Uehara ferry cancelled? How Anei’s Ohara-and-bus replacement works

When the Uehara ferry is cancelled, an Ohara sailing may still get you to Iriomote. Reaching Uehara from there takes another step: Anei’s connecting bus, with its own voucher and timetable. Settle both legs before boarding, especially if your accommodation is expecting you at Uehara.

At the Anei counter, buy the Uehara-route ticket and connecting-bus voucher for travel via Ohara. Do not buy an Ohara-only ticket or assume your cancelled online booking transfers automatically.

The instructions and dated timetable below were checked on 21 October 2026. They concern Anei Kanko’s service, not interchangeable tickets across ferry companies.

Anei’s cancellation guidance says an affected prepaid sailing is cancelled and refunded through the card company. Its QR code becomes unusable. For a same-day replacement, show the original booking in My Page to the counter staff; the operator says the booking’s discounted amount can be applied to the new local purchase.

There is an extra wrinkle for return bookings. The online booking terms say the return is also cancelled when the affected booking is a round trip. Deal with both directions when buying the replacement, rather than assuming the original return QR remains valid.

This is not a reason to spend the morning refreshing a card statement. The refund and the new journey serve different purposes: one reverses the cancelled purchase, while the other gets you onto an operating service with the required connection. Keep the original confirmation available, then arrange the actual replacement at the counter.

At Ishigaki’s ferry terminal, tell Anei that your destination is Uehara via Ohara, including the connecting bus. The operator’s FAQ specifies two documents:

The destination printed on the ferry ticket can therefore be Uehara even though the boat docks at Ohara. That is intentional: you are buying the route that includes the bus, not correcting the ticket to match the first port you see.

Anei requires counter ticket purchases to finish at least 15 minutes before departure. Arrive earlier to allow for the queue and replacement paperwork.

Anei’s winter connection sheet covers 1 October 2026–31 March 2027. Its departure pairs are:

These are scheduled connections, not guaranteed operations. 08:30 is the bus departure from Ohara, not an arrival time at Uehara; the sheet supplies no clock for that arrival.

That distinction matters when arranging a pickup. Give your accommodation the ferry-and-bus sequence rather than saying, “We’ll be at Uehara at 8.30.” Otherwise, the person waiting for you may be at the correct port with a very incorrect expectation.

On the way back, the sheet expressly requires collecting a bus voucher from the Uehara Anei counter. Present the Uehara-route ferry ticket there; carrying that ticket alone is insufficient for the bus. This is more specific than the general FAQ’s older instruction to show the ferry ticket to the driver, so use the dated winter-sheet procedure.

The scheduled replacement only works when its boat is running. Anei’s status page, updated at 05:55 on 21 October 2026, showed all Uehara sailings cancelled. It also showed the 07:30 Ishigaki-to-Ohara sailing operating, but the 13:00 and 16:00 departures cancelled.

On that morning’s status list, the afternoon connection in the winter table was therefore not an available fallback. The morning operating symbol did not establish remaining seats, either. Treat this as an example of how to read the two sources together, not a continuing notice about another travel day.

For your departure, read that day’s status list alongside the connection sheet. Start with an operating ferry, then check its bus departure and your onward pickup. The winter timetable alone cannot tell you whether the crossing will run.

Anei’s Ohara route notes say the replacement buses run directly to Uehara, without Funaura-area drop-offs or an onward Anei bus between Uehara and Shirahama. The company’s normal shuttle when Uehara ferries are operating also ended after 31 May 2026. An older free-shuttle itinerary can therefore be wrong even if its ferry advice still looks familiar.

For accommodation beyond Uehara, arrange the last section before leaving Ishigaki. Tell the host where the replacement bus ends and agree the pickup there; a ferry ticket to Iriomote does not settle that final journey.

There is a separate public option worth knowing about. Taketomi Town’s charter bus is open to everyone and temporarily free, but operates from Ohara towards Uehara and Shirahama only. It does not provide the reverse journey to Ohara. The town identifies its vehicles with a sign reading 竹富町送迎バス, and its Uehara boarding location is the large-bus parking space beside the terminal, not the regular route-bus stop.

Do not confuse that municipal service with the Anei connection attached to your ferry purchase. It has its own timetable and is not evidence that any arriving boat will have an immediate bus waiting.

Anei makes ferry and replacement-bus boarding first come, first served, with limited capacity. A seat on the boat does not make the road connection unlimited.

If Anei cannot issue the required bus place, choose an independently arranged transfer with a definite pickup, a suitable municipal service, or a later journey. For a day trip with no workable return, stay on Ishigaki instead of turning a cancelled boat into a much larger transport problem. If you are staying overnight on Iriomote, tell the accommodation the new route and pickup point once it is settled.

Save the booking, winter sheet and accommodation contact details offline. Mobile data is useful for checking the day’s ferry status and telling your host where to meet you; our Japan data comparison covers that choice. No connection can conjure a bus seat, though. The ferry, voucher and agreed pickup still need to fit together before you leave Ishigaki.