Yubu Island Water Buffalo Carts

 

Yubu is a tine island 400 meters off the coast or Iriomote Island that has no ferries or bridge.

Transport to and from the island is by carts pulled by water buffalo, or by walking.

The island was formed by  deposits from the Yonara River and so is only just 1 meter above sea level. At high tide the channel is only 1 meter at the deepest point, and at lower tides is much shallower.

A line of utility poles marke the route for pedestrians and carts.

Very much a touristy thing, the drivers typically play sanshin and sing Okinawan folk songs.

Most of the island is a botanical garden. The island was settled after WWII but most left after a devastating typhoon of 1969.

The previous post was Iriomote Island Snapshots. An earlier post on Taketomi Island Water Buffalo Carts.

Taketomi Island Water Buffalo

At several places around the Okinawan Islands you can ride in a cart drawn by Water Buffalo, but the most well known is I think the island of Taketomi.

The water buffalo was domesticated about 5,000 years ago in India and about 4,000 years ago in southern China, which is probably where Okinawa got them from.

Taketomi Island is quite small with just a few hundred inhabitants living in the one village of Taeketomi, a Histroical Preservation District of Historic Buildings with traditional streets of sand lined with stone walls.

Almost every house has a red tile roof, but that is a modern phenomenon that started in 1905 because traditionally commoners were not allowed tile roofs, rather they were thatched.

Ishigaki Sea Salt