A kind reminder that there is always a sun shining after these bitter cold months. Ok, i know it’s in Okinawa where it’s perpetually warm almost but hey, sun, sea and sand always reminds me of summer although the video is not about the beach only but it’s about the town, Naha.

The main attraction of Taketomi is the beautifully preserved traditional village of Ryuku. Thanks to the awesome preservation effort, you can see that all the traditional Ryuku homes preserved today; the familiar red tile roofs and stone walls. Some of the houses are minshuku accommodations, so you can actually live in one of these traditional homes and be immersed in the culture and life.

Iriomote (西表島 Iriomote-jima) is the largest of the Yaeyama Islands and the second largest in Okinawa Prefecture after Okinawa Island itself. It is covered by lush forest with mangroves. This is definitely a heaven for nature seekers. Iriomote is part of the Iriomote National Park and rightfully so too. The flora and fauna found in this place is incredible. This untouched island is like a paradise for animals and nature.

A trip to Iriomote is a must when you stop by Ishigaki. Jungle boat tours are available for you to travel long the two long rivers, Urauchigawa and Nakamagawa. These cruise can be combined with a 2 hour walk through the jungle to view a beautiful waterfall within the vicinity. Iriomote offers some pretty challenging jungle trekking trails. The hardest is the 20km walk through the island and should only be tackled by experienced hikers only. Oh and you might be lucky to catch a glimpse of Iriomote Yamaneko, a wild cat, which only lives on Iriomote Island. This wildcat species is on the endangered animal list, unfortunately.

How to get there?
As Iriomote is part of the Yaeyama islands you will need to check out the Yaeyama island orientation guide.

Ishigaki is part of the Yaeyama Islands as I has blogged about previously. Do note that I will be writing about the islands within Yaeyama until I am done with them :)

So, Ishigaki (石垣島 -jima Yaeyama: Shikaitu Okinawan: Ishigachi) is an island west of Okinawa Hontō and the second-largest island of the Yaeyama Island group. It is also the name of the main and only city (石垣市, -shi) on the islands. The city functions as the business and transport center of the archipelago. Ishigaki Airport is the largest airport in the Yaeyamas and Japan’s largest third-class airport.

Ishigaki Island, like the rest of Okinawa, takes cultural influences from both Japan and China due to its location between China and mainland Japan.

As Ishigaki is an Island, its main attraction are of course its beach. Kabira Bay is a very beautiful one to start off with – after that you can even go to Sukuji and Yonehara beach where water activities such as snorkeling is desirable because of the beautiful coral reefs in the surrounding waters. You can even check out the only residence of the samurai that is still left intact on the island at Miyara Dunchi. And a curiously Chinese looking monument, which is actually a lavishly decorated grave for over 300 laborers who were massacred during a mutiny raised by the Chinese laborer for being unfairly treated.

How to get there?

You can get to Ishigiki Island via a boat ride/ferry. But since Ishigiki is part of Yaeyama, check out Yaeyama’s orientation page on how to get started. To get around Ishigiki Island, rent a car. Public buses are also available to take you around.

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!

Since the American occupation in Okinawa Island until 1972, United States Armed Forces personnel and Kadena Air Base have remained on Okinawa Island by invitation of the Japanese government as part of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan. This base is on the central part of the island where most of Okinawa’s occupants are.

Some of the places to visit when you are on Okinawa Island is Naha, the capital city of Okinawa. There are also remnants from the Ryuku Kingdom around Naha that you can visit as well, such as the Shuri Castle, Shikanaen Garden.

The Okinawa Island is basically divided into Southern Okinawa, Northern Okinawa, Central Okinawa and Motobu Peninsula. Each of these parts have some spots worthy a visit and the subtropical climate in Okinawa makes traveling fun and enjoyable.

In Southern Okinawa, you can find the War Memorial which contains artifacts collected from the war period in Okinawa. You can also visit Okinawa World where you can find folk craft and that features in a nice cave.

In Nothern Okinawa, where it is least populous is where Okinawa Honto is. You can visit the cape, which is the northern most tip (Hedo Misaki) of the island.

Central Okinawa is the most populous spot of the island and the most developed as well. You can find Nakagusuku Castle which is a beautiful Ryukyu castle and experience a traditional Okinawian home call Nakamurake.

