Ishigaki Island

For our winter vacation we decided to travel to the southernmost islands of Japan - Okinawa. 

Specifically we visited the Yeayama Islands: Ishigaki, Iriomote and Taketomi. It really is far away from Osaka and is geographically much closer to Taiwan than mainland Japan, but a 3 hour long domestic flight took us there cheaply and conveniently. Check out the screenshot of our location (we were the blue dot if you don't know iphones)!

So, we visited 'tropical Japan' but the weather we had was generally pretty awful. We had one day of sunshine, and we used the opportunity to visit stunning Kabira Bay on Ishigaki Island. It really was beautiful; unlike anything I've seen before. White beaches, clear emerald water - doesn't look like Japan hey?

 Robinson Jonny

Token shot to prove I made it...

and a classic picture of a bird.

We spent the day walking around and sitting on the beach. The main tourist attraction is a glass bottomed boat that allows you to see the fish and coral in the water. It was surprising how close to the beach the fish were - I wish it was warm enough to have gone snorkelling. We saw lots of fish including nemos and massive scary clams. 

We were staying in downtown Ishigaki which is actually pretty far from Kabira (we had to take a 45 minute bus). Kabira and downtown seem to be the main areas to visit, but downtown Ishigaki is actually pretty interesting and full of loads of bars and restaurants. That night we visited an awesome restaurant called Red Dragon which had this cool graffiti on the walls...

We stayed for 3 hours, paid about £18, had unlimited drinks and about 7 courses of food. It was a definite winner. 

More about our trip soon! This blogging business isn't as easy as it looks!!