#ishigakiisland Archives • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

September 10, 2025September 10, 2025

Drifting around Ishigaki island

Ishigaki island is much closer to Taiwan than Okinawa and a much smaller island. However as you are drifting around Ishigaki Island you will find a wonderful ocean, interesting plants and animals and really friendly people wanting to talk to you over a drink. An island close by is Taketomi. When I was there in April/May I got the feeling it wasn’t the tourist season since most everything was closed. It is worth a day trip from Ishigaki and I recommend just walking around since it is such a small island.

entrance sign — The entrance sign

typical local food — Typical local foods, the noodles and way of cooking pork is special to these islands

flower — Beautiful flowers all ove

fish restaurant — Fish is the very delicious here

my hotel — My hotel which was not so cheap and a pretty old and not well maintained building. Hotels here are fairly expensive except that most seem to have rooms for 3 or more people, groups and families

hot sand — Along with Avocado toast you can have “hot sand”,not so crunchy or gritty since “sand” is Japanese for “sandwich”.

Gas pump — Nice to see an old gas pump probably left from the US post war occupation

on guard — Watching out for all sorts of criminals especially illegal China fishing boats

beautiful ocean — Beautiful water. I wanted to try snorkeling but the shop said I was too old to go on a boat

traditional drawing — Okinawa tradition in a drawing.

island from above — Taketomi is the second from the right

While the Ryukyu islands were a kingdom each island had a different language. Locals today say they can’t understand what people on their neighboring island are saying.

rules — Keeping the island in order

growth monitors — Many trees are being monitored for growth

Two Korean tourists on the left (spoke very good Japanese), the bar owner in the back (bar seats 6 people), and two local residents to the right. It was a fun nght.

bar entrance — The vending machine on the left can be pulled out on a hinge and that is the bar’s entrance. Unique!

A typical shrine

Highball — So “highball” is now a verb. This 1950’s term is still used in Japan and refers to whiskey and water.

moon — Almost full moon.

beef is popular — If you “lanch” here you will have had a good lunch. Beef is a big thing in these islands and they raise cows on most of the large islands in a careful manner like in Kobe or Matsuzaka. But it is expensive.

walking — Easy walking around

roof tiles — Roof tiles stacked behind a coral wall

typical house — A typical house

fixing the roof — Fixing the roof

Coral wall plants — Plants growing out of the coral wall

Traditional clothing — Traditional costumes

red blossoming trees — Beautiful trees

red blossoms — The blossoms

cows — Raising cows

graveyard — A graveyard

interesting bug — Interesting bug

nice trees — Reminds me of the Bhodi trees

chinese influenced temple — A temple with some chinese influences

new temple — Making a new temple

fellow tourist — I took a bus tour around the island. These are my fellow tourists.

on boat — On the glass bottom boat

clams — Lots of clams

turtle — The turtle was the highlight

ishigaki opposite side — The opposite side of Ishigaki

K car — Most cars in Japan now are “K” cars with 650 cc engines

flavored ice — Ice flavored with not much cream