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Konnichiwa from Tebajima.

A few kilometres off the east coast of Shikoku, the smallest and least populated of Japan’s four main islands, the tiny islet of Tebajima is frozen in time.

Amateur historian Nick Russell on Tebajima island, off which the Cyprus was anchored in 1830. Credit: Fred Mery

There are no cars here, or shops. In fact, there are no roads, really, just one main path that sweeps around a cove where a small ferry pulls in, chugging the 15-minute trip across from the mainland six times a day.

The island is dotted with about 150 traditional wooden houses, many of them built more than a

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