And on Motobu Peninsula is where you can find another Ryukyu castle ruins, a beautiful pineapple park and the Ocean Expo Park from 1975.

Okinawa Prefecture (沖縄県, Okinawa-ken, Okinawan: Uchinā) is Japan’s southernmost prefecture, and consists of hundreds of the Ryukyu Islands in a chain over 1,000 km long, which extends southwest from Kyūshū (the southwesternmost of Japan’s main four islands) to Taiwan. Okinawa’s capital, Naha, is located in the southern part of the largest and most populous island, Okinawa Island, which is approximately half-way between Kyūshū and Taiwan. The disputed Senkaku Islands (Chinese: Diaoyu Islands) are also administered as part of Okinawa Prefecture.

The islands that now make up Okinawa Prefecture were originally not part of Japan, but part of an independent nation called the Ryūkyū Kingdom. Okinawa’s location in the East China Sea, and relatively close proximity to Japan, China and South-East Asia allowed the Ryūkyū Kingdom to become a prosperous trading nation. The many castle ruins that dot the island date from this period. The Ryūkyū Kingdom long had a tributary relationship with China.

In 1609 the Satsuma clan, who controlled the region that is now Kagoshima Prefecture in Japan invaded the Ryūkyū Kingdom. Following this invasion, the Ryūkyū Kingdom was forced to enter into a tributary relationship with Satsuma in addition to their previous tributary relationship with China. Ryukyuan sovereignty, however, was maintained, since to do otherwise would have created problems with both China and the Tokugawa shogunate, which Satsuma had opposed during the preceding period of conflict. This gave Satsuma a high level of access to trade with China during a period in which such trade was heavily restricted and largely clandestine.

Though Satsuma maintained strong influence over the Ryūkyū Kingdom, the Ryūkyū Kingdom maintained a large degree of political independence. Four years after the 1868 Meiji Restoration, Japan annexed the kingdom as a colony, entitling it Okinawa han (domain); Okinawa did not become a prefecture until 1879–incidentally, all other Japanese domains became prefectures in 1872.

Following the end of World War II and the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, for 27 years Okinawa was under United States administration. During this time the US military established numerous bases on Okinawa Honto (main island) and elsewhere.

On May 15, 1972, Okinawa once again became part of Japan, although to this day the United States maintains a large military presence there. Over 15,000 Marines, in addition to contingents from the Navy, Army and Air Force, are stationed there. Representing only 0.6% of the total landmass of Japan, Okinawa supports roughly 75% of all U.S. troops in the country.

Most Okinawans feel that the large presence places an undue burden on their small island (20% of land on Okinawa Island is U.S. territory) and have been upset by a number of incidents involving U.S. servicemembers and local citizens. Both Japan and the U.S., however, believe that the benefits of the U.S. presence outweigh the disadvantages. In 2006, the U.S. announced plans to move a few of its bases to Guam over a span of several years.

Naha is the perfecture’s capital and is the most developed among all the islands in Okinawa. This busy island city is home to more than 300,000 people and with its port and airport, it is a transportation hub that connects Okinawa to other parts of Asia. This little town has a bloody history of its own. The city suffered attacks and was mostly destroyed during the Battle Okinawa. But since the, has rebuilt itself to be what it is today – an attraction for the locals of Japan and international tourists.

If you look at some of the pictures of Okinawa, you will find that the sea is beautiful turquoise blue and the sand reminisce those in Hawaii. It is beautiful and the climate mild. During winter, the temperature seldom go below 15 degrees. And that, my friends, is a lot of reason to move to Okinawa as it is. With the beach, sun, sand and beautiful people, Okinawa is definitely a place to visit.

Next, we will talk about the Okinawa islands and other attractions.

Source: Wikipedia

Okinawa is made up of several islands and is a popular tourist place for both locals and international visitors. Although it has a bloody history as Okinawa is the place where towards the end of World War Two, Okinawa became the stage of one of the war’s bloodiest battles, when American troops invaded the islands. Okinawa remained under US administration until 1972, while several thousands of US military members remain stationed on the spacious and controversial US military bases on Okinawa Main Island today.

