Minna Island

Stevie has a few days of leave and although the original plan was to take a small trip, it didn’t work out this time. It doesn’t help that the yen rate is 75! (It was 93 when we moved here two years ago – ouch!) So I’ve been combing my “island idea” box and found a place called Minna Island. It’s a really tiny (think glorified sand bar) island just off the Motobu peninsula on the northwest side of Okinawa. And the best part is that it’s only a 15 minute ferry ride to this little paradise island.

So we packed up our beach gear and drove up north to take the 9:30 am ferry (along with half of mainland Japan, I think. The ferry looked like one of those you see sinking in the East China Sea – oh wait, we were in the East China Sea…)

Can you see that Cannon doesn't like crowds?

The ferry dumps you off into the “commercialize” beach area where, thankfully, most of our Japanese fellow travelers stayed. Seeking isolation, I herded my family to the far end of the roped off beach, but as the morning progressed and more people joined us, I persuaded my family to move still further away.

The water here is so so so so clear it’s amazing and we were enjoying some great shallow water snorkeling before some guy on a jet ski came by and told us not to. We’re still not sure why, except that this is some of the rare live coral that we’re seen and maybe they were trying to protect it. The kids were having a ball in the water and Stevie was perfecting his beached whale impression so I decided to see if I could walk around the island.

I couldn’t make it all the way around for the coral got a little sharp and treacherous, but I found a huge expanse of peaceful, quiet, undisturbed beach that was a rare treat. At one point I could hear nothing but the gentle lapping of waves and the whistle of wind through the trees. Ahhh, paradise.

Supposedly there is a bed and breakfast and a few other buildings on this islands, but I didn’t get to explore those. When I returned from my walk Stevie and the kids were ready to catch the ferry home so I’ll have to come back again some time to do some more exploring…