Unexpected in Ishisgaki

Our plan had been to go snorkeling at a spot called Phantom Island near Ishigaki, Japan, but for some reason our tour provider cancelled at the last minute the day before our arrival.  We had to figure out a plan B and just decided to leave Serenade and wing it in town.

It was a long walk into town or you could stand in line to take a taxi with a driver who didn't speak English, or the easy route and pay $27 apiece to take the Royal Caribbean shuttle into town.  Since we had non-refundable onboard credit we needed to spend we opted for the last option and started to wander upon arriving in town  Since it was Sunday not much was open, not even the restaurant that specialized in Spam and seaweed sandwiches.

We ran across Laura and Bob in town and decided we'd tag along with them to take a ferry over to the small island nearby called Taketomi.

The ferry was quick as the island was only 15 minutes away.  We saw lots of our fellow cruisers on the island while there.

Here's a map of the island.  We had a nice walk across it and then took a shuttle back.  Taketomi Island, or Taketomijima, is surrounded by the coral reefs of the Sekisei Lagoon and was designated a national park in 1972.  There are only three villages on the island and together they were designated a National Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings in 1987.  You'll see as we go how lovely those buildings are.

 Signs that I don't normally see always intrigue me and this Tsunami one was one of those, as was this restroom one.

I absolutely loved these Coral Tree blossoms!

They seemed to be one of those types of trees where you get flowers and then the leaves come later.

Without a guide we didn't learn much about the island itself but it felt like it was a place where you step back in time.  There weren't really any stores, few cars and not many people about.  These cemetery shrines were in the midst of nowhere.

There are going to be a lot of flowers in this post, they were everywhere and so beautiful.

It had been a while since we'd seen any cows grazing, along with watching a calf having some lunch.

My phone told me this is Orange Jasmine but I'm not sure it's correct, pretty whatever it is.

Tiny island, tiny cars.

This house was typical of those we saw on the island, almost all had the coral fences, one difference with this house was that it was made of wood..

You can see how the streets were narrow and lined with the coral walls.  And I'll add some lily pictures for Easter since that's the day we were there.

We had rain showers off and on as we walked.  I got way behind everyone else because I kept taking photos.  Here was sign carved into a piece of coral.

I'd never seen a plant like this one that looked dead but was growing out of a wall.

Turned out the first ones I saw weren't dead, just not blooming.  I found these later and found It's supposed to be a Chandelier Plant, quite unique.

I'm guessing this was a scarecrow. :)

I can't imagine how many hours and how back breaking the work would have been to make these wall.s, but how brilliant to use material that was at hand.

Almost every house had these protective dragons,

or the Shisa, as we learned the next day from Holden.  They are a cross between a lion and a dog.  They are a remnant of the Ryukyu culture.  Typically there are two of them outside the door.

When there are two the one on the left is the female, whose mouth is open to invite good spirits in.  The male Shisa with the open mouth is there to frighten away the evil spirits.  Pretty much every house had at least one on the roof.

The most magical part of the day were the butterflies that flew and flitted in the flowers and greenery alongside the road.  There were so many different kinds.  I'd never been in a place with so many out in nature.

How would it be to have a banana tree in your yard?

On we walked down the road!  

Karl's favorite picture was this one of the hibiscus amidst the bougainvillea.  The colors were stunning! 

A bit different style of house,

and this was the only one I saw with a white tile roof.

Look at the angles of the branches of this tree.

Another lovely hibiscus and the rings of a tree that had been cut back, so colorful.

No idea what these four shrines were for,

they seemed randomly placed at a crossroads but relatively new.

We were glad the road signs were in both English and Japanese.  I'm sure all the people who had rented bicycles to ride to get around the island were glad of it as well.  Plus we knew we were headed in the right direction for Kondoi Beach.

This was one of my favorite butterflies, at first I wondered if it was a hummingbird because it was so large.

I appreciated this blue one posing for me so nicely.  Just kidding, I got lucky, I was taking pictures randomly hoping they'd work out!

Two more, like I said, they were just magical.

Eventually we arrived at this tree lined entrance to one of the two main beaches on the island, Kondoi Beach.

We started to wish we'd brought towels and our swimsuits.

It appeared to be a lovely stretch of sand,

but when you looked more closely it was made of coarse and sharp bits of coral, not too great for going barefoot.

You can see how shallow the water was, and its lovely color.

Karl of course had to try going in.  He found it wasn't too warm but once you got used to it it was okay.

Laura got in as well, her shirt was a great contrast to the sea color.

My favorite part of the adventure, was seeing our friends the Worrals and having nine-year-old Wyatt ask me to help he and Everett make a sand castle.  It was great fun and reminded me of making sand castles with so many other children I love.  Many thanks to their mom, Amber, for sending me the photo. 🩷

After catching a small shuttle bus back to the ferry terminal I got a quick photo of Serenade from the island, you can see how close the isle was to the mainland., then headed back home.  Despite being disappointed about not going snorkeling we had a great time exploring Taketomijima.  There's always another adventure to be found!