Almost 11 months after our wedding, we headed south to a little island in Okinawa called Iriomote! The location was rather randomly selected based on the nice hotel, the potential activities and the remoteness. Remoteness indeed... took two planes (4hrs flight time from Tokyo) and a 45min boat ride to reach the island.
The island has a population of ~2,200, its circumference is 130km and it's home to the Iriomote wild cat, an endangered species.
Our hotel, Nirakanai Sanctuary Resort was a bit like Cable Beach Club Resort - about 160 rooms but it was only 25% full in early November. It was around 29 degrees each day and 90% humidity - peak season must be HOT!
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| Nirakanai Sanctuary Resort |
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| Tuduman Beach |
DAY 2:
Our first run of the buffet breakfast was rather successful - it's a marathon, not a sprint... there is only so much room on the plate and limited stomach space, so a strategy is required. Again, potato gems were a distraction.
Our guide picked us and a few others up and took us to a big boat on the river. We had a 30min boat ride down the Urauchi River and were dropped off to do a walking trek for 2 hrs. We saw three waterfalls - Maryudu, Kampire and Mayagusuku Falls - the path was muddy, humid but fortunately undercover from the sun. We were glad to be in our hiking boots - we saw one guy wearing a suit... amateur! Our guide came back and met us for lunch on the side of the river. We were relieved and surprised that the lunchbox wasn't all seafood (Kept Ninja's not a fan... which can be troublesome in Japan!) We now love Onigiri - which are rice triangles with a surprise in the middle.
We then hopping in a twin canoe and paddled 8km back down the Urauchi River. We stopped at various locations for a break and to be educated (via a laminated info sheet... English was scarce). First stop was a waterfall for cool dip, then we saw some Looking Glass Trees which were hundreds of years old. We learnt that mangroves process salt and excrete it through their yellow leaves, and my favourite stop was when we canoed into the mangrove area - it felt like that scene from The Notebook - truly beautiful... plus I had my version of Ryan Gosling in the canoe with me :)
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| Looking Glass Tree |
Our hotel was a few km from various restaurants so about 10 of the restaurant have a free car service to and from the restaurant which was really convenient! Our first random pick was "Painkan no Tonari" which was pretty good - very casual, the seaweed tempura was awesome (Dish of Day 2)! The Okinawa beef was a bit grisly. Most dinners were ~$50 total for 4 drinks and 4-5 dishes!
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| Seaweed Tempura |
Our guide for the day was Tatsu-san - he was middle aged, massively tanned and spoke bits and piece of English. It was just the three of us for the day of snorkelling - 6hr personal island tour, lunch included for ~$100 each - bargain!
First he took us to Barros Island, which is only 20m x 4m - purely made of coral pieces. We anchored and had 40mins to frollick on the nearby reef - I was glad we had wetsuits on but we really didn't need them - the sun was a greater threat than the temperature of the water. We saw some amazing fish and coral - all very similar to Coral Bay - probably more plentiful and coral looked more lively and of greater variety.
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| Barros Island |
I got "Fish Bombed"
Can you see baby Nemo?
We then moved to Hatoma Island to a different reef - also beautiful - we stopped on the island and had some "oyshi" onigiri and wandered around for a while. We then headed to a reef near Sumiyoshi beach (Iriomote) for our last dive spot. I was dubious - the tide had picked up and I couldn't see the reef - just the deep blue. Shame on me for doubting Tatsu-san - he plonked us right on the reef (without a GPS) and it was spectacular - we could see up to 30m down - truly magical. After 90mins of paddling into the current, I was kaput and we headed back to Uehara Port.
The drop-off
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| Restaurant #13 |
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| Cheese Spring rolls, and squid |
DAY 4:
Suichi-san, our guide for Day 4, took us canoeing down a little stream - it was much more relaxed than Day 2's canoe. Kept Ninja and I opted for a canoe each... as I had trouble leaving the steering to the back of the caboose! We had one other person touring with us and her English was better than our guide's, so she assisted in translation. We saw some poisonous snakes whilst canoeing... so you had to watch what your oar picked up! We parked our canoe's near a looking glass tree and started our ascent up the jungle. Luckily, we were given booties with carpet soles to wear - they gripped well on rocks, tree trunks and in the mud. We saw a few jungle flowers which were in Avatar - so pretty! After 20mins we reached the base of the Pinaisara Falls and jumped in fully clothed - so refreshing! I checked with Suichi-san first and there were no snakes in the bottom of the falls... he waited til after we got out to tell me that there were eels in there... nice!
Pinaisara Falls
The canoe duck
We had some onigiri and mochi (Japanese dessert balls) for lunch and started the less inviting trek back down and canoe back to the car. We had a quick clothing change and headed around the island to Yubu Island. It was 27km and Suichi-san delighted in telling us that there were no police on the island... seatbelts are also not prevalent...*alarm bells*.
Serenade on a buffalo taxi
We also saw chickens, goats, horses and "wild" boars. The island has a boar hunting season - unfortunately for Kept Ninja, it starts mid November. The drive back gave us a good overview of the island - hilly rainforest in the middle, with one main road on the outside near the crystal, blue water.
Pumba
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| Oops too slow - the yakitori is gone |
Return boat trip was a scene from "The Perfect Storm" - I was grateful to make it out with breakfast still in my tummy!
xoxo
Karate Kate
