Sunday, January 26, 2014

Iriomote





Seeing as we would be spending nearly a week on Ishigaki we thought it would be fun to take a day trip by ferry to one of the neighboring islands. We chose Iriomote as Alex astutely pointed out, "I want to ride the yak (cart)." Unfortunately it was still a very rainy day so going to the island and walk around it was a pretty wind swept and cool exercise. The yak cart was in fact kind of neat, but on the island there wasn't too much to see. A few animals in a small zoo, mangrove forests, some beaches, and a small museum. There seem to be about 30 yaks, maybe a dozen working each day. The cart drivers also had traditional sansen and would serenade us as we crossed from the mainland to the island. We also took a boat tour to get a closer look at the mangroves, but it was raining so wasn't too fun. Unfortunately we didn't see what I would have liked to, the Iriomote wild cat (modeled by Aya).  

2 comments:

Mom said...

What is traditional sansen?

Kevin said...

mmm... its like a smallish guitar, more twangy. like this.. actually this is the same place we took the yak, but not as nice weather. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KRk_6QuidY