Travel & Leisure South East Asia, Yaeyama
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Green Lands SUBTROPICAL O CLIMES... T O IM SUBLIME SURF... K A A TRADitiONAL oy A N MATRIARChy? SITE: SITE: IT MIGht NOT SOUND O PP O LIKE JAPAN, BUT thE CORAL- AND RBIS. RBIS. O CULTURE-RICH YAEYAMA ISLANDS ARE THE COUNTRY’S TERRA INCOGNitA. ADAM H. GRAHAM The Yaeyamas’ surprisingly sweet surf. HEADS SOUTH TO OPPOSITE: Hibiscus in GORGE ON TACO RICE bloom on Ishigaki island. OKADA/AMANAIMAGES/C YUSUKE AND SWIM IN A SEA OF stARS. 78 APRIL 2016 / TRAVELANDLEisUREAsiA.COM Taketomi is one of the was the archeological Yaeyama Islands, the wonder of Shiraho southernmost chain of the Saonetabaru Cave, site of Ryukyu Archipelago in 24,000-year-old human Okinawa Prefecture. bones, four millenia older These off-the-radar than remains previously subtropical islands are thought to be Japan’s considered Japan’s most oldest. There was even a remote, though they’re a small city for rainy days. mere 100 kilometers east When we told our friends of Taipei. A nature lover’s back home in Switzerland paradise, they’ve we were Yaeyama-bound increasingly become a they shrugged; they’d second home to Japan’s never heard of it. But when urban dropouts who seek a we told our Japanese greener and slower friends, smiles and looks lifestyle. But they’re also of envy washed across Japan’s oldest occupied their faces, so we knew we islands with a human were onto something. history dating back to the Getting to the islands is Paleolithic era. Eleven of easy. A three-hour flight the 32 islands are from Osaka brought us inhabited, and one— directly to Ishigaki, the Sotobanari—is home only main island and airport. to a naked 80-year-old Glass-bottomed From the plane, I felt the boats in Kabira I’m in a deep, leaf-shaped Japanese hermit. This is Bay. FROM TOP sun getting stronger as we pool under a black sky Japan’s Hawaii and it’s a LEFT: An Ishigaki neared the equator. We twinkling with an infinity stark contrast to the rest local; a shisa spent the first two nights of stars. A young Japanese of the country. guards against unwinding on tiny, flat evil on a kawara- woman is whirling me I’d already been in tiled roof on Taketomi, reached by a around the water on foam Japan for my husband Taketomi Island. 10-minute ferry from pool noodles while I fix my Ralph’s sabbatical and Ishigaki’s port. gaze to the sky. The after two months of heavy The five-square- adults-only treatment is kilometer island is home called the Tinnu Floating drinking, eating and to 323 residents who’ve Experience and it’s shopping in Tokyo, we made it a model of cultural supposed to relax me and needed a sunny break. So sustainability by adhering connect me with the we booked a budget flight to ancient traditions and constellation. It’s late. I to the Yaeyamas for a strict development rules. already ate dinner and tranquil two-week stay One example is the threw back a few glasses and planned on doing Hoshinoya Okinawa of awamori, a potent absolutely nothing. But we resort, where we planned Okinawan shochu made were surprised at just how to pamper ourselves for with long-grain rice. As I much there was to do two nights before heading spin in the warm water, when we started reading to neighboring Ishigaki. my sense of depth ; about it. We found blog Hoshinoya’s 48 guest becomes distorted and S posts about surfing, pavilions huddle around a suddenly it feels like I’ve MAGE hiking, birding and 6.5-hectare lot meant to ttyi been catapulted into space. is snorkeling. There were replicate an ancient There are no recognizable ORB secret beaches, sacred Okinawan village. The M/GE C E E terrestrial sights in my .I./ promontories, coral villas are surrounded by P Ey periphery and each star .S. reefs—of which some gukkus, pockmarked coral B ; ; DEN/ S seems graspable. A were double-barrier and walls enclosing a private This lack of grounding eight were newly garden, while on the MAGE ERRE is a bit ironic considering Pi discovered in 2014 on the red-tiled rooftops perch : : ttyi I’m actually in an earthly T deep-ocean floor off Okinawan deities called O/GE T shisa, said to ward off evil. paradise, one of the LEF OP Nagura Bay, leading the O T Ph lushest places in Japan. islands to apply for After settling in, I shuffled B JT The breezy island of FROM unesco inscription. There across the room’s soft TRAVELANDLEisUREAsiA.COM / APRIL 2016 81 Taketomi is the birthplace coast accessed by going of Okinawa, and these on through the Omotodake (or utaki in the regional Tunnel that cuts through a parlance), sacred forest lush swath of jungle and temples marked with torii marked with a roaring gates, are