Ishigaki Island, Okinawa
About the Ishigaki Island Camera
Ishigaki is the main island of the Yaeyama group, roughly 410 kilometres southwest of Okinawa's main island and closer to Taiwan than to Naha. It is the administrative and transport hub for the far southwest of Japan.
The water is the draw. Ishigaki sits inside an extensive reef system, and the depth changes just offshore produce the banded blues and greens the Yaeyamas are known for. Kabira Bay is the most photographed example, though swimming is prohibited there because of the currents; it is used for glass-bottom boats and black pearl cultivation instead.
The climate is subtropical rather than temperate, so the seasons do not read the way they do further north. Winter is mild but often windy and grey, spring and early summer are the most settled, and the island sits directly in the typhoon corridor from roughly July through October.
Highlights & Nearby
- •Watch for: reef colour bands offshore, sea state, cloud building over the water, subtropical light
- •Nearby: Kabira Bay, Mount Omoto, Ishigaki Port, Taketomi and Iriomote by ferry
- •Note: typhoon season runs roughly July to October; winter is mild but frequently windy
