Japan, Ishigaki.

[Wayfairers]

We are taking a ship excursion while in Ishigaki but will have a few hours after the tour before all aboard.  Looks like the ship will dock in town.  How is the town for walking around?  Any must sees in town?

[Wayfairers]

Anyone?

[Dobby36]

Im stopping there next month too, on Celebrity and following this thread, hopefully someone has some advice.  Seems like a very beachy vibe from our initial searches online.  

[Wayfairers]

40 minutes ago, Dobby36 said:

Im stopping there next month too, on Celebrity and following this thread, hopefully someone has some advice.  Seems like a very beachy vibe from our initial searches online.  

Hopefully someone will educate us before your cruise.  I would appreciate it if you would let me know how your visit goes.  

[loeb]

see what's in port

https://www.whatsinport.com/Ishigaki-Sakishima-Islands.htm

 

My recommendation is when you have a question about something, try youtube.  For example here are two videos on Ishigashi

 

 

another video

 

[Dobby36]

Great idea! I watch tons of cruise videos on there but it never occurred to me to watch a port video! Many thanks.  
 

Aalso, @Wayfairers I meant next cruise, not next month.  My apologies.  We aren’t there until early November.  

[shecritic]

Ishigaki is perfect for walking around during your few hours ashore. Must-see places within walking distance include Miyara Dunchi (samurai residence), Yaeyama Museum, Euglena Mall (shopping street), and Ishigaki Public Market for local food. 

[Wayfairers]

7 hours ago, shecritic said:

Ishigaki is perfect for walking around during your few hours ashore. Must-see places within walking distance include Miyara Dunchi (samurai residence), Yaeyama Museum, Euglena Mall (shopping street), and Ishigaki Public Market for local food. 

Thank you!

[austromyrtus]

i recommend taking a ferry to nearby taketomi island. https://visitishigaki.com/yaeyama-islands/taketomi-island/

tickets can be purchased from the ferry terminal at the end of the wharf where the cruise ship tender boats go ashore in ishigaki (well this is the way it was when we went in 2019)

[Wayfairers]

7 hours ago, austromyrtus said:

i recommend taking a ferry to nearby taketomi island. https://visitishigaki.com/yaeyama-islands/taketomi-island/

tickets can be purchased from the ferry terminal at the end of the wharf where the cruise ship tender boats go ashore in ishigaki (well this is the way it was when we went in 2019)

Thank you.  I hadn’t found this island while researching.  

[buaya123]

On 7/21/2023 at 2:21 PM, shecritic said:

Ishigaki is perfect for walking around during your few hours ashore. Must-see places within walking distance include Miyara Dunchi (samurai residence), Yaeyama Museum, Euglena Mall (shopping street), and Ishigaki Public Market for local food. 

hi, so the cruise terminal is walking distance to these places?

[ROCruiser]

Make sure the cruise terminal is right in town. We were there in March and our cruise docked quite a way away from the city center. They did provide complimentary shuttles though. Our port day was short, very short, due to immigration process which left us with only two hours in town so I cannot be much help. Here is a video of our fail stop in Ishigaki. 

[Wayfairers]

Thanks everyone.   We will have 3 hours after our ship tour assuming the tour leaves on time.  We are doing the ship tour specifically because it is our first Japanese port and I keep finding stories about issues with the first port.

 

Hopefully if we are docked out of town there will be a shuttle so we can explore town on our own for a few hours.

[Cindy Yee]

@Wayfairers did you already go? How was immigration, I’m assuming they get the people with the ships shore excursion off the ship first …we are sailing on NCL SPIRIT from Keelung to Ishigaki 9/21

[Cindy Yee]

@ROCruiser thank you for the video, I’ll share it with our roll call group. I did NOT know that immigration can take a long time, do you think the people that purchased the ship’s excursion was first in line for immigration? Thank you for your help

[Wayfairers]

On 8/30/2024 at 7:08 PM, Cindy Yee said:

@Wayfairers did you already go? How was immigration, I’m assuming they get the people with the ships shore excursion off the ship first …we are sailing on NCL SPIRIT from Keelung to Ishigaki 9/21

Our immigration was orderly and didn't take too long.  The cruise director had repeatedly annnounced that the Japanese do not like long lines and disorder.   A schedule was distributed to everyone and those with early excursions were supposed to go first but no one checked to make sure eveyone in line was on an early excursion.  Those with a later excursion or no excursion got a later time based upon the deck their cabin was on.  We went through this with a few countries on the world cruise and the schedule order changed back and forth from top decks first to bottom decks first.