to make the deal even sweeter, i just found out after booking the flights that the week lovro and i would visit okinawa is the height of the sakura season. how lucky are we?!
and if you've been reading this blog for a while now, you might have known that i have a vocation of trying to complete the travel bucket list of floris, and in one of the yaeyama islands in okinawa prefecture, he wanted to visit iriomote. iriomote is the largest of the yaeyama islands and is basically a big, dense jungle and the river system is lined up with mangrove forest. there are waterfalls and coral reef and is just a perfect destination for nature lovers. to get there, we had to fly from naha to ishigaki then take a ferry.
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| courtesy of wikipedia |
after a lot of planning, i decided that we would fly to ishigaki on the same day we arrive in okinawa (naha), and keep the afternoon open since the little one would be tired. it was a cheap flight, so the timing wasn't exactly the best. we flew out of singapore around 2am and reached naha at 8. another domestic flight and a bus to town later, we reached around 3pm. we were so hungry and had to eat first before going back to the guesthouse to rest.
i knew that if i didn't wake him up, he'd have a very long nap and not have a good overnight sleep, so i had to. he was so upset, i almost had to drag him outside and into the cab. i assured him though that he'd have fun at the playground, and when we got there, he was immediately convinced. we were lucky that the taxi driver had a mobile app with a voice translation from japanese to english, and we made a deal for him to come pick us back up at 6pm before it gets dark because he said there won't be any taxi passing by there.
we only got there at 5, so it meant only an hour of fun. it was very dark and gloomy, and pretty chill at 15 degrees, but lovro was undeterred. he was very happy!
the children's plaza is a large play area for kids in banna park, but the nature park itself is huge. if we had enough time in ishigaki, it would have been worth allotting half a day at least to explore the park itself. there are viewing platforms that offer an aerial view of ishigaki when you go up the mountains and there are lots of trees and flowers that make for a nice landscape for jogging or strolling.
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| children's plaza at Banna Park |
the uncle taxi driver arrived promptly at 6 and as we walked back towards the cab, i made a slight detour as i spotted a cherry blossom tree. our first sakura sighting!
i then asked him to take us to this restaurant in downtown where i made a reservation. ishigaki cattle maru is a yakiniku restaurant serving A4/A5 grade ishigaki beef and is quite a popular albeit pricey place to be. but since we're only in ishigaki for 2 nights, and the odds of me coming back there is not likely, i had to have this wagyu. it was so good! even lovro, who normally doesn't eat beef, enjoyed it.
we settled in early after a long day, as we had to wake up early for the day trip to iriomote. we got to the port ritoh terminal on time, waited a bit for someone who speaks english to attend to us, and got on the ferry that was to depart in 10 minutes. my little boy wanted to sit by himself like a big boy :(
when we reached we had to change into a smaller boat for the nakayama river cruise. initially i reached out to a trip planner who could arrange for a more immersed day trip or overnight trip in iriomote but it is a bit costly and i'm afraid lovro might not be up for it, especially after being quite tired the day prior. so we had to settle with just a river cruise. if i had to do it without him, i probably would have opted for a jungle trek or kayak to the waterfalls. in any case, i didn't regret bringing lovro with me though we didn't explore this island much.
after this cruise, we took a bus around mihara and got off an area where the water buffaloes await. yubu island is separated by shallow waters from main iriomote island so we had to ride in the cart as the water buffaloes pull it gently. for a more touristy touch, the drivers would take out their sanshin (okinawan musical instrument made of 3 strings) and serenade us tourists with folk music for a few minutes. it was pretty cheesy.
when we got to yubu island, we were supposed to spend 40 minutes around the botanical gardens. but it really wasn't 40 minutes, based on the call time, it was really just 20. after toilet break and a quick look around the store, there was barely any time left. we tried to go around the said garden but found nothing interesting. it's a shame this was added to the itinerary, it was really not special.
we took the ferry back and had lunch, then it was time for a quick nap again. i woke him up again so we can squeeze in one more activity before our flight out the next morning: a visit to yaima-mura, a replica of a typical yaeyama island village designed for visitors to have a taste of its culture. but there was only one thing here that i knew lovro would be interested to see: the squirrel monkeys. and i was right, he did not want to leave the monkeys. he kept saying they're soooo cute!
just before the park was about to close, the staff then served the squirrel monkeys their dinner: apples, oranges and bread. lovro had a ball watching them all huddled in their dinner tray.
same as the day prior, we had arranged for the cab driver who dropped us off to come and pick us back again. this time lovro wanted to take a nap while i walk around and push his stroller instead of coming back to the guesthouse. so i just went around looking at souvenir shops and picked up something to keep me company.
then lovro woke up in time for dinner. it was still happy hour and beer was only 100jpy per mug. i got two, and we had some meat on stick for dinner.
the next morning we made our way to the airport and had to say goodbye to our short but sweet stay in ishigaki. it would have been nice to stay longer, but sometimes you don't really need to be around too long to experience the heart of the island.
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