Friday morning on Iriomote: the breakfast room was swarmed by Japanese high school girls - my hotel was having a discount week for visiting schoolchildren - but of course they paid me about as much attention as the rest of the furniture. :) Having said that I must complement them on being so quiet and calm. As I had seen little real nature the previous day - only a single cat - I decided to do the standard river cruise and then a really nice walk to two waterfalls through pretty much unspoiled nature. I saw a lot of butterflies and lizards (no pictures that came out well though) and the landscape itself was pretty awesome. Afterwards I wanted to take a leisurely boat trip from the most western harbor on the island, but apparently I would have had to book a trip from there from my hotel. Somewhat dissatisfied and feeling I had not seen enough real nature I decided to stop the car at a point where there should be tracks according to me, but not according to the map I had. Once again my stay at the Yaeyama islands was saved by someone local helping me by pointing out the start of the jungle trail and telling me there was a nice waterfall at the end. In contrast to the previous waterfall hike this was a challenging trail where I had to use both legs and arms at certain points to follow it. The trail was almost impossible to follow until I noticed that the purple bands hanging from trees where not waste left by previous people but actually trail-markers. Following them I reached the waterfall. By the time I was back at my car I was out of food and drinks, exhausted and extremely satisfied. Then I discovered that I had very little time left to make it to the last ferry from the island. Hurrying along I made it with only two minutes to spare. The boat had left the island before I could sit down. Iriomote is great but the ferry leaves a bit early. Saturday (yesterday) I visited the local Ishigaki museum first and then took the plane to Naha on Okinawa Honto. The fact that this flight takes little over an hour tells you the distance between Okinawa and the Yaeyama Islands. At Naha thanks to a free room upgrade I have a grand view of the city. After checking the view I took the monorail to Shuri castle where I could visit part of the grounds before closing time. Today is Sunday and so a day for reflection. I visited the Himeyuri Peace Museum, the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum and the Navy Underground Headquarters. The Himeyuri museum made an especially deep impression on me as it is about Okinawan highschool children who were pressed into service as nurses and support staff during the 1945 battle for Okinawa. It illustrates the madness, waste and senselessness of war like no other museum I ever visited. This afternoon I happened to spent watching Sumo and got so fascinated that I watched it until the end. Well that is it for now, pictures I will do later. :) I must say that the Japanese people are getting ever better at acting like they understand my Japanese mumblings. They still fail most of the time though. ;)
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 10:47:58 +0000
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