Tokashiki Island

Last weekend we had a new OkiJET conference on Thursday and Friday, which conveniently left us all still together on Saturday to hop on the ferry and take a very short ride that put us in an island paradise. Despite the fact that many of you may envision my daily life happening surrounded by sandy beaches, I actually live in a city. It's still tropical: there are palm trees and ocean breezes and large bugs and flowers where I live, but it's not the cutting edge of Okinawa;-) We went to Tokashiki island (where one JET actually lives), which has a very small but pleasant population, most of which I imagine must be engaged in occupations relating to tourism. There were about 40 of us, and we camped out under huge canopies, in the open air, on raised tatami mats. It was beautiful! I think we did a lot of pinching ourselves, trying to figure out if we were actually there in the postcard. On deserted beaches on a tropical island somewhere in the pacific. Yup, we were. These are coral beaches, which makes the water really blue. People swam and snorkeled until nightfall, at which point we brought our coolers down to the beach, built a bonfire, and had some fireworks. And some more nighttime swimming. The next morning I woke up with my head in an incipient anthill, constructed overnight on my pillow/head, but this was no big deal. After stories of the guy who passed out face down on the beach last year and woke up with a huge swollen eye where a spider had bitten him, who's going to complain about a few ants in my hair. Though I do wonder what attracted them to my head.