Ishigaki and Taketomi

I wish I had photos for this little side trip but at the very end of the trip I left my camera in a taxi in Keelung and never saw it again so we have no pictures of this trip. When I realized that a few of the Ryuku islands were less than 100 miles from Taiwan I really wanted to find a way to see them. There are some flights from Taipei and maybe a few boats but over all it seemed more difficult and expensive then I was hoping for. Then I found a cheap 2 night/3 day cruise that goes from Keelung out to Ishigaki where you get about 4 or 5 hours of shore time and then back to Keelung. So we took the high speed train to Taipei and then local trains to Keelung. In Keelung we weren't scheduled to leave until late evening so we had time to go to the night market. Keelung Night market had tons of incredible sea food.

The cruise itself wasn't really my thing. Most people seemed to be there either for the gambling or the all you could eat meals. Margaret and I actually sat in one of the lounges and were the only audience for multiple singing and music acts. When we arrived the next morning in Ishigaki it took forever to process everyone off the ship and into Japan. As soon we got onshore we took a ferry over to Taketomi. Taketomi is very rural with bicycles, buffalo carts, and almost no cars. We rented bikes and rode around the island stopping at several beaches. One of the beaches is famous for having star shaped pieces of sand  mixed into the regular sand. The star sands are apparently the skeleton of some sort of plankton. The only star pieces I found were in the little plastic key chains being sold on the beach. Then it was back to Ishigaki for a quick dinner before we had to get back on the ship. We found a little restaurant serving a tasting menu of Ishigaki beef which is apparently famous in Asia. We had 4 or 5 courses of beef. It was really good but much fattier then is typical in America. Beef heavily marbled with fat is prized here though.

When we got back to Keelung we took a taxi to Jiufen for a quick walking tour before we had to head back to Kaohsiung. Jiufen is an old mining town built on a mountain. The narrow streets and staircases twist down the mountain and are full of picturesque buildings. It is claimed that Jiufen was the inspiration for the town in the anime movie Spirited Away although there are plenty of claims that this is not true. It is though a very popular tourist spot. We wanted to get dropped by the taxi at the top, wander down, and then head to the train station from the bottom. The parking lot at the top was tiny and packed and the taxi driver rushed us out as he had no where to stop. In the rush I left the little camera I had brought for this little trip in the back of the cab and it was gone. 😞