Yaeyama Islands
One look at Yaeyama Islands and I am instantly transported back to Phuket Islands, Thailand. Both has the same turquoise blue waters and pure fine white sandy beaches. This is the closest you will ever get to a beach paradise and you can find it in Japan on Yaeyama Islands.
Due to the island’s isolation from the mainland the Yaeyama Islands are a linguist’s dream. While standard Japanese is spoken everywhere and the main Okinawan language is also well understood, there is a unique Yaeyaman language (yaimamunii) as well. Ishigaki, Iriomote and Taketomi all have their own dialects of this, and Yonaguni’s is so distinct that it’s usually considered its own language.
An indigenous ideographical writing system known as kaidā was once employed on Taketomi and Yonaguni, but is now primarily found on T-shirts in souvenir shops.
Places to visit when you are in Yaeyama Island are of course the islands surrounding it – Ishigaki, Iriomote, and Taketomi.
Ishigaki is the Yaeyama’s more populated island (second most populated after Okinawa Island) and is the hub of transportation for Yaeyama Islands, with its international airport. It is filled with touristy things to see and do and like all the beaches around Yaeyama, it’s a pretty view. You must also check out Iriomote Island. The island is filled with lush forests and mangrove jungles. It is also part of the Iriomote National park. Boat rides, jungle trekking and canoeing within the deep forest amongst the mangroves is an experience that all tourist owe themselves to.
Next to visit is Taketomi Island. Tiny even by Yaeyaman standards, Taketomi (population under 300, area 5.4 km²) gets a disproportionate number of visitors because of its convenient location just off Ishigaki and, above all, its carefully preserved Ryūkyū village (集落 shūraku). Many houses in the village have red clay roofs with guardian shisa lions, a low surrounding wall of volcanic stone and extensive flower beds (particularly pretty in spring). Many roads are unpaved lanes of white sand and ambling water buffalo pull tourist-packed carts through town.
Note that the administrative area of Taketomi Town (竹富町 Taketomi-chō) covers not just Taketomi Island, but also the neighboring far larger island of Iriomote and in fact all of the Yaeyamas except Ishigaki and Yonaguni. An address with “Taketomi” in it may thus be located elsewhere in the archipelago!
- 
