During the COVID-19 outbreak, I began to travel more frequently in Japan, but I had not been able to visit Okinawa. The last visit to Okinawa was a business trip to Naha, just before the travel restrictions implemented.
It is not that I am not interested in visiting Okinawa. However, the timings of my plans coincided with peaks of COVID-19 infection in Okinawa. I hesitated the visits because I had planned going to remote islands, where medical resources were limited even for locals.
This year, there were two three-day weekends in September. I had thought of not going anywhere during the longer weekends because they would be too crowded. At the same time, it would not be a good idea to spend them idly lounging at home. Thinking about it for a while, I recalled that I was just infected with COVID-19 and acquired antibodies, so the risk of infection was low for the time being. Therefore, the risk of pressurizing medical resources on remote islands were also low. As long as the usual infection control measures were taken, all should be ok.
I tend to make thoughtless actions especially for traveling. Based on my (un)scientific conclusion, I checked on Taketomi Island, where I had been interested in for a long time, and found that there were hotels available despite the three-day weekend.
Gateway to Taketomi Island is Ishigaki Island. Of course, there were no seats available on the frequent flyer award ticket to Ishigaki Island on the three-day weekends. I tried to find an inexpensive way to get there. I liked to make travel plans, so this kind of tweaking was rather fun for me.
I firstly found an inexpensive ticket for Shimoji Island using Jetstar leaving Tokyo Narita early in the morning. There seemed to be no flight from Shimoji Island to Ishigaki Island, but the Shimoji Island was connected to Miyako Island by a bridge, and buses were operated according to the flight schedule. From Miyako Island to Ishigaki Island, Ryukyu Air Commuter operated at high frequency. From Ishigaki Island, it was a 20-minute ferry ride to Taketomi Island. It would be possible to reach Taketomi Island by the evening.
This first day seemed troublesome, but looked like island hopping and would be fun.
On the way back from Taketomi Island, I could take advantage of the discount ticket from Ishigaki Island to Tokyo Haneda via Naha. I had to spend about 5 hours in Naha to adjust lower-cost flight, but I thought I could kill time in town for sightseeing or shopping.
I was able to get tickets with satisfactory cost and schedule. At the last minute, a frequent flyer award ticket from Naha to Tokyo Haneda became available, so I re-book for a return ticket. Then all I had to do was going to Okinawa.
However, it was not that simple indeed. I booked an early morning flight from Tokyo Narita to Shimoji Island but taking that flight that was not as easy as I thought because I lived in Yokohama, west of downtown Tokyo.
I could not miss the flight to Shimoji Island due to train delays etc., besides Jetstar is leaving from LCC’s Terminal 3 at Narita Airport, a long walk from the airport station. In the end, I had to wake up at 3:00 a.m. and took a cab to Sakuragicho Station. From Sakuragicho, I took the first train on the Keihin Tohoku Line leaving at 4:18 a.m., which was said to be the earliest first train in Japan. I also boarded another first train from Shinagawa Station to Narita Airport. By the time I boarded the plane, I was exhausted.
Thanks to this, I was able to sleep on board and had no time to complain about the cramped seats in a packed LCC airplane. From Shimoji Island, I took a bus to Miyako Island via Irabu Island. The ocean in this area was perfect blue.
Since I had slight time at Miyako Airport to wait my 2nd flight, I got off the bus and walked around the public market of Miyako Island. It was very hot and humid.
It was already autumn in Tokyo area, and the summer heat had passed. The weather of Miyako Island felt like a harsh climate to me even in late September.
I decided to have lunch at the public market. When you come to Okinawa, you should eat Okinawa soba (Okinawa’s local noodles). Since this is Miyako Island, they call it Miyako soba.
There were several Miyako soba restaurants in the public market. The store facing the courtyard had beers, but I had to eat outside. On the other hand, an indoor store did not seem to have beer, but they were air-conditioned. After some hesitation, I decided to go to the indoor restaurant.
When I approached the lady at the store, she was somewhat surprised. She seemed to have given up business on that day. The restaurant’s specialty is “mozuku tempura” (tempura of seaweed). As she decided to close early on that day, she gave me some leftover tempura.
After receiving the mozuku tempura in a paper bag, I took a cab to Miyako Airport. As I had some more time to kill before boarding, I had a can of local Orion beer in one hand, and the paper bag of mozuku tempura in another. It was quite nice time.
The propeller plane from Miyako Airport arrived at Ishigaki Island in about 20 minutes. From the airport, I took a bus to the ferry terminal. I decided to take a later boat to Taketomi Island and went to a restaurant near the port to eat Okinawa soba again. Ishigaki Island is a part of the area called Yaeyama Islands, so they call it Yaeyama soba. And, I finally got local Orion beer on draft.
Finally, I arrived at Taketomi Island around 4:30 pm. It was a long trip, more than 12 hours after I left home. I put the luggage at the hotel and went out to explore the town. I had another Yaeyama soba on Taketomi Island for dinner. Three bowls of Okinawa soba, five islands, and countless beers on this day alone.
Taketomi Island still maintains an old-fashion Okinawan countryside. I walked around the town in the early morning and evening when the crowds were small. While the island was busy with tourists in hot and humid daytime, I was idly lounging and drank beers. After all, I acted almost as same as I stayed home.
In the end, the only difference was the place where I was idly lounging and had beers, changed from my home to Okinawa. Still, the weather was fine, and it was a wonderful three-day weekend.