We visit Ishigaki (Japan)

Compared to Taipei, the Japanese island of Ishigaki was a small rural excursion. The city was very small, just like the people. However, the prices are high. There were only Japanese characters, so there was no readable clue for us, such as road signs. Credit cards were also accepted only in very few exceptions. But we managed well anyway. There was also no cash to exchange on the ship.

But there is a lot of landscape and beautiful beaches. The water has different colors and allegedly the second largest reef in the world is located in front of the island (I think others also claim that, but the Australian one is unchallenged number 1) and therefore there are many divers.

We also had our feet in the water, it was wonderful and we would have liked to stay longer.

The specialty on the island is beef and we also had it for lunch. It was a special experience. With the beef, which was still raw and only fried at the table, there was a very good beef broth. The best thing was, of course, that there were no knives and forks anywhere, so we had to eat with chopsticks. It took a while until we were full, but it was a fun meal, it tasted good and we could also pay with a credit card, that was good. The Japanese yen has a few more digits than the Euro.

From the island of Ishigaki to the Japanese mainland it is about 1200 km and the Japanese mainly come for diving and swimming.

The prices in Japan are exorbitantly high for everything, I can't even say how much the excursion cost per person, but it was still worth it and we would do it again, even if a flight is not worth it.

On the ship we then put our feet up again and knew that there was still one more sea day ahead of us before reaching the destination of our trip, namely 'Shanghai'.