Day 03 | Miyako-jima

07.05.2017   |   Pension Ntsunaka

ANA kindly flew us to Miyako-jima with their Millenium Falcon. Upon arriving at the island airport, a shuttle took us to the rental car company. Miyako-jima is not really prepared for non-Japanese tourists and we had a lot of fun trying to convince the (rather nervous and only English-spoken) clerk, that we had indeed booked a kei car. We wanted to have the full Japanese experience of driving around in a tiny car with yellow license plates, but he insisted that we must take the upgrade to the next larger car – free of charge. Eventually we gave up and took it, because it also came with a complementary XXL navigation system. Can’t beat an old school map to find your way around, can you? And a lot of ways we found… most of them leading to spectacular views, but nowhere near the accomodation we had booked. Being totally lost, we tried to ask various locals, which resulted in a lot of polite smiles and eventually a pointer in the right direction.

Pension Ntsunaka

We arrived at Pension Ntsunaka just before sunset and were shown around the property by the friendly owners. The garden is little paradise and the house has a warm and cozy feeling to it. For lack of other words – it instantly felt like coming home. Shotaro Kawamitsu and his father built the house themselves and designed the garden. They are great hosts and helped us a lot with finding the best spots on the islands, good restaurants and a spa. The father successfully participated multiple times in the All Japan Triathlon when he was younger.