One of the attractions on Iriomote is a water buffalo cart ride to the tiny island of Yubu, a botanical garden. The water is only a few inches deep between the islands, so you can actually walk, but the touristy thing is to take the water buffalo cart.
The stretch of water between the two islands.
Masami and I walked, just because I wanted to say I walked to an island. Theo rode in style. It was hot, too and I thought the water would cool me off. After seeing the buffalo fertilize the water, I can see why people paid to ride in the cart.
Tough buffalo. I guess I'd be a little irritable if someone strung a rope through my nose and made me pull a cartload of tourists, too.
The shell house was part of the gardens.
Manta rays migrate past the islands, but I guess you need to scuba dive to see them. Maybe next time.
Why won't this buffalo move?!
Butterfly house.
Water lily.
Cooling off. I wanted to jump in with them. I was so delirious from the heat I tried to take a bite out of a plastic ice cream cone (thoughtfully offered by my favorite son).
More Iriomote wanderings:
Pinaisara Falls from a distance. It was a long walk across the mudflat, and it was raining, so we skipped it.
Kayaks don't do much good in the mud. I saw a group of people dragging theirs back. They probably paid $100 for the privilege.
Beautiful blue water.
The tide was so low, the live coral was above water. I've never seen this before.
Sakishimasuonoki Tree Community (say that fast three times).
The mudskippers and snails make mazes of trails in the mud when the tide is out.
Beautiful sandy beach Tudumari. No coral or fish, but supposedly they have box jellyfish, but we didn't see any of those either.
Found a nice reef at the shallow Nakano Beach. I like the contrast of the orange sponge with the neon blue fish.
A blue starfish tucked into the coral.
Squid egg cases, each containing hundreds of squid eggs.
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