive close to the station is easy to find, but there is little information and no staff. The 14:30 ferry did not arrive. There was two signs at the port, the other one saying there is two ferries (8:00 and 14:30) operating and the other one saying both ferries are cancelled. Guess the latter one was correct. I don't recommend risking it if you're visiting Matsuyama, because there are only a few trains every day and the ride takes over 1 hour.