Miyakojima, Okinawa – Sparkling Blue Waters And Sand As Fine As Sifted Flour

View From Our Hotel Room

June – July 2007

As I was planning our first trip to Japan with our girls, my husband looks at me and said, “I want to go to the beach while in Japan.” I looked at him and thought and remarked, “Are you kidding??? Who goes to Japan for a beach vacation???” I mean – we live in California for crying out loud! Okay, the waters in Northern California are too cold without a wet suit but still, the beaches are pretty and we don’t have to drive far to find them.

He was persistent…it’s actually his strength, unless of course I am the one being worked on, then it’s a problem. As I considered his unusual request, I recalled wanting to go to Okinawa when I was living in Japan. My family never did go to Okinawa. The airfare was too expensive back then. Now that I was living in the US I had an advantage…I could purchase internal airfare at a discount. (I think we paid perhaps as little as a third of what the Japanese would have paid for air.) I decided on Miyakojima, a smaller island south of the main island of Okinawa. We avoided the main island mainly due to cost. All the hotels and resorts I looked at on the main island were expensive. The Miyakojima Tokyu Resort was reasonably priced and I was happy with the email exchanges I had with one of the reservationists.

After a week or so in Tokyo we took the 5:45am flight out of Haneda Airport to Miyakojima. We had a taxi waiting for us to take us to Haneda Airport from Roppongi. We had a nice driver but not the one we would have chosen, if given a choice. He was a soba noodle shop owner who was driving a taxi on the side to make ends meet. I very much doubt he knew the best way and to make my point, he circled within the airport 3 times before getting us to the right terminal at a cost of JPY7000.

When I called to confirm our flight, the lady on the line had told me we could get to the airport 15min before departure – which seemed totally ridiculous so I decided we could get there 30min ahead of time. We left the hotel at 6am and arrived at Haneda around 6:35am. Our flight was at 7:20. There was no line. The airport was large and there were quite a few people, but it was very quiet. It’s something that you notice here – silence in large public spaces or restaurants. Unlike in the US where most people talk loudly, the Japanese are very respectful of noise. I appreciate the silence but I felt self conscious with our energetic and yes loud girls in tow.

The flight to Miyakojima took about 2hr45min on Transocean Air, an affiliate of JAL. No food was served but it still felt like a full service airline. They stocked kids books and candies. The kids got to pick a toy each from a basket full of toys the flight attendant brought. They served consommé soup in addition to the usual drinks. The hot soup was a hit with our girls. They asked for seconds!

Miyakojima was hot and appeared underdeveloped, natural – unmanicured. However, its beaches were amazing. The sand was soft as sifted flour and the water varying shades of blue. Perfect. The hotel itself was OK. The price was comparable to the Grand Hyatt Kauai but lacked the extensive pools and lagoon, scale and pristine landscaping. Our first room had a faulty air conditioner and a bathroom that was miniscule. I am not tall, 5’2” actually, and I could touch the walls of the bathroom both ways! with my arms out stretched. There were two things going for the hotel - Maehama Beach in front of the hotel with its creamy white sand and clear blue water and the Restaurant Shangri-La’s buffet. Both breakfast and dinner (we had the meal plan) were amazing!! My husband could not get enough of the steak at dinner and the first time he went back for seconds, the chef looked a little surprised. He must not get too many people eating such large quantity of meat in one sitting. (My husband grew up eating large chunks of meat everyday so seconds on steak was nothing for him.)

Despite the wonderful spread at the hotel, we opted to go into town one evening to soak up the local scene of Hirara. It was a very bad decision. When we reached the entrance of the recommended restaurant, Uomiya, my older daughter sniffed. I also smelled the odor and it did not bode well. She also remarked as we walked into the place “this does not look like other restaurants”. It did look shabby and smelled funny. We should have skedaddled out of there as soon as we smelled the place! We sat in a private tatami room and ordered the JPY3000 course.

We started off with a vinegary and sweet seaweed concoction. That was bad really bad. But the rafute or braised pork belly was good. Next was fish in cream sauce and sashimi. Sashimi was great but the most interesting thing about it was the umi budo seaweed. Cool. The highlight of the dinner the crab/prawn was not good. It was tasteless and cold. However squid ink gohan – rice - was good and so was the miso soup.

We had a 10 minute walk to town. The most distinctive thing about it was the smell of raw sewage. Not worth a visit at all. It was an expensive night as well, what with the taxi fare and dinner north of $80.

Overall, our family really enjoyed our visit to Miyakojima. We were very lucky with the weather during our stay. We found out that the rains just ended before we came and the weather would be dry until typhoon season in August. We loved our daily walks on the beach around sunset. The lighting was magical. I am so glad my husband persevered and didn’t let up on wanting to go to a beach in Japan. Okinawa is highly recommended. Keep in mind, there isn’t much to do in Miyakojima, but if you are looking for great beaches, Okinawa is the place.