One thing I didn’t do as much of as I would have liked while living in Okinawa was visit the smaller Okinawa Prefecture islands. 2020 was the year!! But then…COVID restricted us to big Oki until our move back to the USA and we missed our chance.
For Chris’ 40th birthday in May 2019 we took a ferry trip over to Ie Island, just a few miles from Nago. We had a great trip and some of the views from the island’s mountain are some of my favorite views ever.
The Ie ferry 
The Ie ferry. You can see Mt. Gusuku in the back.
We stayed at the YYY Resort—which is normally way outside of our travel price range, but they had a sweet military deal through the base ITT. We had a gigantic place (especially for Japan) and the beach was only a short walk away.
Our place at YYY 
The resort area beach 
The resort area beach 
The resort area beach 
The resort area swings right outside of our place
The food was yummy at the resort…as to be expected anywhere in Japan.
On our last morning Chris took Emma on a short fishing trip and I rented a bike and helmets for me and G. Riding a bike with the kiddos on the back had always been something I wanted to do, but fore this trip I had never done it. I had so much fun! We road around town and found a nice little cafe and then an awesome playground.
When we checked out we had the resort call a cab to come pick us up and give us a tour of the island. The island is less than 9 square miles, but carries a ton of history and character. The driver spoke almost no English and our we speak almost no Japanese, so there was a lot of fun charades and laughing 😂
He brought us to some of the WWII sites, the lily fields, Mt. Gusuku, and to some of the lookout points. We were there at the tail-end of the lily festival, but even so there were a ton of beautiful lilies for us to see. We had no car seats, which would usually be a no-go, but on an island with few roads and less than 5,000 inhabitants (many of whom don’t have cars), I was ok with it.
Lily fields 
One of the caves that civilians hid in during WWII 
Beautiful cliffs 
Outside the caves 
Emma was tired so she was “sleep walking” lol 
The kids reading the map on the taxi ride 
Beautiful clear water
The views from the mountain were amazing! I love the farm fields and the views of the main island.
The stairs up Mt Gusuku 
The views 
The views 
The views with Oki in the background
Ie Island carries interesting history and is full of amazingly friendly people, just like Okinawa. It was a great experience, and if you have a day or two and are in Okinawa, might as well stop by!
Cheers!
Love others. Love self. Love coffee.
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