A Tour of Breathtaking
Places in Okinawa

We were the first in Japan to host ecotours on a canoe. Iriomote Island has a lot of rain, so the waterways are well developed. There are many large and small streams and rivers, including Okinawa Prefecture’s largest river, the Urauchi River. Also, there are plenty of waterfalls worth seeing. The banks along the river estuaries have many mangrove trees. On our canoe tours, red mangroves, large-leafed orange mangroves, and many other subtropical plants can be seen up close. With the explanations of the guide, deeper knowledge of the nature can be gained.

I try to include stories about the history and culture of Iriomote Island in the tours. For example, the mangroves were used in everyday life on the island. They were used as rafters to support the roofs of houses, as paint, and as charcoal. The area where I grew up, the Inaba area located mid-stream along the Urauchi River, has been a town where rice cultivation has been thriving since long ago.

When I was a child, my father had a small boat. While he worked as a fisherman and a farmer, he worked as a guide on the side, giving tours of the Urauchi River. Before Okinawa was returned to Japan, there was a time when US currency—1 USD was worth 360 yen at the time—was used on the island. Back then, most of his customers were members of mountain trekking clubs or people who loved nature. After many floods, Inaba town disappeared in the 1970s. My family moved to the Urauchi area and set up a full-time tourism business, and the memories of our hometown is remembered in Kitchen Inaba, which opened 16 years ago.

In July 2021, Amami Oshima, Tokunoshima, northern Okinawa Island, and Iriomote Island were registered as the fifth natural world heritage site in Japan. I hope that guidelines and rules will be set out for ecotours and that nature will no longer be destroyed. In recent years, we have seen an increase in entrepreneurs and visitors with many different ways of thinking, which has resulted in many problems.

My homeland, Iriomote Island, has taught me to know when I have enough. To take only what I need from nature and be considerate enough to leave something for the next person. Everyone on the island must respect their roles and cooperate with each other in order to preserve our island’s nature for the next generation. We, as guides, are returning to the basics and relearning everything we know about nature in order to conduct our ecotours. I hope that everyone who comes to the island will enjoy themselves, become a fan, and continue to support the island for a long time.