I have actually no itinerary plans when I arrived in Okinawa. All I knew then is that I want to visit the other islands, but I still don’t know how. So I searched which island is better for me to go. And I found the Ishigaki Island. Ishigaki Island is one of the Yaeyama islands about 400 km from Okinawa. This makes it nearer to the Republic of China with about 300 km from the northeastern coast of Taiwan. So I decided to stay there for 3 days.

I flew with the Japan Transoceanic Air on the early morning of December 28th. The flight from Naha to Ishigaki took about 45 minutes. When I arrived at the Ishigaki airport, I took the bus and went to the city center. It is more advisable to buy the 5-day pass for the bus (even though I just stayed there for 3 days). This will be cheaper if you are planning to go around the island using the bus. I went to Kabira Bay on my first day, did island hopping on my second day and roamed around Ishigaki on my last day.

On my last day on the island, after I tried to go to the Yonehara Camp and ate my lunch at the unique Euglena restaurant, I just spent the little time left before my flight just around the city center. I tried to go to the museum but it was closed on that day. I just walked towards the port and I saw a monument with the number 730 on it.

730 Monument

Okinawa was occupied by the Americans after the World War II. Traffic rules followed the American way with driving on the right-hand side of the road. The Americans returned the prefecture to Japan and thus, all the rules must be reverted back following the Japanese way. The Kudaka Scheme was formulated by the Okinawa Prefectural police officer Hiroshi Kudaka to change the driving into the left-hand side. This was done for 8 hours from 22:00 of July 29, 1978 to 6:00 of the next day, July 30th. All the signs and signals were changed, bus stops were relocated and buses and taxis were replaced. The Japanese government were thought to have spent 150 million USD while the United States military spent nearly half million USD for this change. To commemorate this event, the 730 monument was built at the 730 crossing.

Tourinji Temple and the Gongendo Shrine

After browsing the internet to know where else can I go, I decided to go to the Tourinji Temple and the Gongendo Shrine which are several blocks away from the port.

Built in 1614, Tourinji Temple was the first buddhist temple in the Yaeyamas. This temple belongs to the Myoshinji sect of Rinzaishu.

Just beside the Tourinji Temple is the Gongendo Shrine. It was also built in 1614, however was destroyed with a tsunami in 1771 and rebuilt in 1786. What’s odd about this temple is the elephant figure on each side pole.

Miyara Dunchi

Unfortunately, my last stop was closed. It is an old style Ryukyuan samurai residence called Miyara Dunchi. It was built in 1819 as a residence of a Ryukyu noble and is designated as a cultural treasure.

Finally, I took the bus to the airport. It’s good that I have decided to have a trip in Ishigaki from the main Okinawa island. I took the Ryukyu Air Commuter plane back to Okinawa. It was a small Bombardier Dash 8 Q300 aircraft that can carry a maximum of 39 passengers. Surprisingly, there were only 2 passengers including me on this short flight. It was my first time to have such flight experience which seems like a ride in a private jet.