Trip to Miyako-jima "Hawaii of Japan" 〜宮古島〜 Japan Vlog | easy Japanese home cooking recipe

Welcome to Taiju's Kitchen. Today I'm going to show you Miyakojima or Miyako Island. So as you can see, I'm back in Japan, but in a very different setting. You may be able to see from the vegetation, palm tree, and the hibiscus in the background. I'm at one of the most southern islands of Japan called Miyakojima, part of Okinawa Prefecture. Sometimes it's called Hawaii of Japan because it has kind of similar feeling to it. For a while back, this was owned by its own kingdom called Ryukyu Ōkoku or Ryukyu Kingdom. They have a very, very different culture than the mainland Japan, and we plan a family trip to here. So I thought it might be interesting to show you a very different side of Japan that you may not have known of, and maybe plan to come here if you have a chance to come to Japan. Then without further ado, let's get started. We first rented a car and then drove around a little bit. Such beautiful scenery. Here you can see a field of sugar cane. Miyakojima or the whole Okinawa Island is famous for these sugar cane. Because the weather is perfect for it and you can see it everywhere. And then we got to a hotel and this hotel had a really beautiful ocean view. And we got to our hotel room and from there we also got a really great view. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't so nice due to a typhoon. Then we went to get some lunch. This restaurant uses a very old traditional Okinawa housing which is a bit different from the mainland houses. And here you can also hear a little bit of the more traditional Okinawa music which is also very different from the mainland. Here I ordered the Okinawa food of soki soba which is kind of mix of ramen and udon. It also came with umibudo which is a very interesting texture. Of course, the food was really good. Then we drove some more to find a beautiful beach to swim in. The water was so clear and the ocean floor was covered with coral and I was able to see a lot of beautiful fish. I was also very lucky to find this sea snake. I knew this was poisonous so I kept my distance. And in the evening we also went to another restaurant where they serve a lot of seafood. Here in the tank, I don't know if you can see these are Okinawa lobsters. Okinawa is also famous for this cooked pork. And then later we also got a lobster and sashimi platter. And the next morning we had a breakfast on the porch of the hotel. The breakfast was a little bit western style. What was amazing was the beautiful view from the porch. And then we went to the local supermarket where they sell some locally grown food. These are called shima banana or island banana locally grown in Miyakojima. Miyakojima or Okinawa is also famous for the pineapples. They're a little bit smaller than regular you might know. And they're also famous for their mangoes. These are fully riped mangoes. And here's some guava. And these some strange looking fruit that I don't know. Aloe vera is also grown. And these are the sugar cane that we saw earlier. Then we drove to another beach where we can swim. This beach is called Aragusuku beach. In this beach I was able to see different kind of corals and also different kind of fish. I was very very lucky to find this sea turtle. I think these sea turtle have such beautiful form. They swim so elegantly. That's the end of this video. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed it. I look forward to see you in the next video. Bye for now.