Iki

Well, despite the report of thunderstorms and typhoons, I decided to bite the bullet and go to Iki as planned. I am glad I did because once again the weather prediction was pretty off. It did rain a bit and was overcast, but nothing too dramatic. We were still able to do a lot, just not the beach thing. So I am planning to go back at some point in the future to get the rest of the island experience. Sunday morning, I took a ferry from Hakata to Iki. It takes about 2 hours, so I took some photos of the journey and psuedo nap on the deck. Then, my friends met me at the harbor (they had gone over the night before). Last time they went, they made friends with some local guys, so the guys were really nice and drove us everywhere and paid for a lot of things for us. Anyway, we then went fishing! We caught a lot of fish, as well as TONS of fugu (blowfish). Obviously you can't eat fugu unless you are trained how to prepare it, so we had to keep throwing them back...at first it was exciting to catch a fugu because we could make them puff up (and by the way, they really look like frogs), but after the 18th time of catching a stupid fugu instead of an edible fish, we were over them. The fisherman who took us fishing just started tossing them on the bottom of the boat. It was really fun though, and we later BBQed the fish and also made sashimi with some of the larger ones. It was great eating fresh fish you caught yourself! We also wanted some other stuff for the BBQ so we went to a butcher to get meat. The nice thing about being on a rural island is everything is so fresh. You can't just go to a grocery store and buy prepackaged meat. Japanese beef is excellent...but also VERY expensive. We wound up paying about $90 for the meat!!! It was kind of worth it though, it was like butter.

The next day we were going to go to the beach, and then maybe an onsen (hot spring). But, it was raining all morning, so one of the guys we made friends with came and picked us up and took us to onsen. It was my first time. It was a great experience, and totally relaxing. There are all these natural pools of water in different temperatures, and the water is full of minerals so it is really good for your body/skin. Me and my friends had the entire onsen to ourselves, so it was nice considering you are naked (men and women use different onsen). The feeling of going from a really hot onsen to a cold one and then to a sauna was just really incredible for my body and also very therapeutic. I recommend them to everyone =). Then, we went to lunch, and then did a little bit of sight seeing before heading to the ferry terminal. I just couldn't get over how green the island was! There is a giant rock that is the shape of a monkey. It is completely natural, so it is kind of crazy! I just wish the weather was a bit sunnier so the water would have been more blue, but what can you do?

Next weekend I am off to Tokyo! I can't believe how busy I have been lately! It's a lot of fun though =)

You can see Iki pictures here. I did my best to caption them.