I had a wonderful opportunity to leave my boys behind and enjoy a relaxing vacation with a couple of my neighbors. We flew 45 minutes to the island of Ishigaki, which is south of Okinawa, near Taiwan. We stayed at a Club Med. We spent 5 days relaxing and enjoying the lack of whining and crying from our children ;). I got to enjoy the ocean water, the pool, reading books, eating a lot, sunbathing, massages, nightly entertainment, eating (!), kayaking, snorkeling, taking a tour to Taketomi, eating(!), learning how to play Squash, ping pong, and I even tried 3 different exercise classes (Body Sculpt, Step, and Water Aerobics). It was well worth the trip!
We sunbathed by the pool....
I tried out the trapeze (pictures farther down)...
We took a tour to Taketomi island...
We took a speed boat ferry to the small island.
We picked up star sand on Taketomi. Our tour guide had very broken English, but I think he was explaining that the star sand were actually bones of tiny, tiny sea animals.
The water was magnificent and breathtaking!
We then walked down the "mainstreet" of Taketomi.
There were Shisa dogs on the top of every home for protection (or for good luck?). Okinawa has Shisa dogs on their houses as well.
It was incredibly hot there, but these walls supposedly helped cool down the residents. The air passes through the crevices, traps the heat, and then there is only cool air left.
We enjoyed looking at the banana trees.
We went up this watch tower and took pictures of Taketomi.
To finish off our tour, we had a water buffalo ride around the small town. Our tour guide also used a sanshin and sang a few Okinawan songs to us.
Me and my gals!
Before heading back to the Club Med, we were able to enjoy some touristy shopping.
I had a bit of a panic attack before this picture was taken. I kept asking to get back down. One of the main reasons I was frightened was because you had to lean forward off of that platform and trust the small Asian girl to hold you (before you have the trapeze bar in your hand. I thought I was never going to do it but the only way to get off of the thing was to jump! I am sure I entertained the on-watchers, but I surprised them all when I did it a second time!
We went on a walk one evening---isn't it spectacular?!
What our rooms looked like.
Blurry...but it gives you an idea of what the Club Med Resort looked like.
We of course enjoyed massages!!!
Every night they had entertainment for us.
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