Day 7 Iromonte Island

This Blog has been delayed a day because we are now on Iriomote where the Internet is unavailable!

We checked out of our hotel on Ishigaki Island and headed for ferry to Iriomote Island. This is another small island, part of Okinawa set in the South China Sea.

When we arrived we went to visit Ishigaki Akiko. She and her husband Kinsel farm a type of Banana plant that is used in this culture to weave into cloth. Kinsel’s family has lived on the island for 500 years and he is an activist trying to preserve the island culture. He speaks a local island language that none of interpreters could understand, Ishigaki is instrumental in reviving the weaving industry on the island.

We saw the Banana Trees, Kinsel then cut some of the trees down and scraped the trunk to get the natural fiber that can then be processed and used as a very strong thread. We went into the fields to see them do this. We then saw a demonstration of how they use other plants they grow to create an indigo dye for the textiles woven from the threads of the banana tree.

We then shopped for the finished scarves and other products woven on the premises. Cathy was wearing a tee-shirt with Japanese writing that she had purchased in Los Angeles. Akiko saw the tee shirt and liked it. One of the apprentices who had come to train in this ancient weaving process, and Cathy gave the tee shirt to her on the spot. Ferris then lent Cathy a shirt to wear, however the apprentice then gave Cathy a blouse that had locally woven. Cathy’s good deed was quick to come back to her.

It was about noon and getting very hot and humid. We all went for a walk and wound up at a very good Japanese restaurant. We then walked to the local Weaving center where I purchased a great obi (woven belt - and was given instructions on how to tie it).

From there we went on a river boat ride up the Iromonte River. The river is surrounded by lush jungle. There appears to be no planting of rice or other crops or fishing going on. It is just the river and nature. Iromonte is the world’s only home to a rare specie of wild jungle cat. It is the logo of the island. We never spotted one.

We returned from the boat ride very hot and sticky. The hotel we are staying at is on the ocean. So it was cold beer and a swim in the warm ocean water.

More beer and then dinner. For dinner I had donated a bottle of Sake that I had brought with me from Kyoto. I had been carrying it, hoping not to break it, all of the way and tonight was the night we drank the bottle. I had this particular Sake on our last trip to Japan and been looking for it the United States. I never found it in the states. It was as good as I remembered!

After the dinner, Akiko and her husband Kinsel had come to the hotel and were sitting in the dark by the ocean on the grass drinking sake waiting for us. He insisted we sit in a circle as he did as boy with his friends, and he sang Island songs for us while playing the Samisen Japanese guitar. He then explained how when he was a young the youth did this every night. They would have a small cloth with them. Each person would take the cloth and would have to get up and dance to the song. They would then give the cloth to the next person and then they would have to dance. That was how they would get to meet each other. So following the tradition, we all took our turn dancing like idiots who drank too much sake, while hearing the ocean waves and seeing the lighting in the sky. We had repeated the island custom. It was very nice!

Tomorrow we ferry back to Ishigaki, fly to Naha, the capital of the Okinawa Islands which is located on the Island of Okinawa.