Hii! I’ve been living in Japan for 3 months now, and I’ve taken my first nenkyu (paid time off). Walid and I went on a really amazing holiday to Amami Oshima and Kakeromajima.
Our itinerary:
October 27th: drove to Osaka from Kochi
It’s about a 4 hour drive without stops; we spent the night near the airport
October 28th:
Flew into Amami and picked up our rental car (a fierce and very pink kei car)
Drove to heart rock <3 (pictured below)
Picked up local food from a takeout spot (including liver and chicken gizzards)
Enjoyed our food near the water at the fishing port
Drove to our first accommodation, which had a goemon bath! (a vintage outdoor tub that is heated by burning wood)
Stargazed on Sakibaru Beach
October 29th:
Coffee on the beach and morning swim
Drove to hidden cafe in the forest (we split avocado toast and an amazing local curry)
Made it to Kohama Camp Ground and set up
Snorkeled & enjoyed the beach (saw a lot of little fish, a puffer fish, an eel, and a lion fish)
Coral from Walid’s snorkeling adventures
October 30th:
Rainy morning (luckily our only tough weather for the entire week)
Drove to check in at our next accommodation, where we met grandma and grandpa for the first time
We washed our clothes, hung all of our stuff to dry, had a wonderful dinner, and started getting to know them
They took us for an evening drive to search for the Amami bunny (a nocturnal bunny that is only found on Amami Oshima and Tokunoshima). We had good luck and saw so many!
Over evening drinks, we all bonded, and they invited us to return on Sunday to stay with them “as family, not clients” + to attend a local festival with them!
October 31st:
Took a morning tour of a waterfall and the local mangroves with Grandpa
Said “see you soon” and drove south to Yadorihama
Found our campsite and enjoyed the beautiful beach
Drove into Setouchi (the nearest town) for dinner, yet every restaurant denied us :’(
Side note: this happens sometimes when towns have a bad view of tourists/foreigners. Many of the restaurants clearly had availability and were not closing soon, yet denied to seat us.
On our way back, loaded with conbini food, we saw a habu viper in the road (very venomous snake; Happy Halloween!)
We vibed on, enjoyed our food on the beach, and watched the stars
November 1st:
Amazing beach day at Yadorihama
More snorkeling - I saw a bunch of little fish, a turtle, and a pretty scary snake. Walid went out further and saw really beautiful coral
Returned to grandma & grandpa’s for the festivities
Grandma dressed me in a yukata (I did not have much say in this happening haha, but it was very kind of them to let me wear it - pictured below)
Festival time: Grandma brought onigiri, yakitori, and yakisoba for us. We danced with a big group of all ages and then watched fireworks. Grandpa brought us to his friend’s house for a drink, and then Grandma called him to bring us back home 🤭. She made us coffee and hot cocoa, and we all went to bed after a full day.
November 2nd
Grandma served us breakfast, and we said our goodbye’s (we’re all hoping that it’s more of a “see you”)
Drove to the port and caught the ferry
Left our baggage next to lockers because everything was full
Side note: a huge pro of Japan is the ability to trust people with your things. When someone drops a purse, wallet, or even a toy, you will see it hung up or neatly placed somewhere more visible, in hopes to help the person who comes back to look for it. I had no fear about leaving literally all of our possessions in a random ferry terminal. No surprise when we came back four hours later: no one touched anything.
Walked about an hour and a half to an insane Gajumaru tree (an utterly huge banyan tree, pictured below) and then circled back to the port
Our host shuttled us to our accommodation
Our guest house was run by women 💛 & they accept WWOOFers, so maybe we’ll be back someday
They catch fresh fish based on how many guests they have each night and prepare insane dinners with the fish, seasonal produce from their gardens, and handmade fermented goodies (first dinner pictured below)
November 3rd
Enjoyed a nice breakfast and spent some time walking along the beach, relaxing, and reading
In the afternoon, we took out their free sea kayak and explored the surrounding coasts
Pulled up to a very private beach to make sandwiches for a late lunch; I played with hermit crabs and read, while Walid went snorkeling. He saw lots of fish, coral and a shark!
Headed home for dinner and saw a stunning sunset from the kayak
Amazing dinner round two with the same fresh fish, but different sides
November 4th
Our final breakfast was even better than the first (pictured below)!
Our kind host shuttled us back to the ferry port
We caught the ferry, returned the car, then checked in for our flight. The only small challenge was that Walid’s phone broke the day before, and gmail wouldn’t let us in without dual auth lol… but all was fine thanks to peach airline
Once we arrived in Osaka, we picked up a new phone + dominos pizza (Japanese dominos is way better than the US), and then we headed home powered by tunes and unfortunately way too many red bulls
Thank you for reading, take care, and see you next time! ;)
