Deep south: Living the slow life in Okinawa

When we first spot Gentetsu Maeshiro, he's way down Sunset Beach, a stick figure bent over by the shore.

It's mid-afternoon and my wife and I are among a handful of people enjoying this long stretch of sand on the east side of Ishigaki, one of the southernmost islands in the southernmost part of Japan, Okinawa.

We pass a couple from Saitama, north of Tokyo, who just rented an inflatable ring to go floating in the East China Sea.

"What do you think of this place," I ask them.

"It's so pretty," the young woman replies, looking longingly at the turquoise water.     

The stick figure that is Gentetsu Maeshiro is still down the beach, still bent over, still working intently on something. We’re intrigued, so we head his way, the coarse sand and bits of broken coral scratching at our feet.

We get closer and see Maeshiro’s stringing freshly cleaned fish to a line. He'd been gutting them in the water and is now ready to bring the catch home to his wife and three-year-old daughter.

"How did you get them," I ask after we introduce ourselves.

"Spear fishing," he says with a warm grin, holding the line a little higher, colorful creatures with names I couldn't even guess at (especially the Japanese ones).

Maeshiro, 31, was born and raised on Ishigaki, the main island of a chain known collectively as the Yaeyamas, just a stone’s throw from Taiwan.

Fishing is his hobby. Farming is his livelihood.

He runs a beef farm with about 90 head of cattle, a short drive from Sunset Beach. Talking to him with the sun warming our backs and the waves cooling our feet, our concrete box apartment in bustling Tokyo feels a country away.

Distinct and independent

In many ways, mainland Japan might as well be a neighboring nation. The Japanese government annexed these islands, known as the Ryukyus, and renamed them in the 1870s.

Even today, the Okinawan people are considered fiercely independent and culturally distinct. This plays out in their mindset, their music and their food, among other things. Their low fat, low salt diet -- filled with fish, tofu, seaweed and veggies -- is one reason people here have the longest life expectancy in the world. More than 400 centenarians reside here (at last count). 

Small wonder Gentetsu Maeshiro hasn’t considered living anywhere else.

"Weather good, food good, air good, everything good," he says in staccato English.

Easier access

Okinawa is a big draw for Japanese and international travelers alike, despite the cost of getting there (around ¥80,000 to fly to the main island). Just a short hop from Tokyo, people jet down for a week or even a weekend to sunbathe, scuba dive and snorkel.

“It’s really a different place,” says Ryu, a music teacher from Yokohama, who’s celebrating his honeymoon with his wife, Mai. “The people, the food, the sea.”

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Ryu and Mai are down to the last few hours of their four-day trip, the minutes almost melting away as fast as the cool treat they just bought from the roadside ice cream truck near Ishigaki’s northern tip. They’re wishing they could do it all over again.

The newlyweds might find coming back could be easier and less expensive in the future. Workers are busy building a new airport on Ishigaki, which is scheduled to open in a couple of years.

In that time, Japan’s two main airlines, All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL), are planning to launch discount carrier services.