Taketomi Island
Good to know
- Best time to go
- October–May to avoid typhoon season and summer humidity
- Budget
- $$
- Accessibility
- limited
- Coordinates
- Open in maps
A small flat island in the Yaeyama group of southwestern Okinawa, preserving a village of traditional Ryukyuan houses behind low coral-stone walls topped with roof guardian shisa figurines. Star-sand beaches on the island's western coast yield grains shaped like tiny stars, which are actually the shells of a foraminifera species. Buffalo-drawn carts carry visitors along the village lanes, one of the few remaining instances of this transport form in Japan.
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