Leaving Irabu-jima Arrive at Ishigaki-Jima

The next day after the 'Peace' march we had to get up at 5am to get ready to drive across the island and catch the 7am ferry back to Miyako-Jima and the airport for a 10am flight. We had set up the laptop with Skype so Eriko's dad could call us since the guest house had no alarm clock. Sometime about 2am or so a friend of ours saw we had Skype on so he called us. We awoke thinking it was time to get up. We were never able to really sleep again what with the call and and the mosquitos.


Luckily we left in plenty of time because we ended up on a road that ran the perimeter of the island rather than across as we needed. Even in my sleepy state I sensed a wrong direction. I told Eriko we should turn right as soon as possible. After we had gone a short distance she said "why is it I should believe you instead of the directions we were given and the GPS?" I had no answer to that but just a moment later she flagged down a small truck heading the other way. The man said yes this is a good route to the ferry, in 1.8 km there will be a house, turn left there and you will be on the highway. This saved us missing the ferry.


We took the same rust bucket back to Miyako-Jima. This time it was a calm trip. When we got to the other side there was a fish market in progress on the dock.

This is the best Tuna for sushi. It is called maguro and sliced up looks like rich steak. Each fish cost $3.00

There was also Dorado and lots of small fish I didn't recognize.




We were tired and hungry and looked around for a breakfast place. There was one we liked that had a good cheap breakfast that we had seen when we were here before. When we got there they didn't serve breakfast until 9:30am. Very odd!

We found this place, called the Joyful Cafe.
You could wash your hands as you walked in or 
were waiting for a table. Interesting idea.










This was our breakfast before heading to the
Airport.

Japanese style for Eriko and Western for me. Coffee was from a machine that ground and served with or without sugar,cream. Or could be espresso, cappuchino, green tea etc.
























We were all beat and Emma fell asleep on the plane ride but it was only 25 minutes long. We had to fly because the ferry had been discontinued because of bankruptcy.

Once we got to our guest house Eriko and the kids took a nap. I should have too but I'm often tired but not particularly sleepy. I walked around our neighbourhood and took some photos.

We were near a marina and I checked it out. 
It was really a working place not so much a marina
in our sense. 
The ramp is 100's of yards long and people pull 
the boats out with small SUVs and a long rope.

Typical island fishing boat.




















Walking along I saw some senior citizens playing a kind of put-put golf. They were using a club with a large sickle shaped head and hitting a large coloured plastic ball toward flags on poles.










Since this was a working boat area there were
shops that catered to working boats. 
There were welders, engine rebuilders, 
plumbing supplies and best of all the greatest hardware store I've ever seen. There were every type of fitting, gasket, screw in every size imaginable.

When I returned to the guest house everyone was still tired and a little cranky, which was to be expected.
We decided to eat out and began a walk towards the 'eating' district. Eriko flagged down on a older man-she says older guys always know the best food at the cheapest prices. He walked us to this place. We were to find all the people on Ishigaki-jima to be very friendly.

Here is are tired family having just sat down at the restaurant.

The wait person was pretty trendy. He turned out to be the barman. The waitress was older, tired too and not very friendly.

After this we walked a little bit but were too tired still so we made it back to the guest house which wasn't so comfortable and the room was really tiny but we all went to sleep. So much for our first day.