Cape Sata

**Twenty minutes each way through subtropical forest.** The path is made and gently graded but it is 800 metres, and the vegetation — bougainvillea, cycads, banyan — is half the reason to come. **Clear days show two islands.** Tanegashima and Yakushima appear across the Osumi strait when the air is good. Winter mornings are the most reliable. **The lighthouse is offshore.** Built in 1871 and the oldest Western-style lighthouse in Japan, but on an islet — you look at it, you do not visit it. **Take the certificate.** The free four-extremities version and the ¥300 southernmost certificate are issued at the information centre. For anyone collecting Japan's cardinal points this is one of the four. **There is no bus.** None. It is a two-hour drive from Tarumizu and an hour from Nejime, and there is nothing on the road. Fuel up first.