Daitō vacation: Kita-daitō

It's time for our next adventure!  During our first trip to Zamami-jima, we met a gentleman from Hiroshima who had recently retired from the Japan Postal Service.  He wanted to see all of the Ryukyu islands, and told us that the Daito islands were an amazing place to see butterflies in the spring.  I remember being intrigued because he said the trip took an entire day by ferry.  When we booked our trip, we opted for the plane, not wanting to risk bad weather. 

The Daito islands - Kita-daito and Minami-daito - lie due east of Okinawa in the middle of the Pacific.  They are known for agriculture and fishing.  They are also a great place to watch the stars, from what my co-workers tell me.  I was hoping to see some new birds and explore a place that very few people in the world will ever get to see.  We admired some of the plant quarantine displays in the Naha airport, and then we were on our way.

Kita-daito, which translates to "North Daito," is the smaller of the two islands.  We flew into Minami-daito first, and then took a five-minute flight to Kita-daito.  There are no ferries that run between the two islands, and the flight between the two is one of the most expensive in Japan when evaluated as price per mile.

We were taken to our hotel by the hotel shuttle, and got to look out on the meters and meters of sugarcane fields.  I also saw a couple of pheasants, my first in Japan, but I don't count anything unless I get a really good look through binoculars.  Our hotel was VERY nice: clean, spacious, a lovely balcony view, and insect repellent.  These are all things one needs when visiting tropical islands in the Pacific, although we did not need the Japanese Raid in our room.

After getting settled, we walked around the hotel and some of the surrounding roads to get a lay of the land and to see anything there was to see.  The daito islands must have been getting some of the spring rains that Okinawa was experiencing.  The dirt roads between the fields were a little too muddy for walking in some places, and both of us had on our best hiking shoes with the capacity to accumulate lots of souvenir mud.  I tend to look for birds, but am never sorry when we run into other wildlife surprises.

The skies began to turn dark, and it was time to make our way back to the hotel and enjoy some Japanese food for dinner.  Ryan was celebrating our getaway with a stogie, which is a good asset to have if you're exploring agricultural fields that have been freshly fertilized.

The setting sun cast a romantic glow over our hotel.  Accommodations in the Ryukyu islands vary quite a bit, and this hotel was the most modern-styled we'd encountered yet. Neither one of us require a fancy stay, but we appreciated the beds over the tatami room on Aguni, and reveled in the decided upgrade over the A-frames of our Malaysian Jungle Camp.

Our meal was excellent and delivered with a smile. What better way to start an adventure in a remote part of Japan than with fresh fish and a draft bii-ru?!