Yaeyama Islands

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Again, another visit to the beautiful Nirai Kanai, in the Ryukyu realm.

This time I spent a few days driving in Ishigaki and Iriomote Islands.

It's very convenient to leave from Osaka as they offer very cheap flights with PEACH airlines to Ishigaki Island.

The first days we were in Iriomote, an Island that is 90% jungle and mangroves. The island is known to host the very endangered Yamaneko (or mountain cat) only to be found in Iriomote (and that is why the island will soon be on the UNESCO protected sites list).

The island of Iriomote can only be accessed by ferry or boat, and that way you can see how tiny waterfalls plunge directly from the island onto the sea (awesome).

We spent some time near haimida beach. The southern part of the island is pretty empty. Just one bar in which the fearless will drink some Habu shu (habu snake alcohol), a typical okinawan drink.

In the southern island you can wander around the jungle and observe the insects and the huge fruit bats at sunset.

Another place to recommend is Yubu Island. Though it might sound touristic with the water buffalos crossing the sea at Okinawan pace, the garden with its amazing variety of flowers and butterflies is worth the visit!

In the northern part of the island, near Uehara Ferry terminal, you have a few shops and "hotels" (not many) that propose tours. The tours are very very expensive and the tour monitors protect their secrets well. It's not possible therefore to just rent a kayak and explore on your own. We tried the night walk tour and the jungle + waterfall tour and had a first glance at the island, but the jungle is very deep and needs time to be explored.

While doing the night tour you can see insects and if you are lucky the big Yashigani (blue crabs) climbing up the trees to eat pineapple looking fruits (we just found a baby, but adults are amazingly huge!).

The waterfall tour starts with some kayaking among mangroves and deep into the jungle. The waters are clean and full of fishes and tiny crabs.

One thing that I didn't like of Iriomote: the astonishing amount of garbage that the ocean leaves in the beach and that no one seems to care about. Given the state in which I saw the corals near Haimida beach and Maruma beach I can just say that the government really needs to put on this issue as much energy as it puts on the protection of the yamaneko.

Ishigaki is on the contrary more developped than Iriomote, and not so jungly. It's actually pretty flat.

We spent the rest of the days in the northern part of the island, in Kabira. We visited Kabira bay, sunset bay, headed to Ishigaki city (full of restaurants and souvenir shops) and also drove until the Hirakubo lighthouse. The snorkeling was great in Sakieda bay and Yonehara beach, with beautiful and healthy corals.

Yonekoyaki Craft center with it's sculpture garden is also a must go!

Again, if going to Okinawa, you must taste the culture, the foods, the drinks. Everything is good there! Except Goya...

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Comments

[Ake Och Emma]

Nice read
Thank you for sharing this blog entry with us. It was a nice read. /Ake

[Toya]

You're most welcome!