Day One:
(Tuesday, 24th July 2007)
Should have been when Dave and I were on-board the A-line ferry heading towards Ishigaki! But a series of unfortunate circumstances prevented us from catching the ferry on time, and it left the dock without us, while we stood there watching it leave!
Therefore,
Day One:
(Wednesday, 25th July 2007)
We catch a plane with Liz, and reach there; eat an early dinner; head to MaxValu to get fruits for the Kohama's (with whom we stayed in Ishigaki). Then we took a taxi to them and they welcome us with arms wide open, give us a set of keys to the house, make plans to take us out to the sea the next day, and give us a comfortable space to rest for the night! They were awesome hosts!
Day Two:
(Thursday, 26th July 2007)
We head out (via a HotSpar, to buy liquids) to the wharf where Mr. Kohama proceeds to take out to the sea on his own private boat. He realises that it needs gas, so we loiter around while the boat gets it fill.
Finally, we are on our way, destination - off the coast of Kuroshima, a Reef where we shall see the pretty fish in the crystal clear sea! and we receive a brilliant tan for our efforts! The wind, the sea, the sky! Ah it was a perfect day!
After snorkeling and riding around in Nemo - Mr. Kohama's boat - we four went over to a place where they had really authentic smelling tandoori chicken. Of course I ate a salad or something... But Mr. Kohama was so jolly, he kept changing his order as whatever Liz or Dave ordered. We decided to play a nice little snide game and pay beforehand to as to treat Mr. Kohama for taking us out that day. He was pleasantly surprised.
He is the first Japanese/Okinawan who actually understood and sympathized with my ethical reasons for being vegetariawn. And while in the boat, he pointed out the island called Kohama and joked that it was his! And he even let me steer the boat for a while! It was so cool!! I really liked him! He is great!
Then, we went up north to cover some sightseeing and Mr. Kohama went home to rest and nap. We headed up to Tamatori-zaki viewpoint:
Then we drove up over to the northern-most tip of the island (Hirakubo-zaki):
and drove over to Mt Nosoko:
We climbed up to the very peak of this mountain (282m) to watch the sunset. (see the moon over the summit?) The 360 deg. view from up here was breathtaking (just like the climb up! it was quite hard! We even encountered signs that said in katakana "fight-o! fight-o!" on the way up!) The legend of this mountain says that there used to be a woman, who would climb up this hill and search for her lover on Kuroshima who hadn't returned for a long time. the reason he hadnt returned was because he succumbed to the malaria epidemic there. This mountain is also called Mappe after the girl, who became a stone after her tears had dried out.
The sunset: and some offering to the soul of mappe:
Day Three:
(Friday, 27th July 2007)
Woke up and got ready to go to Taketomi. It was a HOT day!
Here above is the typical Ryukyu house... and see the white roads, they are purely coral. Taketomi was just too hot to be enjoyed! I rented a bike and I thought I will try and cover the little neat spots but I just rushed through clicking very bad snaps of the places... Plus cycling was so damn hard! the brakes made me slip in the coral sand more times than was safe and taking turns on that thing was an act of suicide! Let it be said that in my opinion, Taketomi is too touristie and over-rated! We came back and were just too exhausted to do anything else! We took a nap and in the evening, cooked dinner - spagetti and garlic bread etc. for the Kohama's.
Day Four:
(Saturday, 28th July 2007)
Mrs. Kohama, a very energetic lady, took liz and I out sightseeing while Dave did some of his first and last diving in Okinawa. The weather became dull and it rained sporadically. We went to the Banna Park and its gigantic lotuses:
This below is the Ugan-zaki cape:
Kabira Bay 川平湾 (one of the two places in Japan or the world (?) where black pearls are cultured) and one of the 100 most scenic spots of Japan:
Black Pearl Cultivation:
On the way, we stopped to take pictures of these creative shiisas. Some of them were huge, all of them very colourful! Liz lost her cool ALASKA cap here!
This is the Tojinbaka:
Tojibaka is a grave for the 300-odd Chinese labourers killed while escaping Slave ships to America to work in the mines there, in the mid-1800s. It is a milestone in Sino-Japanese relations. I personally, found the shiisas protecting the shiisa, highly self-reflexive!
We also stopped over at the Kannon-do Temple in Ishigaki, Sukuji beach, and the Yonehara Pine grove. Not very exciting places...
Oh! I almost forgot! I had a fruits-curry at this greenhouse place... the curry looked awesome, but after a while it made me sick! too sweet for my taste buds...
In the evening after a much needed nap, we set out to see the Matsuri. We were late, but still managed to see many dances and programmes. And we bumped into other JETs as well. But Liz and I were very tired, so didn't really become very enthusiastic, very much unlike Dave, who even wore his "always matsuri" t-shirt from Kumejima!
