Yaeyama/Okinawa/Iriomote Quesitons

Have a good trip

KLB,
Thanks so much again, you're a wealth of information!
If I have any more questions before I go (August), I'll post them here, but just wanted to say thanks so much again!

Hi there!

Greetings from Kyoto! I just got into Kyoto after spending 5 days in Okinawa. I don:t have much time here so I won:t go into depth now, but I just wanted to say hello and acknowledge that I:ll post about my trip once I get back. You have a lot to look forward to, mrlar. And don:t worry too much, you still have lots of time planning wise.

-brian

RX7car,
Glad to hear from you ... yes, please do post when you get back. I'd love to hear your impressions and thoughts, and how it was!
mrlar

OK the following is my OKINAWA recap:

Day 1:
Arrived at Ishigaki in the late evening, stayed at HYPER HOTEL (all four nights) - good value, easy access to the ferry, and not too far a walk for the bus station. Pretty much in town too, so convenient.

Day 2:
Went to TAKETOMI for a day trip. Highly recommended, and very easy to do as a day trip from Ishigaki.
Ferries run very very frequently, and each of the 2 companies are the same (same prices, typically the same schedule too). On Taketomi, rent a bicycle from the main bicycle rental shop (there's a free shuttle that takes you there from the ferry dock, but you can walk it if you want and stop off at the little visitor center right near the ferry terminal - it's about a 15min walk, along 1 road that bisects the main town slightly inland). Taketomi has a couple interesting beaches, including one that's got really clear and calm and shallow water with nice expanses of sand, you can bring beach gear and get in some good beach time here too. The town itself is really quite unique. There's a great place to stop for lunch (if you like soba noodles) and good icey dessert things (called Painu-jima - it's got an outdoor eating area, that's sorta out back, that's covered and they have fans blowing outside. It's off the main street a little bit.

Late afternoon/evening: explored Ishigaki island. Got around by taking buses. Wish we could've rented a scooter or a car, but you need an international driver's license in addition to your original. Without it, nobody will let you rent a vehicle. The buses were fine, and you can figure the system out once you get to the bus station. But they're not that frequent, although they are relatively inexpensive. Made our way to KABIRA BAY, it's nice and interesting, though not a whole lot to do there. We spent about 45min to an hour here and then got bored, and took a taxi to SUKIJI BEACH (it's like a 5min ride, and like maybe 800 yen by cab). This is a nice beach, but if you're here at low tide it is less aesthetically pleasing. Not much infrastructure here, just a nice place to walk around and hang out. We were here another 30-45min, then walked back to KABIRA BAY to hop back on the bus. Spent the rest of the day exploring Ishigaki itself, though there's not that much to the town really... I can't remember what the rest of the day was spent doing.

Day 3:
Hopped on the bus from Ishigaki to YONEHARA BEACH for some truly superb snorkeling. This was the most rewarding beach experience I'd say. I'm an avid diver and as a general rule think snorkeling is like a lesser form of diving, so i think that's saying something. Really enjoyed it. There's a couple neat shops near the beach too where they make and sell a lot of local pottery. Can't remember what we did in the latter afternoon.

Day 4:
Took a day trip to IRIOMOTE. Take an EARLY ferry from Ishigaki to Uehara. For the waterfall, we did the usual, which is a boat ride from the river trip departure point to the fall. Then the boat drops you off, and you hike about 30min through the jungle along a trail (there are like grannies who do this, and it's not that strenuous - though MY grandma couldn't do it for sure...) and that takes you to the mariudo and kanpire falls. You can hang out on the falls, walk out along them, it's nice. We then hiked back to the boat pickup point and got boated back to the original pickup point. If you want a kayak trip, you have to reserve it at least 24hrs in advance - we didn't know that or we would've. It's a nice river, but maybe i'm spoiled cuz i just came back from Costa Rica. We then hopped on a local bus to HOSHIZUNA BEACH. This is THE spot for snorkeling - we didn't really bring beach gear, but we should've. There's also a decent restaurant up at the top of the beach here. This is one of the nicest spots on the island IMO. Iriomote island is probably very doable for just a day trip, like we did it, though staying here a night wouldn't be a bad idea either. If you do have lots of time, try to book a trip to the big falls, i think it's called Pinaisara-no-taki. I also here the trip across to Funauki on the other side of the island is nice too.

Day 5:
left in the AM for the Kansai region.

I gotta run now, but will be back to post some more detailed restaurant experiences, and the rest of our Japan trip if you're interested. Lemme know if you have any questions too (am too lazy right now to read all the above posts in the thread, but i will later).

