First week of trip - 7 nights in Miyakojima

I realize that consumer confidence is low here and nobody really believes that I'm going to be updating this regularly again but I am! I am! If you haven't already checked out the Happy New Years post please do that while you're here.
So... on to the trip - and apologies for the book-like length and format of this post - I'll work on keeping things to novellas in the future! I have already posted a selection of our trip photos - be grateful I didn't post all 2000 of them!
On January 4th we got up at 4am so that we could be ready when our rides arrived. I say rides because we had to have two vans take the five of us and our five suitcases to the airport. Our friend Ato-san and one of his employees did the driving and we made it to the airport with plenty of time for our 7am flight.
We actually had three flights that day - Sapporo to Haneda, Haneda to Okinawa (Naha) and Naha to Miyakojima. We were met at the Miyako airport by Akiko and taken to our tiny condo. It was a self contained suite at Miyakojima Paradise with everything we needed except elbow room! We crammed ourselves in and managed to organize to make everything fit for the week.
After settling in we went for a walk looking for a grocery store. Along the way we met a woman who kindly walked us to the grocery store and exchanged contact information with Ian. Being that we were in the Okinawa prefecture and therefore much closer to the American base, there was plenty of western style food at the store. We bought what we were willing to carry and headed back to the apartment to deal with dinner. We were a bit wiped from the long day and the walk so we cleaned up and set up our futons and went to bed.

We got a late-ish start the next day which was okay since we still had to wait a bit for the bicycles we rented to be available. We made some sandwiches for our lunch and set out as soon as our bikes were ready - heading for a famous beach called Sunayama beach. About a minute into our ride Joisan made us turn back to fetch our bathing suits. Her arguement was that we would rather have them with us and not want to use them then be caught wanting them and not having them with us. As it turned out we grovelled at her feet for the rest of the trip because it was by far our best weather and swimming day!
We changed into our suits at the bathroom/shower building just above the beach and started our walk down the sand mountain (suna = sand yama = mountain... Sunayama beach!) We were completely awed by the picture - it's actually one of the most famous views of Miyakojima so it was really cool to be there in person. When we first arrived there was only one other person on the beach so we felt free to do whatever we wanted. Of course playing in the water was what we wanted! The air wasn't hot - only about 21 degrees (although compared with the frigid temperatures we had left on Hokkaido it was pretty tropical!) The water was slightly warmer than the air though so we were able to comfortably play in the water - jumping waves and body surfing - for about two hours. It was awesome! I pulled out our goggles after a while and we enjoyed watching the movement of the sand with the waves. Joisan spotted a crab that was the same colour as the sand and we looked at the growths on the rocks nearby. When we had thoroughly exhausted ourselves we sat in the sand and ate our lunch before Taran and Ian (and eventually Joisan too) started digging a big hole to ... where? In Canada when we dig we always say we're digging to China - being that we are in Asia now I'm not sure where they were digging to.
While we played in the water and sat on the sand in our bathing suits busloads of tourists began to arrive. They would troop down the sand mountain and take a few photos, look at us like we were crazy and then head back up to the bus. Some were even taking photos of us! We wanted to wait for the tide to surround the big hole but it was taking too long so eventually we headed back up the sand mountain to shower and change before heading back. Once we got back and organized again we decided to head for a larger grocery store that we had seen on our way from the airport. Mum was struggling a bit on the ride - the way there being mostly uphill. She was a bit gratified to learn that it wasn't all about the uphill though - she had a flat tire. We were able to get it fixed and get ourselves and our yummy sushi dinner back to the studio - not too difficult since it was all downhill to the beach! We were able to spread our sleeping out a bit since Ian and Joisan moved their futons to the small deck. Unfortunately the weather turned a bit in the night and Ian woke up at 5am to rain on his head.
There were some heavy winds and rain on day three so we stuck fairly close to the studio. We took advantage of a brief lull in the storm and went for a walk on the beach across the street. After lunch we played some Wizard and then Joisan and I braved the winds and went looking for some adventure. We made up a story to tell the others while we were walking into the wind. I can't remember all of it but it did involve being attacked by a group of evil ninja monkeys and of course we triumphed in the end (although Joisan maintains that she did the butt-kicking, I of course feel confident that it was my moves that sent the evil ninjas running!)
With a few noteable exceptions, the rest of our time one Miyakojima was spent in much the same way - lots of biking, exploring, braving the winds and the rain, and just enjoying the fact that it was closer to plus 20 degrees than minus 20!
Joisan took incredible notes that I could use to give a play by play of each day but we're already at such a length here that I think the highlights and the photos will suffice.

