I recently had a very pleasant 5 night stay at ANA IC Ishigaki Resort at Ishigaki Island (part of Okinawa Prefecture). This resort is one of the best IC beach resorts/hotels I have ever stayed among the other IC beach resorts I stayed in the past, like IC Bali, IC Carlton Cannes, IC Thalasso Bora Bora, IC Le Moana Bora Bora, IC Tahiti, IC Moorea, IC Fiji, etc. I wish I could stay couple more nights!

Ishigaki itself is a gem in Japan and has the very unique RYUKYU/OKINAWA cultures; it is like a country within a country. People in Ishigaki are even warmer, more laid back and courteous than the people at the main island Okinawa. In addition, Japan is one of the safest countries in the world, people are generally very honest, so you don’t have to worry about any security issues or being cheated by taxi drivers, being overcharged by restaurants just because you are a tourist. Nobody will be bugging you for tips or for selling you souvenirs in the street.

The main reason for me to go to Ishigaki was for scuba-diving. I find the marine life in Ishigaki is pretty amazing (a lot of wow…wows) even though in the past I visited so many famous diving places like Maldives, Fiji, Palau, Seychelles, many islands/atolls in French Polynesia and many famous diving spots in Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Hotel
The resort is very close to the airport. It cost me around 700 yens to get to the resort within 10 minutes from the airport by taxi. The resort has 2 wings, coral wing & tower wing. I was being so lucky to be upgraded to a Blue Suite (80sqm) in the tower wing on the top floor corner since there are only 4 suites in the hotel and only the Blue suite has an outdoor jacuzzi:

Green Suite (1 unit, 80 sqm, no jacuzzi)
Red Suite (1 unit, 80 sqm, no jacuzzi)
Blue Suite (1 unit, 80 sqm, with outdoor jacuzzi)
Royal Suite (1 unit, 120sqm, no jacuzzi)

The blue suite has 2 huge balconies (it makes an L-shape) on each open side with full glass sliding doors. The private outdoor jacuzzi is located on the bigger balcony which can be accessed from the bedroom or bathroom. Here are few images from the official Japanese website, but not available in the English website:

Jacuzzi
Balcony
Livingroom
Floor plan

Beside the outdoor Jacuzzi on the balcony, there is a big bathtub, a walk-in shower cubicle and a separate cubicle for the electronic toilet bowl in the bathroom. Elemis bath salt and bathing amenities are used in this hotel. In addition, scrubbing towels, cotton pad, teeth bush, toothpaste, slippers, bathrobe, room safe, etc, are all provided. Bedroom is carpeted, but not the livingroom.

Although the resort is very close to the airport, I never got bothered by the noise from the planes since the airport is far..far less busy than JFK or Heathrow, and I had never heard any noise while I was in the room. When I was at the beach or the outdoor pool, I could only hear planes taking off or landing once in every 2 hours or so, so noise wasn't an issue at all.

The layout of the hotel and the rooms are pretty much similar to ANA IC Okinawa Manza Beach. The hotel has 2 HUGE swimming pools (one indoor and one outdoor), a beach of its own with free sun loungers, umbrellas and beach towels for hotel guests, a wedding chapel, 5-6 restaurants (one for private dinning), tennis count, gym, kid’s club, souvenir shop, coin laundry facility, beach house for water equiment rental, etc. Unlike IC Okinawa, breakfast is not included for RA at IC Ishigaki, but the price is very reasonable. You can either choose to eat at the SUNCOAST CAFÉ serving breakfast buffet or YAEYAMA Japanese restaurant serving Japanese breakfast. There are plenty of selections for the buffet at SUNCOAST.

