Aka Todai (Red Lighthouse)

Past a small Shinto shrine and its torii gate, a natural beach reveals excellent examples of beachrock, where pebbles and shells have been cemented into young sedimentary stone by carbonate compounds. Across the channel, the exposed face of Shimayama Island shows millions of years of folding and erosion in clear bands of granite, sandstone, and mudstone. The channel is dredged for large ships, which shelter here ahead of typhoons. The red lighthouse stands at the point where the channel opens to the sea, giving this working corner of Fukue Island an unusually readable geological history.