Gaelec's Blog: October 14th (Ishigaki and Taketomi)

We got up pretty early to catch our plane and took the monorail to get to the airport. While we waited for our plane, we ate more tRICEangles and I took pictures to document how you open them.

From Trip to Japan

When the plane landed in Ishigaki, their was a line staff that greeted the plane with a formal salute. We took a cab to our hotel. It was way too early to check in (around 9h30am if I remember correctly) so we left our luggage at the hotel and left for a near island called Taketomi.

The cab driver had small toys in his car like this shrimp that he made from a straw

From Trip to Japan

One of the main streets of Ishigaki

From Trip to Japan

To get there we had to take the ferry which was actually a jet foil boat. The water was turquoise and the weather was hot and humid. It was a 15 minute ride.

From Trip to Japan

A cat resting in the waiting area of the port in Taketomi

From Trip to Japan

Taketomi is an island that kept most of the old Okinawan architecture. It's a small island with a small town where the houses are surrounded by walls of stones and fossiles. The best way to get around the island is by renting bikes which we managed to do with our limited japanese.

From Trip to Japan

Once we got them, we rode a bit through the streets of the city and then headed for the star sand beach where you can find small star fossiles in the sand. They're really small and Nath managed to find some. I took a couple of pictures of cats that were laying and playing around.

Making our way to the beach

From Trip to Japan

On the beach

From Trip to Japan

Cats :D

From Trip to Japan

Star sand

From Trip to Japan

Some kind of anchor that made me think of the head of a frog

From Trip to Japan

We left that beach and roamed the island.

This really made me think of Zelda

From Trip to Japan

Weird fish

From Trip to Japan

Hot chick

From Trip to Japan

We ate at a local diner. Beef curry with rice for me and sea food on rice for Nath. After diner we rode some more inside the village, exploring the streets at the whim of hazard. We saw by chance one the the other attractions of this island: a water buffalo. You can pay to get a water buffalo ride... We just took pictures of people who did it instead :P

Flowers near the restaurant

From Trip to Japan

More of those unique walls

From Trip to Japan

Water buffalo ride

From Trip to Japan

After that, we rode to a nice view point where we could see Ishigaki island but that sad part is that the horizon was always to hazy to get REALLY nice pictures so I just took great ones :P

From Trip to Japan

I made myself a friend

From Trip to Japan

After a couple of hours, we had pretty much seen what had to be seen so we brought back our bikes and headed back to Ishigaki to check into our hotel.

Just before leaving Taketomi

From Trip to Japan

That being done, we took advantage of one of the perks of our hotel: "ofuro" (honorable bath). It's pretty much like a spa or sauna bath (there's no bubbles) and you have to wash yourself thoroughly before entering it. It felt really good and it was a nice first experience.

Sunset from our hotel room

From Trip to Japan

We did some net and then went out to eat. We walked aimlessly through the streets as we were looking for a restaurant.

Do robots have hair in Ishigaki ?

From Trip to Japan

We randomly chose a sushi place which had really good and fresh sushi. The people the there didn't really speak a lot of english and the customers to our right and left were asking us questions and making us fell at home. One of them bought us a sashimi plate and the other offered me a glass of his awamori which he rightfully called "japanese whiskey". He also called awamori "okinawa whiskey". I got the feeling like Okinawa felt appart of Japan but didn't ask about because it's politics and there was the language barrier.

Sake we drank with our meal