Okishima is a small island in Lake Biwa, Shiga Prefecture, and Japan's only inhabited island on a freshwater lake — a car-free fishing village reachable by a short ferry from Omihachiman, settled by samurai families in the 12th century.
The ferry runs roughly every hour; the bus back from the port only runs on weekdays. Missing either one — as our source traveller did — turns a relaxed island day into an unplanned 30-minute walk.
The island's founding families were on the losing side of a real 1156 civil war — and today, most residents still carry one of the same seven surnames their ancestors brought when they went into hiding.
No cars, no stoplights, and cats that outnumber the quiet welcome you'd expect — Okishima is both Japan's only inhabited freshwater-lake island and one of its lesser-known cat islands.