Manabe Island — Local services in Kasaoka

date of visit: 29th April 2025, noon

1st photo: map of island where i encountered cats/kitten. the ship stops at the bottom left area marked “X”. This is where you would meet the famous mike, along with a few other cats that would keep meowing for food. do not exhaust your food here! i exhausted most of my cat food here until i did not have enough for the rest of the island😭😭😭😭💔💔 i did not expect to see cats at the remaining part of the island.. i never saw anywhere else mentioning but as i walked further down towards the area marked as “site #1” & “site #2”, there were WAY MORE CATS & KITTENS! the cats on this island are not neutered and are breeding freely. i have caught them breeding on footage, read/look at my review/photos till the end and you will see proof.

2nd photo (site #1): as i walk down the road, there was a group of hungry kitten & cats. i saw a local feed them once but with very little food that didnt seem enough

3rd photo (site #2): MORE KITTENS! ALOT OF THEM! i first encountered ONLY one meowing for human attention. i took out my cat food. a few seconds later more & more kittens/cats started to come out of the bushes! i wish i recorded it, but the scene was exactly like that 1 viral video of a guy who encountered a dozen of kittens when he stopped his car by the forest side, which slowly ambushed him one by one from out of their hiding spot.

4th photo (site X): mike & friends

remaining photos: Site #1 & #2, the hidden spots with A LOT OF KITTEN! they are even more hungry than the adult cats at Site X. Site X cats are the ones that got the most attention from tourist usually. Most people would not walk as far as where i adventured until and met SO MANY KITTENS.

best cat island i visited. VERY UNDERRATED. i would pick this island over the famous aoshima in ehime prefecture or sanagi island in kagawa prefecture. this cat island in okayama prefecture does not get as much tourist attention than other islands. please visit here if you are a cat lover!

*last 2 photos: gachapon machine selling cat food is a SCAM! do not try! my 300 yen is lost because the machine is stuck & does not turn anymore (1 more cat food packet left inside). i have emailed the owner about it in japanese but they...

I visited in Q4 2022. Manabeshima 真鍋島 is a cat island belonging to the Kasaoka 笠岡 islands archipelago, off the coast of Okayama Prefecture 岡山. Ferries depart Kasaoka port to one of two ports on the island, though they are only a short walk apart. The cat population is not enormous and most are on the shy side, likely from less visitor contact, so one has to patiently explore nooks and crannies to find them while still giving residents their privacy. I am sure I missed quite a few. Cats are healthy and clean suggesting some might live indoors as adopted pets though there were few people leaving out food and shelter. On the path connecting the two ports there are hand-sketched caricature maps of the island with markers indicating where cats hang out though this did not prove very accurate! Bring food -- any eateries shown on Google Maps are either defunct, closed much of the year or are more like local B&Bs that only accept seasonal pre-bookings via phone...

So about the cats: I didn't go very far from the port but I saw 4 different cats, 3 of which happily let me pet them with no food in hand (the dispenser for food wasn't working). One was a bit more reclusive. The cats I met were exclusively near the port I don't know how many there are in other places.

some things to note: I stressed about this more than I should have, but there's no ticket booth for the ferry back to Kasaoka, you just get on the ferry and the ferryman tells you your total you need to pay in cash. ferries are few and far between so make sure you know when to come back.

On Manabe there is also a small waiting room near the port with AC, nice bathrooms and outlets. It was nice...