where shisa deity and, in our onarigami gods are eyes, a threshold to a worshipped. Tourists are rarefied world. explicitly forbidden from The pink four-room entering them, but even if hotel had a view of both IMAGES; we were local, we’d be the ocean and the lumpy Y barred for being men. green Mount Nosoko. It’s Onarigami is Japan’s only connected to the beach— matriarchal culture and which we could see, hear it’s still respected and and smell from our YAMASHITA/GETT O adhered to today by the deck—by a two-minute IMAGES Y island’s residents. foot path, where we often SUNE T ; walked early mornings O T UP/GETT O he next day we and evenings. The young O IM R K G took the ferry Tokyo-transplant owners, A oy back to Ishigaki Nobu and Naoko Amano, A N MAGES I Port, which is were laid-back but everything attentive and kind. When M LEFT: O Taketomi isn’t—busy, it rained one afternoon, NIVERSAL T FR U populated, overdeveloped they moved our hang- tatami mat floors to slide coral lanes past a gukku and in some parts drying clothes inside. For open the front and back overflowing with purple downright dodgy. an extra ¥500, they bought windows and let the warm bouganvillea and hibiscus. Fortunately the rest of us a pre-lit charcoal grill breeze blow through. “You On Kaiji Beach, we Ishigaki—35 kilometers to cook on. Best of all, they don’t get this in Tokyo,” I discovered hoshizuna, long and 18 kilometers had a pet goat. said to Ralph above the star-shaped grains of sand wide—is gloriously empty The next 10 blissful buzzy hum of cicadas. The said to be the exoskeleton and the emerald, days were filled with immediate serenity that remains of marine mountainous island easy-going excursions Taketomi brought was protozoa—though ancient sprawls northward, around the island. At almost unnerving. folklore says they’re the offering endless terrain to Ibaruma Sabichi, we Hoshinoya’s activities children of stars eaten by lose yourself in including trudged through emphasize local culture sea serpents. At Yarabo, a weathered beachheads, beachfront caves dripping and include live music in wooden shack nestled swaths of jungle, and with salty stalactites and the Yuntaku Lounge, under the shade of kyangi clustered groves of encountered Buddhist grass-toy making, deep and screw-pine trees, we Yaeyama palms, a shell shrines watched over breathing full moon slurped the famed fern-like endemic palm by ruddy kingfishers, exercises, and a spa using Yaeyama soki soba, wheat tree creeping up the bright crimson birds indigenous ingredients noodles topped with pork sides of Ishigaki’s perched on Sakishima- like mozuku seaweed and ribs stewed in awamori lush mountains. suou trees. In Banna Park getto, an Okinawan and local brown sugar. Most tourists stay in at the island’s center, we healing herb. For dinner, And we visited Yugafu- the city, which—though it spotted more birds like the we feasted on clam flan kan, an informative does boast some upscale endemic Ryukyu minivet and Japanese beef tartare cultural museum of shopping boutiques like and flycatcher. at the restaurant’s outdoor Ryukyu history filled with Sandy villages Mahina Mele—is a shame Extraordinarily colored patio then listened to the handwoven relics and with coral walls since Ishigaki’s best parts flowers and butterflies epitomize plucky sanshin music giant clamshells are on the outer fringes. with long polka-dotted Taketomi. TOP, being played against the resembling local FROM LEFT: Line Getting a rental car is a tails, cobweb-like wings, island’s wind. I could feel sfogliatella pastry. ’em up to surf must. We picked one up at and candy-red dragonflies myself decompressing and “Taketomi may not ’em down; in Paradise Rent-A-Car and with bulging red eyes slipping into island time. have convenience stores, awe of the clear headed to Beach Village reminded us we were in waters and We used the hotel’s but we have Muyama, the sunny skies. Nosoko to settle in and another world. We complimentary bikes to six important on,” the exhale. It’s 30 minutes snorkeled the reef just tour the island, rolling museum’s director said. away on the island’s offshore at Yonehara down bumpy crushed- Locals believe that remote northwestern Beach, which teemed with 82 APRIL 2016 / TRAVELANDLEisUREAsiA.COM marine life. We discovered shigaki grows coffee good and topped with peppercorn, and secret beaches, roadside beans, soy, sugarcane toothsome slices of goya, koreigusu, the spicy ice-cream trucks, and and pineapple, which Okinawa’s bitter melon. bottled sauce of red chili O tucked-away smoothie feature prominently T There’s a staggering peppers marinating in O shops frequented by local in local dishes.