We left our nice hotel in Kyoto and had no knowledge that we would soon miss such luxury. Our taxi took us to the bus terminal near the train station and there we took a bus for the long ride to the Kansai airport.
The bus ran along an elevated expressway over the city for over an hour, all the way to a bridge that led straight to the airport. It seemed designed for that one purpose.
The Airport itself seemed barely above sea level and is on a purpose built island. It was there that I discovered my favourite sweet potato ice cream was available. Yum!
Soon we were on the Boeing 777 heading south.
When we arrived at Miyako-Jima we were a little disappointed as the neighbourhood looked quite run down. The concrete was all stained in in some cases rust could be seen from re-bar. Gates were askew and the taxi driver was so slow he didn't show up on my camera. There were a few hints of flowers and an occasional well kept home. It was very 'Key West' like.
After the really slow taxi we found our way along some tortuous side streets to the guest house 'Hiraraya'.
Inside the guest house was a different story, at first. The room was really nice, the guests and owner really friendly and as we had arrived late they offered to share dinner with us which was really great as we were hungry, the kids were sleepy and it was now dark.
The downside we were to discover is that they don't believe in using mosquito screens on the windows. What they do is burn mosquito coils in every room including under the dining table. I am allergic to cigarette smoke as it makes it hard for me to breath, I found out the coils do the same thing with the added 'benefit' of a sore throat. The mosquitos bit us in any case. Emma fared the worse with Kaji second.
I walked around the neighbourhood with one of the guests, Yano-San. He brought me to an old shrine when the original islanders believed in nature worship.
I also saw a new shrine being built, probably Shinto. They were using story sticks. These are long flat sticks marked with the heights and lengths of walls and openings with out having to use a tape measure. This is a traditional boat building technique that I was surprised to see used for a building but since the shrines must conform to some norms it makes sense.
Emma was often taken care of by other guests which gave her parents a break. This person from Tokyo spent a lot of time with Emma playing at making food with the bits of coral rock.
We also had some reservations about the bathroom. The shower was an empty space in the laundry room by an open window which was another mosquito expressway. There was no standard Japanese bath nor did it seem there was one in the surroundings.
Still we enjoyed Hiraraya, the people and the island style.
We rented a small car for the ride on the ferry to the next island where there was no public transport and the price of taxi service would be more than the $30 for the rental. We were looking forward to a change.
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