Ishigaki 12th April

 

By the time we woke this morning we’d docked in Ishigaki, the southern most town in Japan. It seems to be a tropical holiday destination; the main attractions are resorts and beaches for snorkelling and diving. The souvenir shops sell beer t-shirts, coral jewellery and Hawaiian shirts.

It was warm and humid until some showers in the mid-afternoon. We (Lynn) took the opportunity to do a load of washing – there are three small washing machines on each floor and we had to check three decks before we found one free. After breakfast we dried things, went through an unnecessarily elaborate immigration procedure and then at 11am took a shuttle into the town centre.

It's generally flat, with palm trees and a coral reef. Ferries constantly visiting the next island. There wasn’t much to see, so we wandered around the streets and looked in a number of souvenir shops without buying anything significant. We were back at the boat in time for lunch and then mooched about and read in the afternoon.

Our plan was to sit on a deck chair on one of the upper decks as we sailed out of Ishigaki and up the island’s west coast… but it started raining soon after we sat down. Fortunately our balcony was more sheltered and we sat and read, though we could only see where we’d been.



Location: Ishigaki, Okinawa, Japan

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