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Want your own private island? We visited one for sale off the coast of Japan【Pics & Video】

Scott Wilson Oct 23, 2015
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Who wouldn’t want to have their own private island? Imagine being able to get away from the world whenever you liked, free yourself from the stress of the daily grind and just relax under the sun or the nighttime stars on the beach.

Well the best place to start looking for such a private island is Japan. There are lots of small uninhabited islands owned by real estate companies that you can buy one almost as easily as you’d buy a house.

We recently visited one such island for sale to see what it was like and decide whether we should start saving up our pennies to buy one ourselves—after all, Rocket Island has quite a nice ring to it. Read on to see what our trip there was like, and to see some of the surprises that we ran into.

The island that we visited is Ainoshima (Indigo Island) off Higashihiroshima City in Hiroshima Prefecture. This island is going for the low, low price of 400 million yen (US$3,300,000), and the only way to get to it is via a 10-minute trip by sea taxi.

▼ 10 minutes is just far away enough to be secluded, but close enough that trips to the mainland for supplies wouldn’t be a total nightmare.

And if you’re thinking that this must be a dinky little island because it’s so cheap, think again. It’s actually pretty spacious, with an area of 79,150 square meters (851,960 square feet).

▼ You could easily fit like three or four mansions there, with tennis courts to boot.

▼ And you don’t even need to buy a pool! You’re saving money here.

As we walked around the island and tried to keep our excitement and jealousy under control, we came upon a bit of a surprise:

▼ Seems like somebody already had our idea.

Apparently the island had been inhabited until just after the Second World War, so this abandoned house had been sitting here just falling apart for quite a long time. Now it’s a handyman’s dream! A real fixer-upper!

After checking out the house, we walked through the bamboo forest to the other end of the island. It took around 20 minutes to reach the beach on the opposite shore, but it was worth it to have our own private vacation spot.

▼ No screaming kids, no honking cars, no hoodlums stomping on your sand castle…

▼ Just you, the ocean, and a three-million-dollar hole in your bank account.

Even after visiting for ourselves though, we still couldn’t quite wrap our heads around the idea of buying an entire island. So we asked the real estate company what their customers typically do with their islands after purchasing them. Here’s what they had to say:

“Our recommended usage would be as a sort of manly getaway. Building a log cabin or a tent lodge would be perfect as the ultimate ‘man base.’ Ideally a place you could spend the night in would be best, so that you can spend the day fishing and enjoying other marine activities, then at night drinking with friends under the clear, starry sky. No one would be around to disturb you, so it would be like having your own kingdom.”

They’re really not making this any easier. It’s not like we don’t want to buy our own island, it’s just that we can’t afford one.

Although to be fair, there are even cheaper islands out there, going for as low as 20 million yen ($166,000). If we could just stop our horrible addiction of pampering our kitties in Neko Atsume, then maybe we’d have a chance of buying one of those.

▼ Man… if only this island’s WiFi were better.

Here’s a video of our trip to the island, so you can see everything in action and up close in detail.

Ready to start saving those pennies for your own private island? Never fear, we’ve got some great money-saving tips for you. You and your bursting piggy banks will be enjoying the sweet, sandy, secluded life in no time!