NU 962 OGN-ISG B737-400 seat 11A

Soon enough the daily 737 landed at OGN and the same plane I two days ago called "bog-standard" now appeared downright majestic, being somewhat larger in size than the airport itself. I was more than mildly surprised to see a phalanx of besuited salarymen emerge from the plane, following in short order by a flag-waving tour group; did they get on the wrong plane by accident?! But boarding was on schedule and the flight was utterly uneventful, my window seat was on the wrong side too so there was no scenery to speak of.

I had originally planned (and even booked) the afternoon flight on Ryukyu Air Commuter's Dash-7 instead, but as I'd let my earlier reservation lapse it had filled up and was showing all full at the airport ticket counter. I didn't really mind though: with 24 hours since my last dive I was in the clear, and quite frankly there is nothing at all to do on Yonaguni, other than dive...!

Iriomote

We landed at ISG on schedule, my bag was out quickly this time and I hopped on the bus to the port. Dump bag in storage, quick mail check (and post to FT!), wolf down a bitter gourd omelette (better than it sounds), buy tickets for the next ferry to Iriomote, call to diving shop to confirm, and then 35 minutes of zippy hovercraftiness aboard Anei Kanko's boat to Ohara, on the east (wrong) side of the island. The north wind was back and all direct services to the north coast were halted, so instead pax were bussed from Ohara to their final destinations, in my case Diving Team Unarizaki's shop on the northwestern peninsula.

Iriomote is the largest of the Yaeyamas in size and its second biggest by population (all of 2000), but the island has no airport nor any plans for one. 90% of the island is jungle, with the occasional miniature version of the Amazon River slithering into the mangroves, and I couldn't help but agree with the overhead conversation from behind me:

- It's so big.
- Ne!
- Much bigger than I thought.
- Ne!
- And I'm not sure if we came to the sea or to the mountains.
- Ne!

I dived twice on Iriomote as well, but the underwater scenery of corals and tropical fish seemed downright tame after Yonaguni. I can't say the same for the aboveground parts though: 90% of the island is pristine subtropical jungle, and the roadless southern coast houses only a few tiny isolated fishing villages amidst rich green mountains, soaring cliffs and tiny white sand beaches. The next day's sightseeing cruise down the Urauchi River was equally if not more impressive, in the stillness of morning the mountains faded into the mist like a ink painting and the mangroves were mirrored on the smooth surface of the water. After a 8-km cruise down is a well-trod jungle trail to the waterfalls of Mariyudu and Kanpiree, the weather had improved to sunshine with scattered clouds and I even got sunburned a little for my trouble.

In the afternoon I took the ferry back to Ishigaki, this time direct from Funaura (bouncy-bouncy-bouncy!) and crashed at good old Rakutenya again. While out on town I ran into two ladies from Yonaguni's dive shop -- or, rather, they ran into me -- but I failed to capitalize on the opportunity and invite them out for dinner, so instead I ended up eating a lonely taco rice and going to bed early. Sigh.

Taketomi

On next morning's schedule was a very brief visit to one final Yaeyaman island, the pint-sized paradise of Taketomi (pop. 300, area 5 sq.km.), only 10 minutes from Ishigaki by speedboat. No airports here either, although there is a heliport reserved for medical emergencies (such as acute thickness of the wallet) instead. The island is known for two things: the carefully preserved Ryukyu village in the center, and the vast pure white expanse of Kondoi Beach on the west coast. The village really is quite remarkable especially by Japanese standards, where most all villages and town have turned into identical warrens of concrete and power cables: in Taketomi, almost every house has the Okinawan red clay roof and is surrounded by a rock wall (ishigaki) and rows of flowers, the lanes between them are mostly unpaved white sand and most tourists tour the island on carts pulled by water buffaloes. Only a few easily ignored concrete monstrosities crept in before the code was imposed, and on a sunny spring day like today it was almost impossibly picturesque -- I burned up megapixels like mad.

After two hours or so it was time to head back for one last splurge, namely a meal of Ishigaki beef. Like their neighbors the Taiwanese, the Okinawans are a pork-loving lot and I'd been quite surprised to see so many cows on all the islands I'd been to, so now I succumbed to my carnivorous urges and sank my teeth into a chunk of one. As you might expect the stuff is insanely expensive, a decent steak usually costing upwards of Y5000, but I located an almost-reasonable Y2500 lunch set where you can grill your own. And hot damn, was it good, mouth-meltingly juicy but not obscenely fatty and oily like some wagyu I've eaten. Two thumbs up -- and Ishigakijima Kuro Beer is also a distinct cut above the fairly tasteless standard Orion beer.

And that was it, now there was nothing left to do but to head to the airport. ISG's ANA wing was positively packed with two flights departing in close succession, and alas, being a Star Gold at ISG gets you precisely nothing. I sat on the plastic seats in the gate lounge and moped.