Last spring we made a short trip to Ishigaki Island in the far south of Japan, just this side of Taiwan. I posted about the trip there and the amazing first sunset and first dinner, some zero light night photography. And more. And that was just from the first day of the trip.

The second day generated nine posts, including some beautiful vistas, a secluded beach, some dynamic weather at a lighthouse, a sunset dip in the pool, a lively "flame & rain" dinner, and a retrospective through Anthony's eyes.

I barely started posting about the third day, having only [...]

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In my previous post about our recent trip to Ishigaki Island in southern Japan, I mentioned that we'd taken a side trip to the small but nearby Taketomi Island. The trip involved a 15-minute ride in a boat similar to...

Anthony took the picture above likely due to the whale-themed boat in the center, but it turns out that we made an impromptu decision to see the coral in a glass-bottomed boat, so we ended up getting onto the boat shown at right, for a short trip out to some of the many coral beds....

All the color were muted [...]

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In my post the other day about flowers lining a lane on Taketomi Island (a tiny, culturally-unique island far south of Japan), I asked about the color of the flowers. No one got it right until I gave a hint, that being a botanist might help. Then a botanist got it right.

Here are some close-ups...

Hopefully, regex.info's resident botanist will offer some, er, color commentary on these little friends in the comment section of the post.

That's not the only botanical surprise we found in the coral walls. We often found plants growing from them, apparently like a weed, [...]

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I don't think I'll require nine separate posts to cover the third day of our recent trip to Japan's Ishigaki Island in the East China Sea, but we'll see.

I'll start out Day Three with a little quiz....

A few miles off the south-west coast of Ishigaki Island is the tiny Taketomi Island, known for its quaint culturally-unique village. Most lanes in the village are lined by three things: coral walls, pretty flowers, and ugly utility poles.

Construction is under way to bury all the wires and get rid of the poles, so I've taken the liberty of doing so [...]

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Our short trip to Ishigaki Island in the East China Sea last May was very photogenic. In covering the second day, I've posed no less than eight times (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8) and still didn't cover it all.

This time, I thought I'd post some of Anthony's shots from that day, from the cell phone he carries to school for emergencies, but is otherwise not allowed to touch except when we're out and about and allow him to use the built-in camera.

The day through the eyes of a six-year-old....

Hill and Finger Mid-Island Road [...]
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