Iheya Island

This weekend I went to Iheya Island. I seem to go on ferries when the waves are rough. My ferry to Iheya felt a bit like a roller coaster. Thankfully I had purchased motion sickness medicine before the trip.

Cameron and Shoko both live on Iheya Island, and they were very good tour guides. They showed me all of Iheya Island's tourist attractions. First we visited "the big tree." If you look at this tree, you might wonder what is so special about it. Cameron says it is a pine tree, and I know pine trees don't look like that back home. But that's not it! There is a reason why this tree is famous. Give up? Someone stole the tree. I think some guy stole the tree and then had bad luck and died. So his brother put the tree back in an attempt to bring good fortune to the family. Or he planted the tree in remembrance of his brother. Or something like that.

After that, we went to the cave. In order to get inside the cave, you have to be pretty thin. The three of us made it ok, but it was a tight squeeze. Inside the cave, there is sand. And a shrine.

We drove around the island for a bit. On the way to the salt museum, we passed a bunch of goats. They were climbing onto the roof of their pen and then jumping over the fence onto the street. How fun!

And then we ran into some of the kids on the island. Of course, they all asked if I am Cameron's woman. And so I had to tell the truth: I hate Cameron because he smells bad. Ok, maybe not the truth...

SO... after the kids had checked about 15 times just to make sure that I really do hate Cameron, they finally decided that they liked me. One girl spent a good amount of time playing with my face.... smushing it and squealing with delight when it looked funny. She also decided that she wanted to keep me. She pretended to handcuff me and lead me off to jail. (I wonder where that is... Iheya Island only has 1 police officer.)

You might be interested to know that Iheya Island is home to the best gyoza I have ever tasted. What's the secret? They are made with leeks. I might have to go back just for the gyoza. Maybe I can convince one of the kids to get me the recipe...