[ Apr.2017 ] I continue talking about our tour by taxi in Ishigaki Island in Okinawa, Japan.
We spent one hour in the open air museum called “Yaima Village”.
This is a museum where six traditional houses were dismantled and reconstructed and people can enter the houses to see inside.
In one house, they were letting people wear the traditional Ryukyu costumes and take photos.
I love dressing up in the local costumes.
The man there did a very good job, so much so that a friend of mine who saw our photos later said to me “You looked great in the costume”.
Then we went to the area within the museum, where Squirrel Monkeys were living in the natural environment.
They are small monkeys with light coloured hairs and so friendly that they would climb up to your hands or 
shoulders when you give them some foods, but on the other hand, you have to be careful about your belongings because they would take things from your bags.
Well, monkeys all seem to do that, don’t they.
I saw that Indian monkey snatch a a man’s glasses while he was wearing them.
Also not so long ago, we saw monkeys in Gibraltar and the warning there said that we had to watch out for our things, too.
We did not give them any foods, but some people did and those monkeys were swiftly gathering around the people which reminded me of Coatis we saw at the Iguazu Fall and made me nervous.
So I moved quickly and got out of the cage.
We also walked around the mangrove forest a bit, but it was not as spectacular as the one we saw in Colombia.
This Yaima Village seemed to have some cultural courses and events, too.
After the museum, we visited Ishigaki-yaki Pottery Studio.
They are making unique potteries that combined the Chinese origin pottery called Yuteki Tenmoku whose colour is dark with some silver colour dots like scattered oil with glass to add the beautiful blue.
This blue represents the sea of Ishigaki.
I love this blue which is like Turquoise or Chrysocolla, so we wanted to add one to our plate collection at home, but the proper goods were very expensive.
So we bought one which was slightly imperfect.
The staff explained that the glass can be added only on the flat part, so deep pieces like cups had only a small bit of blue inside.
But apparently if you put some water, it looks as if a small sea spread around because of the light.
When we were looking around, the owner, Mr. Haruhiko Kaneko came and explained “When I was four, I asked my father to add the bottom of the milk jar to his pottery. And when he baked it, the blue colour came out. That was the beginning”.
His father is a potter, too.
His works were exhibited in England and France and had good responses.
Also the Emperor has one of his work in his collection apparently.
