Star Sand

Islands come and islands go.  

That white smear you see on the horizon has just come - 

or more precisely, come back.  

It is a popular sand spit called Yurigahama 

and five years ago it began disappearing. 

The island had almost gone when last year's series 

of  massive typhoons delivered it back. 

This is happy for the tourist trade because the island 

features a unique type of sand called Star Sand 

- one of the world's few places where it is (or was) 

found in abundance.

Years ago you could scoop it up but nowadays 

finding the little stars is a cause for excitement. 

Local star sand trade is monopolized by a bunch 

of old fishermen's wives who lurk in the approaches 

to the beach and invite visitors to buy little phials of the stuff, 

about a dozen grains for ¥200 

(18 US cents  or 9.7 Rupees or 1.13 Yuan or 11.5 UK Pees). 

Not bad - about the same price as gold.