Taketomi-jima

The traditional village island of Taketomi-jima is home to less than 300 residents. Every building on the island is a single story (save for the small two-storey youth hostel), and almost every one is shingled with terra-cotta tiles, and adorned with a shiisa figure. All of the roads except for the main one are unpaved, and buffalo-drawn suigyusha carts are often more frequently visible than cars.

View over the village rooftops:

Painted shiisa, ferocious lion statues perched on most Okinawan-style rooftops:


Sunset from the west pier:


A highly venomous blue-lipped sea krait, close relative of the cobra (both are "elapids...characterized by a hollow fixed front fang and neurotoxic venoms"):

A Japanese tourist rocks an H. Rap Brown t-shirt reading "Violent Harvest for Black Militants." The fine print details a police assault on Brown. The fashionista had heard neither of Brown nor the Panthers.
Holding it down for Amir's in Taketomi:

A suigyusha driver plays his sanshin:

Star-shaped sand on Kaji Beach:

A stone wall in front of a traditional shiisa-adorned house with coral shapes representing the 12 doshi animals. I tossed a five yen coin to mine, the inoshishi...or warthog.

A giant butterfly near Aiyaru Beach:

A suigyusha filled with passengers: