Miyakojima

Miyako is a flat slab of raised coral limestone rather than a volcanic island, so rain sinks straight through and there are no rivers at all — the water comes from an underground dam, an engineering solution found nowhere else in Japan. Three bridges built between 1992 and 2015 tie it to Ikema, Kurima and Irabu, the last of them 3.5 kilometres of toll-free road over water the colour of a swimming pool.