Travel: Ishigai Islands, of Okinawa

choi

Ingrid K Williams, Rare Vistas on a Remote Japanese Island; Ishigaki offers a lush, tropical escape with its slower pace, mountains and empty beaches. New York Times, May 4, 2014 (in the Travel section).
www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/trave ... ral-wonderland.html
(“Ishigaki, which covers about the same area as Martha’s Vineyard, is a wonderland of nature rightfully revered among the Japanese: unspoiled beaches, coral reefs in dazzlingly clear waters, palm tree forests, pineapple plantations and [sub-]tropical vistas that are rarely associated with Japan. The refrain that I heard repeated over and over was: ‘It’s the most beautiful place in Japan’”)

Note:
(a) “Ishigaki is the main hub of the remote Yaeyama Islands.”

View the map only, in 八重山列島  Yaeyama Islands
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%AB%E9%87%8D%E5%B1%B1%E5%88%97%E5%B3%B6
(「八重山」の名称の由来には諸説がある)

translation: The origins of the Yaeyama name are many.

(b) “‘I didn’t like the big city,’ said Masahiro Kurihara, a longtime resident originally from Tokyo. Kuri, as everyone calls him, has owned Cafe Taniwha, a no-frills neighborhood bar, with his wife, Fusa, for the last 15 years.”
(i) Ishigaki Island's Cafe Taniwha  カフェたにふぁ＠石垣島
www.cafe-taniwha.com/
(ii) Taniwha
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taniwha

(c) “Originally from Osaka, Sanae YOSHIDA 吉田 早苗 lived in Milan before moving to Ishigaki in search of ‘la vita lenta,’ or the slow life.”
(i) sanae 早苗; 秧(oK) 【さなえ】 (n): "rice seedlings"
(ii) Italian English dictionary:
lento (noun masculine): "slow"en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lent

(d) “Another transplant we met that night was our eventual tour guide, Haruna, originally from Takamatsu”

Takamatsu, Kagawa  香川県 高松市
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takamatsu,_Kagawa
(capital of the prefecture)

(e) “Ishigaki is shaped roughly like a banjo [six-stringed] — or more fittingly, its Okinawan cousin, the sanshin — with a rounded body and slim, necklike peninsula stretching northward. After driving for an hour, we arrived at a small lighthouse at Hirakubozaki, the northernmost tip of the island. From the peaceful promontory, with wind whipping through my hair, I watched a solitary paraglider sail above the electric blue water that extended to the horizon.”
(i) sanshin  三線
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanshin
(“Its close resemblance in both appearance and name to the Chinese sanxian 三弦 suggests its Chinese origins * * * In mainland Japan, it evolved into the larger shamisen 三味線”)
(ii) For Hirakubozaki 平久保崎 (which is the tip of 平久保半島), see 石垣島
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/石垣島

(f) “Our next stop was the summit of Nosoko Maapee, a small mountain crowned with distinctive boulders.”
(i) Nosoko Maapee 野底マーペー Mt Nosoko (標高 282.4 m)
(ii) soko 底 【そこ】 (n): "bottom; sole 靴の底がすり減ってしまった。 The soles of my shoes are worn>"
Jim Breen’s online Japanese dictionary.

(g) “At a noodle shop called Yaeyama Style, I’d already slurped several bowls of Yaeyama mazesoba まぜそば, a creamy ramenlike dish with chunks of pork and chewy wheat noodles that were nothing like the buckwheat soba found in other parts of Japan. There had been a delicious green curry soba at Amuritanoniwa, a funky cafe where we also sipped Ishigakijima craft beer produced on the island. In the town’s covered arcade, Yugurena Mall ユーグレナ モール, we had devoured cakelike Okinawan doughnuts and multiple scoops of curiously light-green ice cream subtly flavored with Ishigaki salt. And at Misushi 三寿司, a sushi restaurant recommended to us at the Cafe Taniwha party, we feasted on fresh seafood as well as luscious nigiri made with lightly seared Ishigaki beef, a local specialty.”
(i) Compare mazesoba with
maze-gohan 混ぜご飯 【まぜごはん】 (n): "cooked rice with added ingredients (meat, vegetables, etc)"
(ii) Yugurena ユーグレナ is a kind of algae: Euglena
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euglena
(iii) Amurita-no-niwa  あむりた の 庭
amuritanoniwa.com/
(A) Amurita  アムリタ
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/アムリタ

appears in India’s mythology as a mysterious brew.
(B) niwa 庭 【にわ】 (n): "garden; yard; courtyard"

(h) “Kabira Bay 川平湾 [pronounced Kibira wan] is home to the island’s most famous beach, a place that could easily be mistaken for Thailand or the Caribbean, with its sugary white sand * * * those looking to get wet have no shortage of other beaches to choose from. Near Kabira, snorkelers can explore the coral off Yonehara beach 米原ビーチ, while families enjoy the shallow waters and soft sand at Sukuji beach 底地ビーチ. On the west coast, surfers ride the waves off Uganzaki * * * [with] the Uganzaki lighthouse 御神崎 灯台 on the island’s gorgeous western cape * * * Then we made one final stop before returning to town: Mirumiru ミルミル, a hilltop ice cream shop where the exotic flavors — purple yam and dragon fruit — were as impressive as the views from atop the grassy knoll that sloped toward the sea. * * * We spent days lazing on beaches and nights at hole-in-the-wall reggae bars with local surfers and Tokyoites a tad too fond of awamori, the Okinawan distilled spirit. On our final day, we borrowed comically small bicycles and rode about four miles out of town to Fusaki beach 富崎ビーチ, where we had the entire expanse to ourselves all afternoon.”
(i) awamori  泡盛
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awamori
(distilled; typically 60–86 proof (30–43% alcohol); section 1 History)
(ii) awa 泡(P); 沫 【あわ】 (n): "bubble; foam; froth; head on beer"