Christian's Travel Blog

Although I toured the globe with a tent in my backpack for decades - preferably on my motorbike - this is my first camping experience in Japan. I spent now two weeks on Iriomote-jima and Ishigaki-jima at three out of five listed campgrounds. Three campsites are on Iriomote and two on Ishigaki, whereas the supposed best located campground on Yonehara Beach continues to be closed since last year. Don't be fooled, as still a busline 'Yonehara Campground Line' runs daily from the airport to the west coast. Therefore Inoda Auto Campground was the only option on Ishigaki - spacious and directly located in dense native bush right at Inoda Beach. There is a reception and reasonable facilities, like a sanitation block with hot showers, covered cooking facilities and a mini-shop. End of March temperatures are still around 20 degrees and weather - probably all year round - is rather changeable. Too early for swimming, except you have a wetsuit for some of the b...

Okinawa - by some compared as Japan's Hawaii - is known to most travelers to Asia and Japan in particular. It is also the favourite destination for Japanese tourists in the Ryukyus. They get what they look for - a well developed and convenient sub-tropical holiday paradise. But maybe it's only due to lack of time, as the entire island chain of some 150 islands streches over more than 1.000 km from the southern end of Kyushu to Taiwan. The Ryukyus itself are locally better known by its regional archipelagos, like the Osumi Islands, Amami Islands, Okinawa Islands, and down South the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands. So maybe it is good to have a rough guide of the journey in your mind, and it is obvious that you need time. Especially when the starting point is solotravel, backpacking and camping, whereever possible. A rough guide is not that difficult, as 'island hopping' in the Ryukyus is nowadays as simple as reliable - mostly by ferry, and larger dist...

2020 ... the year my travel experience entered a new dimension, as i got locked up for 7 months in Japan. More precise, in Fukuoka - as traveling the country was out of question and flights between Asia and Europe were literally stopped. But there's always a good surprise. The planned first visit of my siblings to Japan was cancelled, but I was rewarded to extend my time with my wife ... yep, she's living in the modern city of Fukuoka to take care for her elderly parents.  2023 ... I'm back to Fukuoka ... the borders recently were opened to foreigners. And this time it's travel time - not only Japanese are keen to see spring and 'Sakura' arriving down south. Although with a closed airspace over Russia and Ukraine the route takes a large U-turn. The Ryukyu Islands - a vast number of mostly tiny sub-tropical islands streching over 1000 km from Taiwan up to Kyushu - are on my agenda. Not for a short luxury holiday in Okinawa, but a 'trip into the wi...