Ishigaki Island, Taketomi Island, Hateruma Island, Yonaguni Island Trip (2023/08/12~2023/08/19)Day 3
Hello! This time I will write about my trip to Okinawa. I went to Ishigaki Island, Taketomi Island, Hateruma Island, and Yonaguni Island.
I'm not goot at English. So, some sentences may be difficult to understand. If you have any questions, plz coment here or write Inquiry Form. I'll reply it.
- Schedule
- breakfast
- Awami liquor store
- Hateruma Post Office
- Soba Cafe Atofu Soko
- snorkeling
- Nishi beach
- About Astronomical Observation Points
Schedule
7:00 a.m. Getting up
8:30 a.m. breakfast
9:00 a.m. Awami liquor store
10:00 a.m. Hateruma Post Office
10:30 a.m. Rental Marine Goods
11:30 a.m. Soba Cafe Atofu Soko
12:00 a.m. snorkeling
3:30 p.m. coast
6:00 p.m. dinner
7:00 p.m. Nishi beach
9:00 p.m. arrival at an inn
11:00 p.m. Going to bed
breakfast
Scallop rice balls sold at the kiosk. It contains two scallops.
Awami liquor store
There is a type of Awamori called Awami that is only made on this island. Outside of this island, it costs several times the regular price. (In case you are wondering, there is one on Ishigaki Island, but it is almost three times the regular price.) Awamori is sold here. On weekdays, it is open from 9:00 am until the afternoon with a lunch break in between. However, there are a good number of people who come to the island in search of awamori, so it is better to go first thing in the morning. I went there at 9:00 a.m., and there were already about five people in line. They were selling not only Awamami but also T-shirts, glasses, etc. When I went, they only had the smallest mini bottles and one bottle size.
If you could not buy one at the liquor store, you could try the Hateruma Terminal kiosk at the port. There were some bottles sold at the kiosk. (They were 10~20 yen more expensive than at the liquor store.)
The taste is a little difficult to drink because of the high alcohol content, but it has a sweet aroma and was delicious served over vanilla ice cream. I heard that Awamori ages well in the bottle, so I will let some of it sit for about 3 years.
Hateruma Post Office
The only post office on the island. You can only withdraw money here. I got a landscape stamp and made a travel savings account here.
What is Travel Savings?
When you make a deposit or withdrawal with your passbook at the post office counter, you will receive a stamp in your passbook. Some of those stamps have designs related to the area. The idea is to collect such stamps.
There are two types of stamps for Hateruma Post Office this time, the one with the Southern Cross in this picture and the one with the words "Japan's southernmost post office" on it.
Soba Cafe Atofu Soko
Recommended by the manager of the inn. The Yaeyama soba meat is especially delicious. You can choose to sit either on the terrace or inside the restaurant. As it seems to be a popular restaurant, it was full soon after opening and there were people waiting. (It is recommended to aim for the opening time).
This time I had Yaeyama soba and brown sugar cheesecake.
As I had heard, the meat was tender and tasty. The soup was also tasty and robust.
The cheesecake with brown sugar sauce was very good. I wanted to try a variety of other desserts.
snorkeling
There was a contact number for marine rentals at the inn. I was able to rent it even though it was a same-day reservation. It costs 1,000 yen for one day rental. You can return the boat in the basket in front of the inn by 20:00.
There were many different kinds of fish in the sea. There were small fish like whitebait, colorful fish like guppies, and fish as big as 1 meter. It was like swimming in an aquarium tank. In addition, a sea turtle was eating seaweed about 30 cm in front of us. It hardly moved, so we were able to observe it closely.
※The bottom of the sea was very rugged with rocks, so marine shoes are a must.
Nishi beach
I saw the sunset. It was very beautiful. There were quite a few people gathered to watch the sunset. Even at this time of the day, there were still about 5 kids of elementary school age swimming. (Aren't they cold?).
About Astronomical Observation Points
We did astronomical observations at three different points over two days. I will write about each point.
The southernmost monument
There is not a single building in this area, so there are no lights and the stars can be seen clearly.
However, since many people on stargazing tours come here, it may be difficult to photograph the starry sky due to the large number of people at certain times of the day.
Hateruma Starry Sky Observation Tower
Here, too, there are few lights and the stars are easy to see. Also, there were people doing stargazing tours, but only about 5 people. However, the road is close by and cars sometimes pass by.
Nishi beach
Other people do not come at all, so you can take pictures freely. However, there are buildings nearby, so the light can be a bit distracting.
