Japan Journal: Still more beautiful beaches

Sunday came and since it was such a beautiful day, I decided to haul the family to a beach on an island just off the coast of Okinawa. We've been to this island before, but it was a long time ago and I recently had a friend tell me she found some good pickins on the beach (sea glass, shells and other treasures).

Ikei island was the island we were heading to, but first you have to cross Henza and Miyagi islands first. But as we were on Henza island there was another bridge heading to another island that we decided to try first. After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained - right???

And this little detour was definitely a tally mark in the "gain" column. A tiny little place, albeit inhabited with a town, Hamahiga Jima (island), was a great find. We ventured down to an amazingly beautiful deserted beach (Muruku beach) and rooted around for a while.

And since Grammie was with us, we were finally able to get a decent family picture (thanks Grammie!)

This amazingly beautiful beach led into another...

I'm telling you, I've been spoiled for a lifetime. How am I ever going to be able to return to plain old sandy beaches???

After getting our fill of this area, we moved on to Ikei Jima and spent the rest of the afternoon finding shells, sea glass and awesome sand and wind-carved structures.

Emmy and London in the tidal pools.

Grammie with her collecting bag (it's not garbage!)

My boys

Having a rest in the naturally carved "seats"

A rare shot of the two of us!

Our final adventure before heading home was to follow a tiny directional sign that pointed to what seemed to be an historic spot (the sign said vestige). It was actually an historic village of primitive structures - one recreated with a roof, the others with only the stone walls surviving. This village, according to the sign, was actually 2500 - 2000 years old! That's some pretty old buildings sitting in the middle of a farm field!