Experience the best of Ishigaki

Ishigaki is the busiest and most populous of the Yaeyama Islands, in the far south-west of Okinawa Prefecture, closer to Taiwan than to Tokyo. Its coast is ringed with coral reef, and Kabira Bay is a sheltered cove of vivid emerald water and white sand, where glass-bottomed boats glide over the coral and black pearls are farmed. Inland, Mount Omoto, at 526 metres, is the highest peak in Okinawa Prefecture.

Divers and snorkellers come for the manta rays that feed off the northern coast and for the reef at Yonehara. Ferries run from the harbour to neighbouring islands, including Taketomi, where water buffalo pull carts through lanes of red-tiled houses and coral walls, and Iriomote, a mostly forested island of mangrove rivers. Hateruma, the southernmost inhabited island in Japan, is known for its dark night skies.

Ishigaki beef is the local luxury, and Yaeyama soba, round noodles in a light broth, is the everyday meal, with goya bitter melon stir-fries, sea grapes and the local awamori spirit. Warm weather lasts most of the year. Typhoons pass between summer and autumn, and the sea is warm enough for swimming from spring into November.