Ishigaki

Our friend Alex has been in and out of Okinawa over the past few years and we decided it would be good to take a trip together. He suggested first going to Ishigaki and the pictures we saw were beautiful. The New York Times seems to think so as well and ranked it among its 54 places to go in 2014. Indeed, it is a beautiful place with great beaches and clear water. The island isn't too small, but not so big either. I would say you could drive the circumference in less than half a day. The downtown area felt like there were about 5,000 people there, probably the same scattered around the island. We arrived via Peach air from Osaka and stepped into a shiny new airport. Since it was rainy and cool we didn't get too much beach time then or any other day. We did go to a few view points and walk around town, but more or less we didn't do much with our time here. Alex did go scuba diving and said it was a good experience, but overall I think we all wish we had come in a different season.