ishigaki, part two~

Okay, so picking up where I left off: Saturday, or day 5! Almost all the interpreting volunteers had the day off, so a few of us started out by visiting Taketomi Island, which is only about 10 minutes away by boat. This was also the first day with sunny weather, which was amazing! We spent a lot of time marveling at how much difference the sun made. :)

Since the island isn't very big, we decided to rent bikes, which I think is pretty common. Our first destination was Kaiji Beach, which is known for its star sand! It looks like stars or suns, and to be fair it isn't actually sand, but rather the shells of tiny crustaceans - but it still looks really cool. Naturally the first thing we all did was scoop up some sand to try and find some star bits, with varying degrees of success. Definitely super cool. Then we went to Kondoi Beach, which was gorgeous with surprisingly warm water (though only one of us was smart enough to bring a swimsuit) and then we had the famed soki soba for lunch, which is basically noodles with ribs and spectacularly tasty. The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around, eating dragonfruit popsicles and seeing sights like Nagomi Tower, which looks over the whole tiny traditional village.

Star sand!

Water buffalo here too!

Nagomi Tower - climbing up was an adventure!

When we got back, plans were made for us to go see the fireflies at Banna Park, which is one of the sights the mayor recommended to us at our courtesy visit. At first we tried to rent a car but instead the owners of the rental place got a taxi for us at a good deal, with the driver even agreeing to guide us all the way to exactly where the fireflies were (and a good thing too, because we probably wouldn't have found it otherwise). Anyway, it was amazing! There were tons and tons of fireflies everywhere, twinkling like Christmas lights! I've never seen so many fireflies at once before, or flashing so often, either. I didn't even try to take pictures because I knew it wouldn't turn out, but just take my word for it - it was breathtaking. Then we went back and joined some more JET volunteers for food and drinks at an izakaya with performances of Okinawan music!

The next day was the big day: the Sunday of the triathlons! I didn't get there for the start of the Ishigaki Island triathlon, but I did get to see the first person who finished, and also cheer on all the rest. It was super cute to see people run across the finish line with their families or teammates (for those doing it as a relay), especially when they included babies! I did get to see the start of the women's World Cup race, though this was also when it started to rain so I have no pictures whatsoever. I did see the end of both the men and women's races though, and it was pretty cool to realize that these were world-class athletes, in a qualifying race for the Olympics! Super impressive. Then in the evening, there was the award party, which was a chance for the citizens and athletes and volunteers to hang out while eating food from stalls like the ones they have at festivals. Good times.

The first amateur finisher!

Monday morning was spent assisting some athletes with check-out at the hotel and making sure they all got on the right shuttle to the airport (which they did). Then my host parents took us to a few places around the island, starting with the marine research center where my host dad used to work, where they had lots and lots of sea turtles! We got to see them in their tanks (including one that was separated from the rest because it was on a diet and another one that apparently had the opposite problem) and I even held a little one! Then we went to the Hirakubo Lighthouse, at the northernmost point of the island, which had the most spectacular view. I couldn't get over how gorgeous the ocean was, with its many different shades of blue, and eating chinsuko (a famous Okinawan treat) ice cream there was pretty much perfect.

Apparently when they are resting they put their fins on their backs!

Northernmost point of Ishigaki Island!

The last evening consisted of dinner and karaoke with some other JETs, my host sister and her friend, and more, which was a great way to wrap up the end of the trip. The next day was pretty much just spent going home, but not before my host parents let us each pick a bowl they had made to take home with us! I definitely think staying with a host family was one of the best parts of what was a really awesome trip. I met new people, saw new places, and experienced so many new things. Hopefully I'll be back to Ishigaki someday!

ishigaki triathlons, part one!

So two weeks ago, I boarded my first (Japanese) domestic flight and headed off to Ishigaki, Okinawa! I went there as a volunteer interpreter for the not one, but two triathlons that were happening there that weekend: the Ishigaki Island Triathlon and the Ishigaki ITU Triathlon World Cup. It was my first time going to Okinawa (though hopefully not my last) and my second time volunteering at a triathlon (which I only remembered after I got there, haha. Oops) and basically a super fun time. :D (I'm also splitting the post into two parts because I think otherwise it will be ridiculously long.)

The first day was mostly spent traveling and then meeting my host family and fellow JET volunteer who was also staying with them. It turns out my host sister lived in Georgia for 9 years, which is a crazy coincidence because she was also in a place super close to my house, my host parents do ceramics, just like my mom, and my fellow JET house buddy was somebody I met at our mid-year conference! What a small world.

Ishigaki's brand new airport!

The next day we had our volunteer training with the resident Ishigaki CIR and a courtesy visit to the mayor! It was kind of cool to be on the guest side rather than the interpreting end, though it was also very short. Then all the (visiting) interpreting volunteers went out for yakiniku (of the famed Ishigaki beef) - we were all JETs from basically all over Japan, so it was great to meet everybody and get to know them a little better. The afternoon was just spent wandering around Ishigaki City, where we discovered the Shinei Park World Peace Bell and learned that Taiwan is only 270km away, among other things. I thought it was amazing how different it felt to be in Okinawa though - you could definitely tell that we were on an island (even though the weather was not ideal). And then I went to the airport to welcome some triathletes from South Africa!

The World Peace Bell

I had all of Wednesday free, so a couple of volunteers and I went to the nearby Iriomote Island! It's the only Yaeyama Islands I'd heard of besides Ishigaki before coming, because it's the home of the Iriomote cat, which is a wild cat (not much bigger than a housecat) that's only found there. Apparently there are less than a hundred of them left and some people live there their whole lives without seeing one, though our bus guide had seen them 5 times! Anyway, our day in Iriomote consisted of a short cruise around the mangroves and a short ride across to Yubu Island via water buffalo (ours was named Yumi-chan), where we had lunch and saw things like a butterfly house. And then we went back to Ishigaki for a welcome party with all the interpreting volunteers, including Ishigaki residents!

An Iriomote cat!

A very cool tree

Yumi-chan!

The next morning was free for me too, so I took the opportunity to have my first scuba diving experience! The weather wasn't the greatest (cloudy and not quite warm) and the water was a little cold even with a wetsuit, but it was definitely worth it. After stopping to snorkel a little, it was time to try scuba diving! I'd never done it before so I was a little nervous (especially since I'd always thought you needed to go through proper training before scuba diving), but they explained everything clearly and I didn't run into any problems (other than occasionally tipping over from the weight of the tank being imbalanced), which was awesome. We saw a bunch of fish and also a group of cuttlefish (I think), which was really cool.

Trying hard to breathe properly

Then I went back to Ishigaki City Hall to prep for my next volunteer job: interpreting at the World Cup welcome party! The three of us were originally supposed to use the time to translate prepared speeches, but we found out that one of them didn't have a written copy, and because one of the other volunteers wasn't a native English speaker and the other had never interpreted before, I agreed to do it on-the-fly (which is always terrifying). But it actually went pretty well (he kept it short and sweet), so I got to enjoy just being at the welcome party. I didn't actually talk to any of the athletes, but I watched some performances of traditional dances/music by local high schoolers and ate some yummy food!

And that's all I'll recount for now - stay tuned for part two (hopefully shortly)! :)