Our final day saw beautiful blue skies and a village from the past. We headed from Iriomote back to Ishigaki, the main point for all ferry trips down in the Yaeyama region. From there we hopped off, bought tickets, and hopped right back on the same ferry for the ten-minute ride to Taketomi. At its widest point Taketomi is only nine kilometers across, and it's also one of the most popular tourist destinations in the area. You can imagine it can get very very crowded, but thankfully we were able to avoid most crowds because of when we visited.
To my dismay Taketomi's swimming/snorkeling isn't stellar, though the place makes up for it with other things to look at. The beauty of the central town is the main attraction on the island, and for good reason. The place we stayed at was no exception to the rule that residences on the island should use the traditional red-tile roofs, and the couple that ran it were fabulous. We checked out the tiny island a bit and did a tiny bit of swimming, then came back for dinner. There we met some other guests, with whom we later watched the sunset and went looking for fireflies. We found none of the latter, but we did get serenaded by the owner while we drank copious amounts of the local liquor.