Hi RX7Car, great to hear from you, and thanks for the recap on the Okinawa trip!
I'm pretty tired now (there may be more questions later) but for now, just a couple off the top of my head:

For that Urauchigawa trip, who did you use? The "urauchigawa.com" company? Is there just the one company, or are they all pretty much the same? Did you arrange it beforehand or just show up? And importantly, did you have to tell them what time you'd take the boat back (ie, "I'll come back on the 2pm boat") or did you just hike after being left off, and wait for the next returning boat to show up? How long of a wait for a returning boat? Was it still Y1,500 for just the boat trip?

Anything you can recommend on Ishigaki? (exploring wise). I hadn't planned to spend much time on Ishigaki itself, but after reading your post about Yonehara, might spend some time there. Oh, and how long of a bus trip is Yonehara from say the Hyper Hotel?

How was the weather? Hot and humid I take it? No problem with typhoons?

Iriomote: I plan to spend the night on Iri. The one ferry a day from Hatoma arrives at Iri a little before noon, so that's too late in the day to want to do the urauchigawa thing, so I figure I'll rent a scooter or check the island out or do something else that first afternoon, then the next morning do the hike, then return to Ishigaki (I have an int'l drivers license).

Couple of general questions:
How "on time" was your flight into Ishigaki? (if you flew)
Did the post offices in Okinawa have Int'l ATMs or were you able to stock up on money down there?
And in general (not just Okinawa) have payphones disappeared in Japan because of cel phones, or are there still payphones everywhere?
I don't want to rent a cel phone, and just hope there are still card phones around and phonecards being sold...

Oh, this is probably obvious, but just curious: are the ferry companies ticket windows (where you buy the tickets) right at the port? How does that work? Do you just get on the ferry and pay onboard, or you first go to a ticket window to get the tickets?

for the Urauchigawa trip, there's really only one company as far as I know. We just showed up - if you do this, you will most likely be restricted to just the boat trip to the falls, and a boat trip back to the pickup point. We asked them what time the boat goes back, and we made it back to the spot by that time. Figure out from them what times the boats will be coming back and you should be fine. To be honest I can't remember the price now... Given that you have a fair bit of time on Iriomote, however, I think hiring a private guide to take you to the other waterfall via kayak is probably a great idea. Look into that.

On Ishigaki, we didn't explore the entire island, but I think if you are ok with getting a scooter or car for an entire day, it'd probably be a great idea. But definitely, one way or another, make your way to Yonehara Beach for really great snorkeling. Kabira Bay was nice too, but IMO nothing that is a real must-see. Both Yonehara and Kabira Bay are a bit far from Ishigaki-proper... almost an hour.

Weather was most definitely hot and humid. I don't remember exactly when the rainy season hits, but yea it's not until a bit later in the year (i think).

My flight was on-time. In fact that's one very very nice thing about Japan - things there are always on time. The buses especially - in fact the driver apologized for being 1 minute late! But of course, air travel is air travel, so i guess you never know with flights.

I got most of my hard currency at the airport's ATM. I'd suggest you get some cash before you arrive in Ishigaki... don't remember seeing many ATMs at all there. Narita or Haneda has them, and Naha probably does too. There are pay phones if you need to make calls. They work on a calling card system, so you go buy a prepaid card from convenience stores. International phones are different than local phones, however, and they are not one and the same.

I highly suggest you check out the Rough Guide - Japan. The background information in that book is great, as is the language section in the back. And their recommendations seemed pretty right on in my experience. Lonely Planet is a bit more thorough on food/hotel recommendations, but i think the Rough Guide was much better for everything else. Both books have fairly limited coverage of the Yaeyama Islands, but like I said the other general information especially in Rough Guide was really good.

Oh and the ferry ticket windows are very obvious once you go inside the ferry terminal. Both companies are identically priced. You go to the ticket window in the terminal and buy your ticket, then you go and board the ferry. There's a big board telling you which dock the appropriate ferry is on. Just show up to the terminal about 15min before your ferry departs, and board your ferry 5min before it departs.

Rainy season is over in Okinawa but typoon season is starting. Theres one heading that way now!!

KLB: Yes, I heard from someone who lives in Kyushu that a typhoon was heading to Okinawa. Is there a website that one can check for typhoon forecasts? It'd just be nice to be able to check a day or two beforehand while in Tokyo, to see if there will be a typhoon waiting for me or not! I know you can't prevent them, just wondering if (even in Japanese) there's such a website or way to check the immediate forecast in the area...

rx7car: thanks so much for your posts and information! Both of you (rx7car and KLB) have been so kind and full of information, thank you! I think anyone doing a search later on planning to go here will also find all this information useful.. and when I get back the very end of Aug (probably early Sept) I'll come back and post my thoughts here as well. I'm really looking forward to going down there... just hope a typhoon doesn't spoil the plans.

Is the Urauchigawa departure point in or near Uehara? (I thought I remember reading somewhere it was closeby). I'll be staying in Uehara one night and wanted to try to make one of the earlier boats.

And did either of you go to Funauki? It sounds interesting in how it's "isolated" with there being no way to get there via a road (just by boat).