Glad it was helpful!

You're going to love it. I really hope you go. And please make sure you do exactly what the guys did and paddle away swiftly when you see a sea snake or anything that resembles a jellyfish; the islands DO have Man-o-wars and many beaches have no lifeguards and are sparsely populated by other swimmers/beach-goers so no help will be available. You'll likely die on the beach the day you get bitten by either if you haven't got a first aid responder and a quick driver at hand. My top tip is when snorkelling, stick to beaches with other people (if not lifeguards) and keep looking up from all the colourful fish towards the top of the water as that's where you're going to spot the jellyfish tentacles hovering ominously. Don't let this put you off: Yonehara Beach on Ishigaki Island is glorious, so many fish you'll lost count trying to catalogue the different types you see. 🤿🏖💓

And the trash; Ishigaki Island in particular has a serious 'ocean rubbish' problem as well as odd garbage all over beautiful places like Arakawa Falls. They need to regularly sweep the beaches clean of all the stuff that shamefully washes up on the shore from China etc and address the tourists and local kids hanging out in places like Arakawa and trashing the joint. I felt disgusted to see all the bottles and rubbish in a jungle area, gross.