Ōkunoshima , a.k.a. Rabbit Island, is a wee isle in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan overrun with hundreds of hares. If you’ve watched the YouTube videos, you’ve seen visitors spearheading rabbit stampedes and allowing themselves to be smothered by bunnies. It’s pretty cute stuff, although the rabbits get a little snippy when competing for food.

Getting to Ōkunoshima takes a lot of effort; it’s important to manage your expectations from the outset. The rabbits follow the food, so if there are other tourists handing out snacks in your vicinity (highly likely), you will not have the rabbits’ undivided attention. Stampedes/smotherings are the exception here, not the rule. If you find yourself with a dozen rabbits in your lap at once, consider yourself lucky.

The easiest way to reach remote Ōkunoshima is from Hiroshima Station (about a 5-hour train ride or 90-minute flight from Tokyo). From Hiroshima, take a Sakura or Kodama bullet train to Mihara Station and switch to the local JR Kure train headed for Hiro. Get off at Tadanoumi Station, walk 10 minutes down to the Tadanoumi port (signs with cartoon rabbits point the way), and grab the local ferry; roundtrip tickets are ¥620, or about $6 USD, and purchasable by machine.

Food pellets are sold at the pier for ¥100 (90 cents) per bag or six for ¥500 ($4.50), though in-the-know visitors also bring chopped carrots and heads of lettuce. The ferry takes about 10 minutes, and you start seeing rabbits from the moment you dock at Ōkunoshima port. No need to hop the shuttle to the island’s sole hotel unless you’re checking in; the furries are all around and you’ll have fewer tourists hogging their attention if you stick to the port area.

Final tip: Pack a bento box, hand wipes, and swimming gear; the island has beautiful, well-shaded picnicking spots and several small beaches. (Canned drinks are for sale from vending machines on the island; bento boxes are sold at the larger train stations.) Go on a weekday and you may even have the sea foam green water all to yourself.