Ishigaki – Yaeyama Islands, Okinawa Prefecture

So how does one get to Ishigaki Island?

Painushima Ishigaki Airport is also known as New Ishigaki Airport. It has flights connecting from/to airports in Tokyo (Narita/Haneda), Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Okinawa (Naha), Yonaguni, Miyako, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Ferries from Ishigaki connect to other Yaeyama Islands starting from the closest Taketomi, Kohama, Kuroshima, Iriomote, Aragusuku (Kamiji & Shimoji – both accessible only via tours), to the Southernmost – Hateruma, and Westernmost and furthest – Yonaguni. This makes Ishigaki Island a good base to visit the surrounding islands.

If you’re not flying in directly from Hong Kong or Taiwan, it’s likely you’ll need to travel via Tokyo (Narita/Haneda airports) or Okinawa to get to Ishigaki Island.

 

Transport around Ishigaki

As it was just the start of my 3 months long WESN Epic Hana Chase across Japan 2018, I didn’t consider renting a car in Ishigaki in order to save cost. Also, I was planning to spend most of the week on other Yaeyama islands. So the bus became the economical and preferred mode of transport in Ishigaki for me.

If you do have more time or are with friends and family, consider renting a car and driving around Ishigaki. There’s a lot more things to see and splitting the cost across many people makes car rental cheaper. You can travel to harder to reach places and not be concern with bus schedule/routes.

5 Days Bus Pass

A bus trip from the airport to Ishigaki Bus Terminal (near my Ishigaki lodging) cost JPY500/trip (it’s now JPY540/trip at time of post). I bought a 5 days Ishigaki Bus Pass for JPY2,000 as it was cheaper to cover the bus travels I had planned.

• Day 1 bus from airport, Day 2 bus to airport and Day 3 bus from airport – would have cost me JPY1,500
• Day 4 visit around Ishigaki including Kabira Bay – would have cost me JPY2,000-2,500

There is also a 1 Day Bus Pass for JPY1,000. More information on Ishigaki Bus Pass and Route Map here. On the last day in Ishigaki which was outside the 5 days period, I paid JPY500 for the bus ride from Ishigaki Bus Terminal to Ishigaki Airport for my flight to Okinawa main island.

 

Fun Fact

At the Ishigaki Ferry Terminal jetty area, there’s a monument of Yoko Gushiken, famous son of Ishigaki. I’ve seen him on a number of Japanese variety shows and didn’t know he was a boxer until I saw his monument in Ishigaki. If you like to know more about Gushiken-san, here’s the link to his wiki page.

 

After thought

If you’re taking buses to travel around Ishigaki, avoid what happened to me. I was stuck at a bus stop shelter up at the northern part of Ishigaki Island without toilet or food and spent an hour waiting for the next bus. I made the mistake of thinking their bus terminal is somewhat like those in Singapore, where there’s toilet and maybe a food stall or vending machines for the drivers. Unfortunately, the last stop is where everyone had to get off the bus and the bus drove off to some hidden depot. Ishigaki Island can be rather remote in some spots, so please take note.

 

Posts coming soon – Eating & Shopping in Ishigaki and where I stayed in Ishigaki.

Pages: 1 2