Day Five:
(Sunday, 28th July 2007)
We leave for Iriomote after buying lots of food supplies at MaxValu. Before leaving, Liz buys a conical bamboo hat (having lost her cool Alaska cap) and I buy these Hollywood-style sunglasses, that instantly start falling apart. We took the ferry to Uehara and stayed at a cheap dorm, where we had to collect 100yen coins for the aircon to work thru the night! In the day though, we caught a bus to the place near Pinaisara Falls (the tallest waterfall in Okinawa) and there was a huge swamp that had to be crossed in order to get near the river! We decided that was unmanageable on our own without a tour guide as we didn't know when the tide might rise and trap us in! So we stood trying to get a lift as another bus would be in after a long time. We were picked up by these two Austrian men, who had an awesome accent! They were lots of fun! One of them is a Luftansa airhost, and so he gets cheap tickets and travels all over the world. We had an interesting conversation about their travels in India. They were heading to the Onsen and missed their turn and we ended up riding with them to the place with the Sakishima trees:
And then when coming back up, we all stopped to see the water buffalo crossing the sea to Yubu jima. I didn't really want to ride these carts (having done so unwillingly at Bise the second day I arrived in Okinawa!) And Dave had ridden it at Taketomi, so we were more than happy to stop only for pictures!
We didn't really see any of the famed yamanekos, or the Iriomote Wildcat, but we saw many signs for it ;)!
Day Six
(Monday, 29th July 2007)
next morning, after a detour to the end of the road - that is, till Shirahama - we went to Urauchi gawa, which is the longest river in Okinawa. We took a water cruise till the point where rocks began.
Then, we hiked up to the Mariyuda Waterfalls - only one in Okinawa of all Waterfalls to be selected for the 100 best waterfalls of Japan:
The name Mariyuda means 'circle stagnation', and refers to the circular pond like pool where the waterfall leads to. The legends say that there used to be an aligator here who would eat anyone who dirtied this place. (And therefore, this place was cordoned off when we went! No, Dave went there and it turned out to be covered up with fallen trees)
Next waterfall we encountered was the Kanpire:
Kanpire signifies "where the Gods sit". Again, there is a legend about this. The Okinawan gods invited the Japanese Gods to have a sit down here. It was indeed amazing to see how the forces of the water has left its marks upon the rocks here. And I got to see so many features I had studied in geography as a kid - like the natural potholes made by rocks tumbling about, for example; you can see a huge one in photo below!
After Urauchi gawa, we stopped over at the nearby Iriomote Cafe. Attracted by the jazzy new age music, and relaxing beach chairs, we spent some time between buses drinking smoothies and playing a mutli-dimensional plot 4 game.
Then we split up. Liz went over to Ohara, while Dave stayed for some more time at the cafe, reading. and I went over to the southernmost Onsen in Japan, and the only real Onsen in Okinawa. I spent about an hour relaxing in those healing waters. unfortunately, no photos of the place! :)
We all met up at our (unnecessarily expensive) hotel (booked courtsey Dave's hasty helpfulness!) We called it an early night, but not before Liz and I walked over to the bridge nearby to see this beautiful full moon.
Day Seven:
(Tuesday, 30th July 2007)
We woke at 3 am and got ready to search mangroves of Maira Kawa for the Sagaribana flower that blooms only in the night. At 4 o'clock sharp, our guide came to pick us up, and we left our hotel extremely excited. In the moonlight, the quiet river seemed to sing a soothing lullaby. I sucked at kayaking, and after a sound scolding from Liz finally got it correct! We bumped into mangroves in the middle of the water many times! Our guide told us that they were remenants of the devastating typhoon of last year! We reached the end of the swampy waters and then after some tea (that contained milk dilluted with river water as the pan had fallen down!) we trekked up to a small waterfall amidst Liz shreeking in fear of spiders. Dave dove in a couple of times, but Liz and I abstained, not wanting to get wet at that time in the morning. Kayaking back was a little tough as the sun was directly ahead of us. I picked up many sagaribana flowers floating away in the water.
We took pictures after we came. None of us carried our cameras since they weren't waterproof. Even though there wasn't much danger, still we couldn't take the chance! Here's Liz and I, and the guide, I wish I remembered his name! He was really funny!
After getting back to our minshuku, we had just enough time to eat our breakfast and bathe before checking out. We wanted to go to the Haemida beach, but after our bus driver scared us of how far it was, and the heat, and lack of time, we decided to head to the port and catch the ferry back to Ishigaki, in time to catch our flight. We went to the gelato place in Ishigaki and the not-so-famous, famous banyan tree and did an hour of karaoke to while away time. It was a fun trip over all and I shall never forget it! Snorkeling in the middle of the Sea, Climbing Mappe, Sagariban Search, And I shalln't forget especially, the slap fight between Liz and Dave which still makes me chortle!! :) Thanks for the good times, guys!
