Hi there!
This is MIKA from Ishigaki 😉
Have you ever dreamed to stand on the little sand island surrounded the blue sea and sky?
We have the island which grant your request.
Illusion Island (Hamajima)
It is really beautiful sand bar.
It locates between Ishigaki Is and Kohama Is. You need to attend the tour to visit there.
It takes around 3 hours to join, so when you have a free time of half-day, you can go there.
Because of the beautiful view, many celebrities visit there to take a commercial or promotional movies.
If you are lucky, you can meet them!
Baras Island
However, you can visit there only when it’s low-tide. You should ask what time is better.
Even if you can’t book the reservation, you have a chance to go to “Baras Island”. It locates next to Iriomote Island, and very similar to “Illusion Island”.
Sekisei-syouko
You can enjoy not only taking pictures but also snorkeling. We have the largest coral reef of Japan between Ishigaki Is and Iriomote Is named “石西礁湖”(Sekisei-syouko).It has over 400 kinds of corals, and registerd as National Park in 1972.
Do you know Ishigaki Is is the best diving area in Japan?
Thanks of that, we can find many kinds of tropical sea creatures and diving or snorkeling points!!
Even if we have a strong wind, the reef protects the sea. Because of that, we have a low wave so we can go to the sea for diving or snorkeling.
Seasonality
By the way, many people ask us; which season is the best to visit?
Generally speaking, our season is from March to the biggining of October. It seems like summer even it’s spring or autumn, and we have a fine weather almost every day!
The season of Manta is September and October, however, it’s also the season of Typhoon.
So we recommend you to come here in spring; March, April and June.
May is the first rainy season. July and August are Japanese summer vacation; hotels and airplanes are very crowded and expensive!! You should make a reservation before coming.
After the middle of October, the rainy season will come back. It’s rainy or cloudy almost every day! We have the north wind in winter, because of that, we can’t go to Manta point.
Although it’s over 20 degrees, we feel cold when it’s windy; especially after you dive.
The water temperature is 20~24 in winter time.
Visit to take a picture, and show them for your family or friends.
They will say “How envy you are!!”
Written by MIKA
(Twitter;MIKA@divingishigaki, Instagram;mika_divinginstructor_ishigaki)
Ask your questions and follow me!:)
I talk about the life in Ishigaki on Twitter, and put some pictures of Ishigaki and sea creatures.
