Enjoying Life

I had originally planned to stay in Miyakojima for at least a year before traveling again. However, I had the chance to visit my family and friends for Christmas and decided to jump on it. I have now made this international flight from Tokyo to California several times. The first couple were absolutely painful. For the first week I would be dog tired and be sleeping at all the wrong times of the day. Flying from the US to Asia isn’t too bad. You have a really long day and get a great nights rest. The other way around however is much more difficult. You fly through the night. And if you don’t sleep, then you arrive in the morning having to face a full day. Here are the techniques I use to get over jet lag quickly.

Sleep on the plane- With uncomfortable seats, crying kids, and constant interruptions from flight attendants, this can be quite difficult. However, sleeping on the plane will allow you to arrive in the morning refreshed and ready to go. I have found that the first day is one of the most important and if you can time it right you can adapt quickly. If you are unable to sleep you can try taking your favorite sedatives.

Fight the urge to sleep the first day- If you are arriving in the morning and didn’t sleep on the plane you will most likely be absolutely exhausted. Fighting the urge to sleep the first day will help you sleep better through he first night and wake up more on schedule the next day.

Use daylight- Try to get outside in the light as much as possible during the day. This will help your body reset it’s schedule and adapt easier. You body is most likely used to sleeping during the dark and being awake during the light hours. It will reset to match the new ones.

Do physical activities- This may not always be the easiest thing to do when you visit a new area, but exercising your muscles and tiring out your body will help you sleep better at night.

Stay hydrated and well fed- With all the regulations limiting what you can take on board it has gotten harder to keep liquids close in reach. Try to drink as much as possible while on the plane and also once you get off. Also keep snacks handy.

Don’t worry- The first time I traveled back to the US and woke up way to early and was unable to get good sleep it freaked me out. It will eventually go away so don’t worry about it too much. I am not much of a morning person, so it’s a chance for me to watch the sun come up, read a book in absolute quite, or have time to exercise.

What's for dinner

In Japan, there is a great show called “ゼロ円生活” (The Zero Yen Lifestyle). It basically consists of one to two people locating to a shack on a remote island for a few days and only eating the food they can catch. It is a little cheesy since the shack has obviously been pre-made, they have a number of cooking utensils as well as burners and spices, but I really love the concept of catching my own food and living off the land (or sea in this case).If you remember, a little while back I wrote an article titled 10 Things I’ve Decided To Do In My New Life. Number 2 was finding catching my own food.

Well, from 11:00pm-3:00am last night, that’s exactly what I did. Due to a very low tide each month, a large amount of seabed is exposed allowing hunters and gathers to venture fourth searching for octopi, crabs, lobster, shell fish, and just about anything else edible you can find. So equipped with a bucket, a flashlight, and a spear, I journeyed into the dark on the small peninsula of land that in the few hours would be covered by water as the tide once again rose.

The difficult part of the journey was the jagged seabed covered with coral. Walking a mile or two in a moonlit night may not seem that difficult, but being careful not to crush the poor coral  or slip on the rocks took a lot of effort.

After a few minutes of walking I came across a a sea snail a little larger than a golf ball (the ones we were searching for) and excitedly put it in my bucket. The next item I would find would surprise me even more. As I was waiting for my partner to catch up, I had time to really search around the area I was standing. When my light first hit the creature, the color looked just like any other rock but the shape was unmistakable. I had found a conch. However, stretching nearly a foot long and weighing several pounds, I soon realized my bucket was going to get quite heavy.

The rest of the night went on finding a shell here and there, but I also spent a lot of time viewing the various creatures in the small pools including fish, shrimp, crabs, and an eel.

At about 1:30am we turned around and started heading back. By this time my shoulders were starting to get a little tired from carrying a heavy bucket, but I sure wasn’t going to complain. Though not searching as hard on the way back ( I was more concerned with beating the tide), I even managed to catch a decent size octopus and spear a fish.

After washing everything and putting it all in the fridge, we finally got to bed around 4:00am.

Now comes the hard part: cleaning and cooking!

Blue sunny skies, sandy beaches, a warm beautiful ocean, snorkeling and fishing, and a ton of new restaurants. Yeah, I wasn’t missing internet too much, but after three weeks it’s finally installed. We also picked up our new used car. So as promised, here is a compilation of pictures from our arrival until now along with the story.

We left Tokyo on the morning of October 15th and arrived in Miyakojima in the afternoon. The weather was cloudy with a little drizzle of rain, but quite warm. For the first three days we stayed at The Sun Rooms, a guest house just out of town. It was cheap, but with no bathroom, sink or shower in the room we were eager to get out of there.

We spent the next couple of days looking for an apartment, and eventually found one located just outside the main part of town. It’s a 2 story house that has been turned into two apartments. We rent the upper half. It’s huge compared to my apartment in Tokyo and costs less than half. As you can see there is even a slight view of the ocean. After the 3rd day, the weather really cleared up and turned beautiful.

View from the road

Ocean side view

Farmland side

This is the pier (久松港) 10 minutes walk from our house with an amazing view of two smaller islands

And Painagama beach (パイナガマビーチ) is about 5 minutes by car

After finding out that we wouldn’t be able to get internet for about 3 weeks, we decided to just relax and enjoy the island. Here are a few pictures during that time.

Shimajiri Mangroves (島尻マングローブ林)

Eri at Aragusuku Kaigan beach　(新城海岸)

Left: Eri, Center: Me, Right: Guppi- We did this jump about 5 times to get this shot

After a busy day of snorkeling, Eri cooked our first meal at home. Guppi (right) was a huge help in our transition to Miyakojima. If you come to Miyakojima, make sure to stop by for a shiatsu massage and get his advice on places to visit.

View of the Ocean from Kurima Island (来間島)

Lunch at the Pani Pani Cafe. Mie (center) was Guppi’s friend visiting from Osaka. Kaori (right), runs an art shirt store here in Miyakojima

Sunset at Maehama Beach (前浜ビーチ)

If you would like to see more pictures of Miyakojima, please check out Eri’s blog. She has started a blog that focuses on Miyakojima. It is all in Japanese, but you can at least see some more pictures.

Please let me know what you think!