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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Our Private Island Getaway
( in our dreams )

We got back late this evening from a four-day trip to Ishigaki Island, in the far south of Japan (just 20 miles shy of Japan's southernmost latitude). We left on Thursday, and 1,200 images and 135,883 GPS trackpoints later, we're back, and tired because we're up way past our normal bedtime, which has shifted several hours earlier since Anthony started first grade.

The island in the photo above is not where we stayed. It's 250 miles from where we stayed; I snapped it just after takeoff from Naha, on the main island of Okinawa, on the way to Ishigaki.

From the air, it looks like an exclusive getaway in the middle of nowhere – it's not even shown on Google Maps – but it turns out to be an inhabited island that you can take a day tour to from the mainland for about $50. I figured out what the place was with MapFan.com, a Japan-only mapping service that long predates Google Maps. The island is Nagannu, less than a mile long and a 20-minute boat-ride from the Okinawan mainland.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 29 mm — ¹/4000 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos

The sliver of an island in the background is Kuefu Island, which doesn't look to be more than a spot of sand.

Our trip's itinerary was much less exclusive, but very enjoyable nevertheless.

I'm very tried, so more to come after a long sleep. I've not yet even looked at the 534 email messages waiting for me, nor the 26 pending blog comments. First, some sleep...

Continued here...