Exception #1 The Botanical Gardens
We were on a bike excursion to a vegetable market (where we bought goya - explanation to come!) when we spotted a sign for the Miyakojima Botanical gardens. Despite grumbles from Taran we went exploring and eventually - after a ride down a long hill (which we would need to ride back up eventually!) we found the Botanical gardens. We were all (including Taran!) so glad that we did. We did a bit of exploring through the many crafting huts that they had there - including some pottery, woodworking, jewelery making, indigo dying, weaving and one where you could create your own pattern in your flip flops. Along the path we ran across a cave that kept going and going! We wished we had a light with us to explore it further but we did our best with the flashes from our cameras. Mum really wanted to make a grass basket so after we paused to eat our lunch under the shelter (it was raining a bit) she and Ian and Taran settled themselves in the weaving hut while Joisan and I went to check out the other crafts a bit closer. We didn't find anything that called out to us particularly so we went and joined the weaving in progress. Mum was well into her beautiful basket and Taran was working on a knotted bag. There were many people working who tried to help me get started on a knotted bag but my brain and my fingers were not connecting so I just admired what everyone else was doing! One of the people there took a shine to Joisan and gave her all kinds of beautiful shells and things. It was an awesome way to spend a rainy afternoon!

Exception #2 Snorkeling!!!
On our fifth day we went on a snorkeling trip. We arranged for our host Loic to take us to the best snorkeling beach on the island. The deal was supposed to include transportation, lunch, equipment, training and the use of an underwater digital camera. Unfortunately Loic had some issues - he got sick so he couldn't go in the water with us and then he couldn't find the charger for his underwater camera. The weather was not as good as our previous swimming day but it was better than some of the days in between so when Loic was able to find another camera for us to use we decided to go for it! (A good thing too - because the weather over the next few days just went downhill and we would have had to scrap it altogether.)
Because Loic felt bad for making us wait while he found a camera for us to use, on the way to the snorkeling beach we were given a bit of an island tour. We stopped at a 7km long beach (Maehama Beach) that was absolutely gorgeous! It just went on and on - white white sand and blue green water! We also saw a cape where the China Sea is on one side and the Pacific Ocean is on the other. We eventually ended up at the beach with the coral reef (Aragusuku Beach) and after our safety chat and some guidance in putting on the mask and flippers we entered the world of Nemo. There are not enough words to describe how amazing an experience this was. We were all awed and impressed with the variety and proximity of the fish. It was a fairly cloudy day so the coral was not as brightly coloured as it can be with the sunshine but it was sooo amazing! We brought some rice from our lunch into the water and fed the fish from our hands. They swarmed around whoever had food and we got some cool photos with the underwater camera. We didn't know exactly how to work the camera though so we ended up with some videos we didn't intend which unfortunately used up some of the battery life. Still, we have evidence of our adventure and we were able to see clown fish behaving just like they do in the movies (hear Marlin's voice talking to Nemo...) "Out... and back in... out... and back in." We were at the beach for a total of about 4 1/2 hours - most of it spent in the water. Although the water was warmer than the air we were all a bit chilled by the time we were ready to go. We were so very happy that Nana took us to Miyakojima and took us snorkeling - we had a marvellous time!

Exception #3 - Irabujima Island Excursion
Taran was feeling out of sorts the day after the snorkeling so he opted to lay low while the rest of us took our bikes on the ferry to a nearby island. We were welcomed to Irabujima by a torrential downpour which was at least not cold. We pushed on and rode across Irabujima to a smaller island called Shimojijima where there were some interesting pools and beaches we had planned to see. Our ride across the island was not on a main road (because we got lost!) and seemed to be either flat or uphill and we consolled ourselves with the thought that the way back would be flat or downhill. The rain came and went and came again with a vengance. We made it to the pools which were partly fresh water and partly sea water - being connected underground by caves which went out to the ocean. While we were looking at the pools the wind picked up and made us change our plans a bit. We crossed the beaches off our list and looked for the shortest way back to the ferry. Distance-wise it was shortest to go around the airport on the cement retaining wall that separates the airport from the ocean. Wind-wise this was not the most comfortable route but with some judiciously timed walks and the eventual tail wind on the third side, we made it. With some guidance from a taxi driver to put us on the right (main) road we headed for the ferry. Of course, owing to Murphy and his laws, our different route was all uphill on the way back >:( We did make it home eventually - very much looking (and feeling) like a crew of drowned rats!

Exception #4 - Goya
Don't do it. We did and we offer you this sage advice... don't!
Goya = bitter melon. We are still unsure of why this melon has been cultivated and not exterminated. While Ian and Taran made a trip to the grocery store, Mum and I attempted to cook up the Goya we had purchased at the vegetable market. Raw, it tasted like butt. We went online and found some ideas for cooking it and did our best. Really really we did! Cooked, it tasted like cooked butt. DON'T DO IT! It's not worth it! We had bought it in a package of 2 so we gave the 2nd melon to Loic and Akiko before we left - we couldn't believe that he said they LIKE it! We went out for dinner on our last night in Miyako and the restaurant had goya chips on the menu. Joisan felt it was so important that we try it again that she paid for it. We all tried it and found that cut very thinly, deep fried with lots of batter and salt - it was more tolerable but it tasted like... deep fried butt!

There were other days - spent biking and getting lost and meeting kind local people; shopping and admiring the beauty of the islands, relaxing, playing Catan, eating yummy food. It was a great escape from the reality of Hokkaido and we didn't see one single snowflake!

Coming up next... week 2... Tokyo, Hiroshima and Kyoto