The excitement of a new country has been a bit frustrating! No problems with ATMs, a coin laundry and supermarket close by, etc. We are moored on a nice new floating dock but with no water or power available. Water has to be carted from a tap a few hundred metres away. Mobile phone and internet is proving a tad difficult as we can't just walk in and buy sim cards for our phones and modem - you need to be a Japanese resident! So at the moment we have decided no phone and no internet and only internet cafes. The wind has now turned south-westerly and with it the heat and humidity have soared! The northern summer is well and truly here. Plus, we have the language barrier to contend with.
However, the food is proving to be as exciting as we thought it would with lots of new taste experiences to be had almost every day! The supermarkets are filled with an amazing amount of pre-prepared and packaged foods (all labelled in Japanese) – it is so easy to put together a delicious meal without very much effort and local fishing boats have sashimi outlets along the main road. Apart from eating on board, the local yacht club hosted a Japanese-style barbecue on the dock with an interesting array of meat, seafood and vegetables, and a local Ryukyu-style restaurant served us ikasumi chahan (squid ink fried rice), goya-champura (stir-fried bitter gourd), tofu-champura and a sashimi platter with an assortment of raw fish, squid and octopus. We have some fun pictures of us with black teeth and lips!! Then, under Marijka's guidance, we had a wonderful meal here on the dock last night with papaya and smoked squid salad, fresh tofu, soba noodles on ice dipped in tobu soup with a raw egg, thick-sliced daikon simmered in odan stock, Japanese rice topped with mentai (fish eggs), raw squid with nato (fermented soy beans), steamed spinach with a sesame-based sauce, barbecued shisamon (sardine-size fish full of roe), nasu (grilled eggplant) spread with a miso-based paste. Hanna from Bannister, Marijke and I each did three dishes and met on the dock for a sumptuous feast!!
The annual dragon boat racing was held right next door to where we are moored last Tuesday. Teams were entered and manned (some of the teams were women) by the local fishing boats and we had heard and seen them training since we had arrived. It was a very colourful affair with teams of women and children performing traditional dances in front of the gathered spectators prior to the races starting. The final race was over 2.4 km and was very exciting.
We have enjoyed a couple of excursions around the island - one to a local dam, where we had fun finding our way about without a map. We saw a Serpent eagle in one paddy field which had taken a dead frog from a crow and then stayed there for quite a while being photographed while it tore at the flesh. Then, on Thursday, a trip right to the northern tip of Ishigaki Island. It is a lovely island with lush vegetation in places which have not been converted to agriculture - we saw fields of sugar cane, paddy fields, pasture with the famous Ishigaki beef grazing, as well as fruit such as pineapples and dragon fruit. The island is fringed with coral reefs, making it a dangerous place to get caught in the wrong winds but is great for snorkelling and swimming.
A cruising plan has been submitted to the Ministry of Lands which we should have back by Monday. All going well and if the weather is right we will leave early Tuesday morning for Ikema Island in the Miyako group of islands, about 80 NM (160km) to the north-east of Ishigaki.
Apart from a few inconveniences all is good in Ishigaki and it is easy to get around on our bikes... must keep that phrase book handy though and learn a few more words!
