Ishigaki

A bay whose water changes colour with the hour, protected as a Place of Scenic Beauty, though boat traffic and currents mean swimming is banned. Glass-bottom boats are the way to see into it, and black pearls are farmed in its inner reaches.

An island 15 minutes by fast boat from Ishigaki port, its whole village still roofed in red tile behind coral-stone walls. Water buffalo carts plod round the sandy lanes, and on Kaiji beach people sift the sand for star-shaped grains.

Mostly jungle and mangrove, made World Natural Heritage in 2021, and home to the Iriomote cat. Boats to Uehara in the north are often cancelled when the winter northerly blows and sent to Ohara in the south instead, so weigh that before picking where to stay.

A tiny island just off Iriomote, reached by riding a water buffalo cart across the shallows. The entire islet doubles as a subtropical botanical garden, and the driver often plays the sanshin and sings island songs on the way.

A rise at the neck of the thin Hirakubo peninsula in the island's north-east, taking in the East China Sea on the left and the Pacific on the right. It is a few minutes up a hibiscus-lined path from the car park, and admission is free.

A white lighthouse on the cape at Ishigaki's northern tip, above a shallow reef that turns the sea into bands of colour. The drive from town is about 50 minutes, and there are almost no shops around, so bring your own drinks.

A snorkelling beach where coral and tropical fish start just a few steps out, with a campsite behind. Water drains hard off the reef's outer rim, and the local rule is to stay close in on a falling tide.

A National Astronomical Observatory site on a hill in the island's centre, using one of the largest telescopes in Kyushu and Okinawa. Stargazing sessions held on weekend and holiday nights need booking, and many come hoping to see the Southern Cross.

Built in 1819 by a Ryukyu kingdom official, it is the only samurai-class house left in Okinawa and an Important Cultural Property. The coral-rock garden is a listed scenic site, and descendants still live there, so you view it from the veranda only.

Japan's southernmost inhabited island, whose Nishihama beach is among the clearest waters in Yaeyama. The fast boat from Ishigaki needs just over 1 hour, but it crosses open sea and is often cancelled in big swell, so build a buffer day into the trip back.

Downtown Ishigaki's covered arcade, steps from the island ferry terminal, named for a microalgae firm that farms on Ishigaki and bought the naming rights. Souvenir shops and diners line it, a refuge from midday sun or sudden showers.

A forested hill north of town turned whole into a park, its lookouts facing the city and the sea toward Taketomi. From March to May, right after sunset, Yaeyama fireflies drift over the woodland paths, and people switch off their torches to watch.

About thirty minutes from Ishigaki by fast ferry, known for the Sugar Road, a straight lane through cane fields that featured in a TV drama. Climb the 99m Ufudaki hill at its centre to see Iriomote and the coral sea together. A bike covers it in half a day.

A flat, heart-shaped island where cattle outnumber people roughly ten to one and pasture covers most of the land. Fast ferries take about thirty minutes, and Nakamoto Beach has shallow-reef snorkelling at low tide; currents can build, so check the tides.

Old red-tiled Yaeyama houses moved to a seaside hill on the west coast, where you sit on the veranda for sanshin music. In a woodland enclosure squirrel monkeys roam loose and clamber onto shoulders, and the mangroves of Nagura Bay lie just below.

A coral reef off eastern Ishigaki's Shiraho village, with a blue coral colony ranked among the biggest north of the equator. Glass-bottom boat and kayak tours head out when the tide is high, and villagers have set shared guiding rules to protect it.