探索星號 | 宮古島一日遊 | 郵輪的宮古島旅行團品質究竟如何?

探索星號 | 宮古島一日遊 | 郵輪的宮古島旅行團品質究竟如何?

Hello everyone, I’m Aaron. Today, we’re traveling with the Star Navigator to Japan’s— Today’s itinerary is very different from last time in Naha. Totally different. Naha was all about eating, playing, and shopping. But here in Miyako Island, it’s mostly about natural scenery and local activities like salt-making experiences. Unfortunately, the weather isn’t great today. It was pouring rain first thing in the morning. So we’ll start our day by boarding the tour bus and just let the bus take us around~ Since Miyako Island has no metro and limited public transportation, the main ways to get around are renting a car or joining a tour. This time, I joined a paid shore excursion offered by the Star Navigator. There’s also a bilingual tour guide onboard who speaks Chinese and Japanese. So there’s absolutely no problem communicating. I actually bought this tour after boarding the ship. The staff gave me a very detailed introduction when I inquired about the excursion. If you’re planning to join a tour too, I suggest buying it as soon as you board. Some tours fill up quickly and can’t be added later. So it’s basically first come, first served. One reason I chose to join a shore excursion is because I checked the weather forecast and saw it would rain when we arrived in Miyako Island. So I already made some rainy day backup plans. But after boarding the ship, I realized the tour included all the places I planned to visit in my backup plans. So I figured—why go it alone? Might as well just join the ship’s tour. And I wanted to see what these shore excursions are like. This onboard excursion— As you saw earlier, the tour guide is a Chinese-speaking guide, so no communication issues at all. Today’s a chill and lazy day~ Honestly, this whole trip has been lazy. Later, I’ll just go wherever the guide says and film it all for you guys. Right now, I’m at a hotel— or rather, a place where we’re having lunch. To be honest, our first stop is lunch. Lunch at 11 a.m. It’s a bit of an odd schedule. But the guide said there’s no choice. Miyako Island is quite small, so it’s hard to find a place that can seat two buses’ worth— 80 people—for a meal at once. So we came to this resort hotel instead. The only available time slot here is now, so this is the only way to make it work. Lunch is Japanese cuisine, and the entire dining area is very spacious and bright. You can even see a beautiful ocean view out the window. Definitely resort vibes. It’s super comfortable here. Since it’s Japanese cuisine, everything is served in small individual dishes. And each dish only has a small portion of food. Among all the dishes, the one that stood out the most was the peanut tofu. It’s a signature local dish here in Okinawa and Miyako Island. Though it’s called tofu, it’s made with peanut milk and sweet potato starch. It’s smoother, chewier, and more fragrant than regular tofu. Overall, the quality of this lunch meal was pretty solid. 👍 After lunch, let me show you a bit about Miyako Island using the map. If you’re like me and coming to Miyako Island by cruise ship, you’ll likely dock at Hirara Port here. Hirara Port is located roughly in the center of the island. And when visiting Miyako Island, the main attraction is its natural beauty. Let me pull up a random photo to show you. It looks like this— This color is called “Miyako Blue.” It refers to the sea. It features a dreamy gradient from emerald green to deep blue. And actually, on the map, you can also spot it— like, I just clicked on that photo earlier, and you can already see on the map that those blue areas along the coastlines are all Miyako Blue. Absolutely stunning. Next up is its top beach— Yonaha Maehama Beach. Where is it located? It’s located right around here. This place is nicknamed “Japan’s most beautiful beach in the East.” How beautiful is it? Let me open this image and show you. It looks this stunning. This is why I say good weather matters. When the weather is nice and you visit these beaches, these shores— your photos will come out absolutely gorgeous. These are definitely must-visit spots when you come to Miyako Island. In addition to that, there are also three sea-crossing bridges. One of them is located in the southern part of Miyako Island— Kurima Bridge. Check out this photo— it looks absolutely beautiful. Aside from Kurima Bridge, there’s also this one I showed earlier— Irabu Bridge. Irabu Bridge is about 3.5 kilometers long, and it’s also stunning. Then there’s the one in the north, which I think is the most beautiful bridge of all— Ikema Bridge. Ikema Bridge connects the main island of Miyako to this island above it—Ikema. The bridge in between is called Ikema Bridge. The water under Ikema Bridge has the most vibrant color gradients. Locals even call this area “The Sea of the Gods.” Probably due to safety concerns, the bus didn’t let us off there. Instead, it drove across Ikema Bridge twice so we could enjoy the view from the bus. After that, we headed to our next stop—the Ocean Park. After finishing lunch and touring Ikema Bridge by bus, our third stop was the Ocean Park. This Ocean Park was actually part of my original rainy day backup plan. And fun fact— this rainy day backup plan was actually recommended to me by ChatGPT. I asked, “What do I do if it rains?” And it suggested coming to the Ocean Park. Now, just hearing “Ocean Park” might sound a bit abstract, but it’s basically a large aquarium. It’s built along the coast and extends underwater. You can actually go inside and see fish swimming around outside. It’s really cool. The entrance fee to Ocean Park is 1,000 yen per person. But since I joined a group tour, the ticket was included in the tour fee. When we arrived at the Ocean Park, the first thing we saw was the main entrance. We went through the entrance and bought tickets. After buying tickets, there was a small gift shop. The shop mainly sold locally made products. I saw something really funny— a pair of flip-flops. And it said something like “Yuan Dynasty and Kamakura Era” or whatever. But the pattern on it was Hokkaido tuna jerky. No idea why it looked like that. Walking further inside the park, we exited to the outside and saw— a welcome sign. As we continued walking outside, we saw the ocean. The sea stretches out on both