Ishigaki-jima

Ishigaki-jima is the third largest Okinawan island and the most populous in the Yaeyama archipelago. About 35,000 people live in Ishigaki City, and 5000 are scattered around the rest of the largely rural island. Home to Okinawa's tallest peak, unsurpassed coral reefs (including a rare species of blue coral--ao-sango--and over a thousand others), a large manta ray habitat, and incredible beaches.

Kabira Bay:


View of the bay from my minshuku:

Kabira Shrine:

A Yaeyama firefly. Starting at sundown, the fireflies--roughly the size of gnats--start to rapidly blink for the next half hour before shutting down for the night. The forest on the mountainside was covered with blinking lights so dense that it was overwhelming.

The dead coral beach at Yonehara:


Yonehara Double Reef South:


A sea cucumber:






A manta ray just north of Kabira. The wingspan on this thing was about 15 feet:


A tourist brings a can of Spam home to the family. I knew the stuff was huge in Korea, but apparently it's big in Okinawa as well...to the point that I had to ask them to hold it from my goya champuru in one restaurant, and a fast food chain actually offers Spam burgers.

Okinawan pork is famous throughout the country:

A large jar of habu-shu. Habu is Japanese for pit viper, and the extremely poisonous snake is the most common in Okinawa. Shu is the same kanji used for sake and just means any type of liquor. Thus habu-shu is a massive jar of 100+ proof awamori with a giant pit viper or two shoved into the bottle.