There are three inhabited islands in the group. Tokashiki is the largest, then Zamami, then Aka. An American teacher of English on the islands put together a website detailing some places to stay and some things to do at http://www.zamamienglishguide.com/. We picked out a spot on Aka - turned out to be a wonderful choice!
The Kawai family (Ai, Kazumaru, and their children) are wonderful hosts. They also have a website for their bed & breakfast/dive shop Kawai Diving. Most of it is in Japanese, but they have a full page in English. If you look across the bars on the top you will see it and can click over to it. Ai-san and Kazu-san have been doing this for about 25 and 30 years respectively. They love to practice their English (and are pretty good at it). A stay at Kawai Diving goes something like this!
First you take the ferry out, about a 60 minute trip, leaving from Tomari Port.
When you arrive, Ai-san picks you up at the port in their little Kai Truck (see post below on my new car!) and drives you through the small village to their place on the other end.
The village on the island is quite small, but there are a few places you can go that serve lunch. They offer a fairly standard okinawan selection of soba, curry rice, taco rice, maybe some chanpuru.
Then it's time to take a boat ride with Kazu-san and go see the beauty of the water! It's so clear out there. We had some disposable underwater cameras, but they just don't do justice to the amazing sights and colors of the day.
After a long afternoon of sun, sea, and fresh air, it's time to head back, clean up, and enjoy a delicious home-cooked dinner. They typically feature whatever fish Kazu-san caught that day or the day before! Dinner is served on their patio looking out over the beach.
After a night of clear, starry skies (and sleep on a futon on a hard floor, admittedly - this is a Japanese style bed and breakfast!), they treat you with breakfast on the patio before it's time to check-out and head back to Okinawa! What a fun weekend.
As you might expect, there are lots of hermit crabs on Aka. A beautiful butterfly wouldn't shock you. But would you expect to see deer???
As a final note, they also keep a blog. And in their daily postings they mentioned us several times! That makes us famous I guess! Their blog is here, and for convenience since it is all in Japanese I have included the link to google's best guess interpretation of it here. Look for their entries from July 2-6, 2011 to see their pictures and comments from our visit!
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