December 26, 2025 – Naha, Okinawa to Miyakojima – 11 kms – Hotel Pink Hibiscus
December 27, 2025 – day ride from Miyakojima to Irabujima and Shimojishima – 47 kms – Hotel Pink Hibiscus – total distance cycled: 631 kms – Island count: 11, with the addition of Miyakojima, Irabujima and Shimojishima
Gordon: Yesterday we flew 300 kilometres southwest of Naha to the island of Miyako. Despite having a population of only 45,000 people the island manages to support about 20 incoming flights a day, mostly from Naha, but also from Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. These numbers give some indication of the number of tourists on the island, which has numerous large resort hotels and several golf courses. Most of the tourists are Japanese, and who can blame them for escaping a Tokyo winter for a week of golfing in their shirtsleeves?
Miyako is connected by long bridges to four other islands. This morning we traversed the longest of them to visit the islands of Irabujima and Shimojishima. The four kilometre crossing took a surprisingly long time, as we had to repeatedly stop to watch the sea turtles grazing on seaweed in the shallow water below us. There was a strong breeze disturbing the surface of the sea, giving us a shape-shifting, impressionistic view of the turtles while they were underwater.
The greatest draw of this region is the sea, which is turquoise in the lagoons and indigo in the deeper areas. The water is very clear, and teeming with life. Unfortunately, it’s currently quite windy so rather than snorkeling we have focused on land based sights. Highlights of our outing today included a cave, a viewpoint in the shape of a local buzzard, and two deep sinkholes connected to the sea and each other by underwater caverns.
We also visited what I would call a “tsunami erratic”. In previously glaciated areas like Canada we have “glacial erratics” which are stones that are carried by a glacier and moved to a new location. (We have one in front of our cabin on Valdes Island). In the case of one house-sized rock on Shimojishima the displacing force was a massive 18th century tsunami. It also killed thousands of people in these islands.
It is a delight to once again be cycling on small roads through these largely agricultural islands. And despite our best efforts there are a number of islands that we will not have time to visit, leaving lots of novel places for us to visit on our next trip.
Good
I love the painted turtle. Hugs! 🤗
The turtle painting is lovely. They are such ancient, unlikely creatures, yet remarkably graceful in the water. Hugs to you as well.
Those photos are spectacular, the bridges eye-riveting in their unusual formation, and the surrounding countryside vivid in color and form. How fortunate that you can bike these areas, and so unlike my image of urban Japan. Thank you!
I’m glad that you are enjoying the blog. These islands are culturally distinct from the Japanese mainland, and the differences seem to increase as we move south. On Miyako there are several distinct indigenous languages, among other differences. We will be continuing on to Ishigaki in a week, which is quite close to Taiwan and far from the Japanese mainland.
I hope you are enjoying a pleasant holiday season.
This is my new favorite place on the planet Joyce.
Joyce, this is such an amazing set of Islands! We are so lucky to be here.
Ouf the therapeutic walk look really hard !!!