The Village of Taketomi-jima Island

The streetscape of Taketomi island is designated as “the preservation district for the groups of important historic buildings” by the country, the three clusters of houses in the center of the island being surrounded in a concentric circle by a woodland, an agricultural land, a forest reserve, a sandy beach, a coral reef and a coral border. While the residents observe rules such as “signboards and the like exposed outside the buildings are prohibited in principle”, “the purchase of land for the development of a large-scale resort cannot be accepted”, and “the residents must periodically restore the roads by gathering white sand on a sandy beach because white sand is carried away a little more toward the sea whenever it rains and a typhoon comes”, the clusters of houses with red tiled roofs which can be said to be an original landscape in Okinawa are still preserved owing to the islanders’ efforts.

10 min. on a high speed ship from Ishigaki-jima Island