Jake's Yoron Adventure...by Jake

I have a guest poster today! Jake wanted to share his pictures with us and tell us about his trip to Yoron Island. He had some technical difficulties with the camera (it was a disposable, waterproof camera that you could reload...only the film would not advance) so he wasn't able to get as many pictures as he had hoped. These are from a regular disposable camera he brought (which didn't have the reloading option....bummer).

Anyway, take it away, Jake!


If you ever plan (like me) to get on another island surrounding Okinawa, this would be the ferry you would be riding. The ride to Yoron Island is about 2 hours.



It may not look so fancy in this area, but otherwise it's like a five story, floating hotel.



This would be the mat that you would be sleeping on, if you wanted to. There are also restaurants and lounges...but most people lay on these mats and rest.



You have a good view of the sea outside and neighboring islands to Okinawa.



These people look so excited because on the ferry, there were three sea-sick kids and the ride was very long.



This is one of the awesome beaches on Yoron Island. Out in the distance you can barely see a coral reef.



This is my team's bamboo shipyard. We were lashing large bamboo polls together so we could have the raft go out to sea. Everyone was assigned to make rafts in teams, organized by minshukus*. We were pulled out by a jet ski on our raft and we had paddles. Basically, we went out to sea and then paddled back. Our team did well...no one fell over.



This is the sugar cane that I carried with me while I was hiking. We went to caves on Yoron and we also went to an ancient Yoron village...and then finally we ground up our sugar cane on this big (yet surprisingly simple) sugar cane grinding machine. This made the sugar cane into juice. They took all of our stems and put them into the machine, and 3 people at a time grabbed the big pole to push, which made a gear in the machine spin, and there were two gears beside it, and that's what ground the sugar cane. We each got about a bathroom sized Dixie cup worth of sugar cane juice.



This is my friend, Mitsuru. He's from mainland Japan. We were together since day one. We didn't speak each other's language, but we used hand signals and showing things to communicate. On the last day, we had a legitimate conversation through a chaperon/translator.

We were also assigned partners for the whole week. My partner was the daughter of the Indonesian Ambassador to Japan. I didn't get her picture or her email address...but she got mine and I hope she emails me.



Yoron Island is mostly farm land...mostly sugar cane crops. This hay is for the cows.



This is from the last night we were there. There was a big dance-off between the American and Japanese staff and the different minshukus*. Our group performed to "We're All in This Together". The orange minshuku did my favorite..."Thriller" and they won. We came in second.

I hope my friends I made remember me. I hope other kids in the future get to experience the wonders of Yoron Island, too.

*a minshuku is like a family-run Bed and Breakfast. The American kids each stayed in a minshuku with several Japanese and/or Indonesian kids for the week. They also divided up into minshukus for the contests and activities.