Long lives and healthy times

The villagers of Ogimi, in the northern part of the main island, are in no hurry to meet their ancestors across the sea. The drive there is wonderful: you go ‘island hopping’ across Kouri, Yagaji and Oh, ending up at a sweet place that has become famous as the ‘longevity village’ – where people live longer than anywhere else in the world.

Geneticists and nutritionists constantly wrangle over why. A bento box at the Emi no Mise restaurant stuffed with black carrots, ginger, radish, oranges, herbs and sweet potato may be enough to put you in the nutritionist camp.

Dragonflies, butterflies and shells

The main island, Okinawa, is only one of about two dozen islands that comprise the Okinawan archipelago. From the main island, it takes an hour’s flight to reach the southerly group, the Yaeyama islands.

This is where you come to get away from work and politics and shopping. On Kohama and Taketomi you coast on bikes through sugar cane fields, walk barefoot on silvery beaches, snorkel away the day in sparkling turquoise seas or, like me, hack your way around the very fine golf course at Kohama’s Hoshino Resort Risonare Kohamajima, scaring the resident peacocks along the way.

But the southernmost inhabited island, Iriomote, just 200 kilometres from the coast of Taiwan, has a different topography altogether. Here, you really can find Nirakanai – it’s the name of the island’s best resort. As we drove from the pier the bright morning sunlight caught the wings of dragonflies and butterflies as they danced around the bus windows, and lit up the Pinaisara Falls waterfall as it escaped from the mountainous jungle.

There is a sun-blanched little beachside café and hotel called Rest House Hoshi-No-Suna, close to Nirakanai. The Hoshizuna cove below is ringed with coral outcrops: the view across the bay is stupendous. But most people here don’t come for the view: they look intently at the ground. This is a star sand beach. The tiny grains are star-shaped fossils of marine life from over a billion years ago. It’s the kind of discovery you make on these heavenly shores.

Okinawa selections

Hotels