sides, and it’s stunning. Even just standing here, you can take tons of amazing photos. After taking all those ocean shots, we continued deeper into the Ocean Park. As we walked down, we passed several markers— because we had to go quite far down. And along this deep descent, you’ll see markers for high tide, and low tide levels as well. Then we kept going all the way down. At the very bottom is the area I mentioned, where you can see fish and other interesting marine creatures. Besides directly observing the fish outside the glass underwater, there are also many specimens inside the facility. There are a lot of displays and exhibits too. Although everything is written in Japanese, you can pretty much understand it just by looking at the pictures and context. They even explain how the Ocean Park was built— what kind of glass was used, how thick it is—it’s all labeled. Our guide said if you’re lucky here, you might see sea turtles or even whale sharks. But I didn’t see any of those. I did see a lot of fish, all kinds of fish. It’s definitely an interesting place. Overall, I think it makes a great rainy day option. It’s a pretty solid backup plan. Besides being a backup plan for rainy days, I think it’s also a great spot for kids to have an educational experience. So if you’re visiting Okinawa, definitely consider stopping by. The ticket isn’t expensive. 1,000 yen is quite reasonable. After we finished touring the Ocean Park, our next stop was the Yukishio Saltworks. Miyako Island’s Yukishio salt was recognized in the year 2000 by the Guinness World Records as the salt with the highest mineral content in the world. But saying it holds a world record might feel abstract— what it means to us is that Yukishio makes a great souvenir. Here, they’ve created all kinds of products using the salt. Not just salt—they’ve turned it into desserts, cookies, ice cream, and all sorts of snacks. And the guide’s top recommendation was this one— their most classic item. Alright, we got our hands on Yukishio ice cream! This is my first time trying it. No idea what it tastes like, but with this kind of hot weather, it’s perfect. Let’s give it a try. Time for a taste. You might notice I look a bit puzzled. That’s because I expected ice cream to be sweet. And while it is sweet, it also has a milky flavor, plus a noticeable salty taste. It’s a bit salty. Really a unique experience. Besides shopping and eating ice cream, there’s also a small beach next to the saltworks. It was the only beach we actually got to visit today. And from this beach, you can see Ikema Bridge in the distance. The view is still quite nice. After visiting the saltworks, our next stop was Cape Nishihenna. “Hennazaki” refers to a historic place, and “zaki” means cape or a landform that juts out into the sea. So Nishihenna Zaki means the cape on the west side of Hennazaki. There’s a west and an east side. The difference from Cape Higashihennazaki is— this one is quieter and more natural. Fewer tour groups. And it features impressive wind turbines and stunning sunsets. Right now, I’m at Cape Nishihenna, and I’m getting ready to walk to the very tip of the cape. So I’m currently passing through a narrow path— you can see behind me, just passing through this trail, and heading toward the very end. In theory, the very tip of the cape should be the best place to capture ocean views. When I reached the end of the trail, I was a bit disappointed. There was quite a bit of trash around. It definitely needs a good cleanup. Plus, the sun was starting to set, so the ocean wasn’t as blue and vibrant as it was in the morning. But from here, we could get a clearer view of Ikema Bridge. And we saw a few boats passing through as well. There’s a viewing platform marked on the map— I suggest going there to take photos instead. No need to walk all the way to the very end. At the end of the tour, the cruise-organized group also took us to a supermarket for shopping. To grab some souvenirs. And with that, the day’s itinerary came to an end. After lunch today, we first visited Ikema Bridge, then went to the Ocean Park, and afterward visited the Yukishio Saltworks, and finally, we went to Cape Nishihenna, which wasn’t in my original plan. It wasn’t marked on my map, but the green label here says Cape Nishihenna. Among my planned rainy-day destinations, the only real regret is not being able to visit Miyako Shrine. It’s located near Hirara Port. We didn’t get to go to Miyako Shrine. But for a cruise-organized tour, the places we visited today were all classics. Really great picks. I’ll include this itinerary in the video description. Feel free to use it if you find it helpful. And just like that, the day flew by— we’re already back at the ship. Let’s wrap things up with a quick summary of Miyako Island. As you’ve seen in the video, I joined a shore excursion. I think the itinerary was well-planned, especially since it was raining today. The places we visited were already part of my rain-day plan, so the rain didn’t affect anything at all. If you’re different from me— say you’re not traveling solo, but with two or four people— then renting a car might be a good option. You could rent a car and explore Miyako Island freely. Drive around the city area on your own. Today’s itinerary mainly covered the northern part of the island, but the southern areas—like Irabu Bridge— are also stunning, even though we didn’t go. But that’s okay for me— I believe there’ll be a next time. Next time, we’ll head south and explore it properly. Looking forward to that! That’s the end of this episode. And also the end of my first Star Navigator cruise experience. This 4-day, 3-night adventure wraps up right here. Hope you all enjoyed it! See you in the next video—bye bye!


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片頭(0:00)
行程簡述(0:28)
午餐 (2:17)
宮古島介紹及池間大橋 (3:32)
海中公園 (5:46)
雪鹽製鹽所 (8:18)
西平安名崎 (9:42)
行程回顧 (11:06)
片尾 (11:47)

Aaron的宮古島行程規劃 Pdf
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h8_YO2seq8wuP5RMx0bULFEOHaTI-4ZL/view?usp=drive_link

Inspiring by Wavecont | https://protunes.net/
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Innocence by Roa | https://soundcloud.com/roa_music1031/
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TheFatRat – Jackpot (Jackpot EP Track 1)

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