Hoshizuna no Hama 星砂の浜 or star-sand beach at Iriomote island 西表島. (1) The name derives from those un

Hoshizuna no Hama 星砂の浜 or star-sand beach at Iriomote island 西表島. (1) The name derives from those unique sand grains, shaped in the form of little stars. Nearby Taketomi island 竹富島 is the most famous location for finding it, but the sand there has been filled into bottles ready to be bought by tourists, and it is very hard to find it there. (2)  Iriomote’s star-sand beach on the other hand consist almost entirely of those grains. (3) Also, there is a facility for renting snorkeling sets which I would recommend without hestitating, because the shallow water and the coral reef you can literally walk into are fantastic spots for watching fishes in diverse color palettes.

By the way, the stars are not really “sand”. They are the remains of Foraminifera, small organisms who develop a calcium carbonate hull around their monocellular structure. So you’re kind of walking on corpses.