But that doesn’t stop that Okinawa has the best coral reefs and abundance of wildlife. So for those of you who would are into aqua-marine life, you really should visit Okinawa. Oh another plus factor is that the islands are subtropical – that means during winter, the lowest temperature it’d go to is about 15 degrees C. That’s a fine weather -at least i’d trade that for -18 degrees anyday!

Okinawa is best accessed by planes, unless you want to swim there from the Japan’s main island.

This is how the island look like scattered outside of Japan:

Read more about Okinawa.

Gyokusendo is a huge limestone cave in the southern part of Okinawa Island. It’s the second largest in Japan and the largest in Okinawa. Access is through the Okinawa World theme park, which is a very cheesy theme park made up mainly of shops where you can buy Okinawan crafts and foods. Sneakily, you can buy a ticket to both the cave or the theme park, or just to the theme park, but not just to the cave, heh.

The cave is over 5km long, with 890m open to the public. It takes about an hour to walk through if you’re taking your time. It’s quite spectacular as it has large caverns with forests of stalactites, an underground river complete with fish, eels and other wildlife, a huge limestone stalacmite “cup” that is constantly filled and overflowing with the blue-tinted water of the underground river and an awamori cellar.

We went inside as there was torrential rain outside, thinking we could be sheltered in the cave – but oh no. The dripping! The rainy season is in June in Okinawa and I seriously think that the growth of the stalactites and stalacmites is accelerated 500% during this time. By the time we got out of the cave, my camera was already covered in a chalky film from all the calcium-rich water that had fallen on it. Inside the cave you can see examples of where new stalacmites are forming on the tiled floor. They are only about 1cm tall but managed to reach that height in 13 years.

One disappointing thing about Gyokusendo is how many of the features are damaged or broken. I think that the park operators cut quite a lot themselves to allow for paths throught the cave, which is disappointing. Seeing an unbroken stalactite or stalacmite is actually somewhat rare inside this cave. There’s no guides, no signs declaring “DO NOT TOUCH” and the design of the path doesn’t discourage people from touching the features or breaking them off for souvenirs.

Still, I came out of there happy. it’s such a large cave with so much to see, and the fact that there’s yet another 4kms that’s relatively untouched is very exciting. Spend about 2-3 hours there, if you want to have a good browse around the surrounding theme park.

Links:
Japan Guide’s article on Gyokusendo and Okinawa World

A focus for a while on Okinawa, where I spent a few days recently.

Okinawa was originally a separate kingdom from Japan. The Ryuku Kingdom lasted for about 500 years before being invaded and finally dismantled by Japan after the Meiji Restoration. Shuri-jo, or Shuri Castle, was the main castle of the Ryuku royal family, located in the now capital city of Okinawa Prefecture – Naha.

Seiden and Una forecourt

During the ferocious Battle of Okinawa in WWII, Shuri-jo was all but destroyed. What you can see today is a reconstruction based on photographs, drawings, historical records and people’s memories.

Shuri-jo is located at the top of a hill, commanding a great view over Naha and Okinawa Island. It is located inside a park that encompasses many historical locations that are free to wander around. These include the Shureimon Gate, which features on the rarely seen 2000 yen note and the Stone Gate of Sonohyan-utaki, where the king and other royalty would pray before they left to travel.

Shureimon

The main part of Shuri-jo is 800 yen for adults to enter. It encompasses the structures known as Seiden (the royal residence), Nanden, Houshinmon (the gate to this inner castle area) and the spactacular red and white-striped Una forecourt. The patterns where laid out so that everyone knew where to stand. The middle path was only for the royalty to walk down. It reminded me a bit of the Forbidden City courtyard in Beijing.

You’ll be asked to take off your shoes to walk inside the Seiden and Nanden. One highlight is looking through the glass window in the floor of the Seiden to see the original ruins of Shuri-jo. There’s only a few inches left. It really makes you realise how the Battle of Okinawa destroyed so much.

The structures, parklands, museums, monuments, gift shops and restaurants are fairly extensive, so I’d recommend spending the best part of a day there.

Links:
Shuri Castle official site (in English)
Wonder Okinawa’s articles on Shuri-jo (in English)