Archive for the 'Okinawa' Category

Pictures from a short trip to Okinawa in January 2009, and to Ishigaki and Taketomi Islands in the Spring of 2009.

The Limestone Caves of Ishigaki Island

So in the post a week ago about our visit to the palm reserve on the last day of our short trip to the southern-Japan island of Ishigaki last May, I ended up with a photo of a small tree-climbing lizard.

Here's a slightly larger tree-climbing lizard...

Even stranger was the location, a long series of underground limestone caves whose only representation above ground was a set of covered stairs descending down from a small parking lot. (There's an entertainment complex some distance away where you buy tickets.)

The area you could walk ended under a gaping hole in the [...]


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A Visit to the Yaeyama Palm Reserve on Ishigaki Island

It's been a while since I posted anything from our trip last May to Ishigaki Island in the far south of Japan, the previous post on the subject having been"Anthony Gets Crabby", from toward the end of the trip's third day.

We started off Day 4, the last day of the trip, taking a drive up the center of the island to the fairly remote, complexly-named Yonehara Yaeyama-Palm Reserve (米原ヤエヤマヤシ群落). For us it consisted of a mildly jungle-like path where you can see some tall palm trees that are apparently found only in this part of the world.

Prior to [...]


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Breakfast in Okinawa

We're preparing for a short trip into snow country, packing warm coats and gloves and such for a few days of what will mostly be Anthony snow play. I'm quite looking forward to it, but am also reminded that our New Year's trip a year ago was to the warmer climate of the Okinawan mainland, staying at the Atta Terrace Hotel.

The trip was just two nights, yet among the half dozen posts I wrote soon after, I wasn't able to get around to posting anything from the third day, and barely touched on what we did the second. So [...]


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Anthony Gets Crabby at the Shore

At the end of my previous post, about Taketomi Island in the far south of Japan, we'd stopped at a cafe for cake and coffee.

I felt bad that we inadvertently chased him out of his home. When he returned to the beach, we put his shell back near him, and left him alone.


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Taketomi Island Roundup

So, picking up from yesterday where I recapped our spring trip to Ishigaki Island in the far south of Japan, and our side excursion to the culturally unique Taketomi Island....

Taketomi's tourist draw, besides the quaint little town, are tours through it in carts pulled by water buffalo. (Why water buffalo? No idea.) There were maybe a dozen water buffalo we could see, two or three in active service.

I don't have many pictures from our ride, but wish I did because our tour guide (and caretaker of our buffalo, whose name he told us but I've now forgotten) was [...]


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