During check in, a very nice gentleman, the Guest Experience Senior Manager, Mr, Jean Barceló came to greet me personally. Mr. Barceló is originally from Canada but has resided in Japan for more than 20 something years with a Japanese wife. He speaks PERFECT Japanese, English and French, and his knowledge about Ishigaki Island is not less than any native Okinawan/Ishigakian. He is a gem in the hotel! He made my stay much easier since I don’t speak much Japanese, and most of the hotel staff can only speak very limited English, but I could see they were trying hard to communicate with a foreigner like me. During my stay, Mr. Barceló recommended me a very nice local Japanese restaurant called GEN (10 minutes by taxi from hotel). He made reservation for me on the phone, wrote down the name of the restaurant and address in Japanese for me to show to the taxi driver. He even gave me a photocopy of the restaurant menu that was already translated into English by him personally. The food at GEN was SUPER tasty, cheap and fresh since the owner of the restaurant is a fisherman; the seafood was caught and brought directly from the ocean. GEN restaurant serves mainly seafood, Okinawan cuisine and Ishigaki beef. I went there 2 nights in a row with my diving buddy. I wouldn’t mind to dine at GEN every night if I could stay longer! The other night I went to a restaurant called ISHIGAKIYA (House of Ishigaki) which is famous for Ishigaki beef charcoal grill, but the beef there cost at least 2 times more expensive than GEN even though the beef was evently fresh and tasty, ISHIGAKIYA restaurant itself is very beautiful and spacious with traditional Japanese decoration and setting, and the service from the waitress was top notch, so it was worth to have a try. I also tried one of the restaurants in the hotel for Okinawa cuisine, and the food was equally tasty too.

Mr. Barcelo also recommended us to join a snorkeling tour at Shiraho (southeasten part of Ishigaki). The tour cost 6,000 yen/person and was billed directly to my room. The cost is actually cheaper than the tour agent we saw from outside. The tour agent at Ishigaki port ferry terminal (ferry to other islands) offered 7,500/person for the same excursion. The corals and marine life at Shiraho was absolutely amazing!!!! As I mentioned earlier I had been to so many famous diving and snorkeling spots, and I had never seen anything like it. We felt like we were in the middle of a “coral maze” surrounded by coral walls, with narrow paths that was just wide and deep enough for one person at a time to fin through and we had to fin very carefully in order not to damage the corals with our fins or not to get scratched by the corals. If we did not have a guide to guide us wandering around the coral maze, we could have gotten lost in the maze! We saw the largest colony of rare blue ridge corals and a lot of hard solid barrel-shaped porites corals. The guide also led us to see the biggest, eldest (700 years old) porites coral with diameter at least 12 feet long and it was absolutely amazing! The tour guide was so friendly and nice, after we finished the tour, he took us back to his base instead of the hotel, then he took out a fresh local grown pineapple, cut it into pieces and offered it to the guests. It was the sweetest pineapple I had ever had!

Other must do & see
1) Visit the MOST beautiful beaches in Japan, KABIRA bay & SUKUJI Beach
2) Visit the neighborhood island TAKETOMI by ferry. Rent a bicycle and visit the Star Sand Beach (星砂の浜 HOSHIZUNA-NO-HAMA) and try to find star-shaped sand on the beach. It is “all you can take”! Join water buffalo tour for sightseeing (cart pulled by a water buffalo).
3) Dive with UMICOZA if you are a diver. Couple of the dive masters there speak pretty good English (One female staff is a native French or something). We saw 2 huge manta rays the day we dived, but we were told that the day before they saw 7 mantas at the same spot! I wish I could have dived one day earlier!
4) Visit YAEYAMA MINZOKUEN (八重山民俗園) to see the traditional RYUKYU & OKINAWA buildings, culture, lifestyles, and to taste the local snacks.

I didn't rent a car like I did last year at IC Manza Beach since Ishigaki island is relatively small compared with Okinawa main island, and the taxi fare is not so expensive like in Tokyo.

The only negative thing in the hotel is the minibar in the room, selection is very limited, no wine, it has only local beers, no coca-cola/diet or zero coke, only local drink, like ice-tea and some unknown local soft drink. However, coffee, tea making facilities and kettle are provided. Local 24 hrs convenience store is a 5 mins walking distance from the hotel.

Fruit plate and local-made coaster as gift for AMB/RA was delivered without asking. Couple bottles of water are given everyday for free.

The morning we checked out at the lobby, Mr. Barcelo came to say good-bye to us and even help us put our luggages into the taxi trunk. It's the hostpitality that we will never forget!!!

After all, ANA IC Ishigaki is highly recommended. If anyone needs the contact information for Mr. Jean Barcelo, please feel free PM me.