Travel to Izu Oshima, Sadako Yamamura Island

When reading the title of this article, someone might ask questions. Sadako Yamamura? Who? Japanese travel? Politician? Athlete? Or who?

If you are still wondering who Sadako Yamamura is, then you are not fans of horror films. Sadako Yamamura, or more popularly known as Sadako, is the name of a ghost character in the trilogy Ring (1998), Ring 2 (1998), and Ring 0: Birthday (2000); the reverberations are still felt today.

Forgot Sadako? You know, a ghostly figure that’s popular because it came out of television. Still no shadow? Take a look at the following photo:

remember? Already know who Sadako Yamamura is?

If so, we will flashback a little story in the movie Ring (1998). Those of you who have seen the film will know the story. There is a damned video, and anyone who sees it will die within 7 days.

A pair of ex-husband and then investigated the video, and found if the dialect in the video came from the Izu Oshima region. They both then deliberately went to Izu Oshima in hopes of breaking the curse, and ended with the discovery of a well where Sadako’s body was buried.

By the way, Izu Oshima who is the setting in the story is not a fictional place. The island is really real, and still belongs to Tokyo! The island is also popularly visited as a side trip from the Japanese capital. Curious to know more about Izu Oshima? Check out the following details:

Izu Oshima, or simply referred to as Oshima, is the name of one of the islands in the Izu Islands

Precisely, Oshima is the largest island in the archipelago. By the way, the Izu Islands belong to the Oshima region, a sub-prefecture of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

In other words, Oshima is still included in the Tokyo region (see the next section for details on the Izu Islands), but has a more tropical atmosphere than Tokyo (although the climate on this island is not as hot as Okinawa).

Not only is the largest island in the Izu Islands, Oshima is also the closest distance from Tokyo (about 108 kilometers). To reach this island, you only need about 1 hour and 45 minutes. It’s no wonder that Oshima has become one of the popular side-trip destinations from Tokyo and Shizuoka, because the island is also quite close and easily accessible from Shizuoka.

By the way, Oshima is not only popular as a shooting location for Ring movies. The island is the location of Godzilla’s ‘burial’ in the film The Return of Godzilla (1984), and has also appeared in several other Godzilla films such as The Return of Godzilla (1989) and Godzilla vs. Biollante. Whereas if you’ve ever been in contact with a Pokemon franchise, both in games and anime, Cinnabar Island in the franchise was inspired by Oshima.