Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that I'm a planner. I'm an organizational control freak, and one of my favorite obsessions is planning trips. Because of this, Matt tends to automatically take the back-seat on trip-planning. So, it was much to my surprise to hear he had planned a small getaway over Valentine's weekend for the two of us. We have a few places that we've still been wanting to see before we leave Japan, and one of those places is Ie-jima (or Ie Island), which is a tiny island off the coast of Okinawa. It is the perfect weekend getaway location, as you are able to get to the island via a 30 minute ferry ride. Matt even booked the Valentine's package at the YYY Resort for us and took care of researching the prices and schedules for the ferry - all of which was much appreciated. Even though I absolutely love planning every aspect of a trip, it was a really nice change of pace for me to sit back and not really have to worry about much!
Since Ie Island is only about 6 miles across, we decided to take our bikes over on the ferry with us as our mode of transportation for the weekend. Everything was within riding distance, so the first day, we ended up riding around the perimeter of the entire island, stopping along the way to sight see. It was such a great day, and we had beautiful weather. Ie Island is super quiet and relaxing. Mostly a home to farmers, we had very few cars pass us the whole day while riding on the main road around the island. We got to see everything that we wanted to as well as some extra things like whales - we both saw them playing in the water, and Matt saw one actually fully jump into the air! Somehow, our trip to Ie Island was both relaxing and really good exercise at the same time!
Stay tuned for the second portion of our trip to Ie-jima!
-C
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| One of the Ie Island ferries |
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| The island's one mountain - Mt. Gusuku |
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| Leaving Okinawa behind |
Since Ie Island is only about 6 miles across, we decided to take our bikes over on the ferry with us as our mode of transportation for the weekend. Everything was within riding distance, so the first day, we ended up riding around the perimeter of the entire island, stopping along the way to sight see. It was such a great day, and we had beautiful weather. Ie Island is super quiet and relaxing. Mostly a home to farmers, we had very few cars pass us the whole day while riding on the main road around the island. We got to see everything that we wanted to as well as some extra things like whales - we both saw them playing in the water, and Matt saw one actually fully jump into the air! Somehow, our trip to Ie Island was both relaxing and really good exercise at the same time!
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| The Ie-jima coastline |
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| Ie was a major island used during the battle for Okinawa during WWII. Today, the island is still used for exercises by the US Marines. |
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| This was us playing around on the old, abandoned US runway |
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| This was around where we saw the whales:) |
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| Niya Thiya Cave - this cave hid over 1,000 civilians during the 2-week battle on the island during the war! It also contains a "fertility stone" which we were sure not to touch;) |
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| Baby goats |
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| Loved all the crops & lights! |
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| Memorial for Ernie Pyle, the American journalist who died in this very spot during the war. |
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| BBQ dinner |
Stay tuned for the second portion of our trip to Ie-jima!
-C
Very thoughtful trip plan, Matt.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pix. Crops/lites so cool. What is in the key chain? Glad you didn't touch the stone, cuz I'M not ready yet:)!!
xo