Page 292 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Japan

e Yaebishi (or Yabiji) reef, which
emerges in all its splen dor
Miyako Islands during low spring tides. Both
宮古諸島 Did You Know? Kurima and Ikema can be
reached via a road bridge.
! D2 ⌂ 200 miles (330 km) Anyone taller than 4 ft Off the west coast, and
SW of Okinawa Island 7 in (140 cm) had to pay accessible by boat from
Set amid coral reefs in an taxes, according to the Miyako Island, is Irabu, linked
Nintozeiseki stone.
by six bridges to neigh boring
emerald sea, Miyako consists
EXPERIENCE Okinawa Unique customs and a distinct 40,000 tree and almost green lakes called Tori-ike are
of eight perfect ly flat islands.
Shimoji. On Shimoji, two deep
dialect set the inhabi tants of
connected to the sea by an
underground river and tunnel.
Miyako apart from Okinawan
2,000 plant species from
main landers. Spared the
Miyako Island
around the world.
devas tation of World War II,
trad itional houses are one-
women dry strips of Miyako-
story build ings with red-tiled
and Ishigaki Island n At
roofs and sur rounding coral In the backstreets of Hirara, k From Tokyo, Osaka, Naha,
jofu indigo cloth. Just north
airport; (0980) 72-1212
walls that serve as shelters of Hirara is the Nintozeiseki,
against typhoons. a 55-in (1.4-m) stone, which Miyakojima City
Hirara town, a former city was used during the suzerainty Botanical Garden
now merged with other towns of the Satsuma domain in the ⌂ 1166-286 Higashinaka-
in the area to make up the city 17th century. sonezoe, Hirara § (0980)
Miyakojima, is Miyako Island’s At the tip of Higashi Henna 76-3184 # 10am–6pm daily
main area. North of the port cape on the east coast you
is Harimizu Utaki Shrine, can look out over the Pacific
dedicated to the two gods Ocean to the left and the East r
who are believed to have China Sea to the right. On the
created the island. The southwest coast, facing Kurima Yaeyama Islands
fascinating mausoleum of island, Yonaha Maehama 八重山諸島
the 15th-century chieftain Beach, a 2-mile (4-km) stretch ! D2 ⌂ 270 miles (430 km)
Nakasone Toimiya has graves of pristine white sand, offers SW of Okinawa Island
and tombs that combine swimming, fishing, and diving.
local styles with the far Mostly set aside for sugar- The Yaeyamas are Japan’s
more elaborate cane plantations, Kurima is of most southerly islands.
Okinawan style. inter est to ornithologists as Some of the finest scuba
The Miyako jima sea hawks rest here for a few diving in Asia is found here.
City Botanical days in October on their way Ishigaki Island’s airport
Garden, north- to the Philippines. The main and harbor serve the outlying
east of Hirara, sight on Ikema, off the far islands in the group. Glimpses
contains over north of Miyako, is the of the unique Yaeyama culture

The lighthouse at Higashi
Henna, where the Pacific
and the East China Sea meet
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