Taketomi Island Travel Guide - Hoshinoya Taketomi
If you're visiting Ishigaki, then it's a no brainer to also visit Taketomi Island as well. Taketomi Island is just a 15 minute ferry ride from Ishigaki port, making it a popular half day trip, day trip and overnight trip destination for many tourists who visit Ishigaki.
We love travelling slow where we can some we opted for a two night, one day stay at Taketomi Island so that we could make time to check out the picturesque HOSHINOYA Taketomi Island, a stunning five star resort on Taketomi Island. It's an attraction in itself and well worth an overnight stay!
About HOSHINOYA Taketomi
HOSHINOYA Taketomi is situated on Taketomi Island and offers beautifully unique accomodation inspired by the local architecture and lifestyle. This luxury resort is such a tranquil place to be and is constructed to mimc the traditional buildings of Taketomi village, acting almost like a second little village on the side.
Taketomi Island is one of 91 districts in Japan that are preserved for its special cultural value and traditional buildings.
Did you know that Taketomi Island only has a population of around 300 people? It's tiny here!
How to get there
To get to Taketomi Island, all you need to do is take a 15 min ferry ride from Ishigaki port. You can buy the tickets on the day and the ferries to Taketomi are quite regular.
Our Villa
We stayed in the Gajoni double villa, a pavilion featuring a large king-size bed, living area, sofa, free-standing bath and full sized bathroom. The villas here are designed to have all the glass windows slide across creating a real outdoors-in kind of feel.
The Grounds
HOSHINOYA Taketomi is built with a village kind of layout, with each villa having its own garden and traditional stone walls surrounding. The resort is home to a beautiful restaurant, lounge, garden and beautiful pool which reflects the blue sky during the day. There's also a spa on site too as well as a little observatory deck which is great for watching the sun set.
BBQ Dinner in room
One of their special offerings at the resort is their Private Garden BBQ Dinner. This is a BBQ dinner held in the villa where you can cook your own meal to enjoy in the comfort of your villa. It was such a fun experience!
Breakfast
Breakfast at Hoshinoya Taketomi is such a delicious affair! On offer are four different options including both Japanese and western style breakfast sets. These are served with coffee/tea and you also have available a large range of fresh juices to choose from as well. We tried both the ryukyu style breakfast (a traditional style breakfast served on special occasions containing nine different dishes served with rice and soup) as well as the Okinawa style tofu porridge with five different toppings & seafood soup. The perfect way to start the day.
Dinner
Yummy! Food in Japan is one of my favourite things so I was super excited to try the special 'Ryukyu Nouvelle' set menu at their restaurant. It's an eight-course dinner inspired by Taketomi and Okinawa specialties and prepared using French techniques.
Umm it was delicious! Japan is totally a foodie's paradise. Here's a peek at the dishes. The presentation was spot on too and the restaurant had such a relaxing atmosphere, overlooking the gardens outside.
Spa
The Spa at HOSHINOYA Taketomi has three treatment rooms. Each room overlooks the beautifully kept gardens here. It's just such a tranquil place to be. Tom had a massage during our stay here and thoroughly enjoyed it!
Lounge Activities
The communal lounge at HOSHINOYA Taketomi is open all day long and in the mornings around 10:30am, offers free craft activities. We stumbled across this by chance whilst coming in for some tea and was so excited to see that they were creating flower-pressed postcards. I used to press flowers all the time when I was younger and so just loved spending the morning creating these little pieces of art!
Okinawa Guitar Lesson
Always wanted to learn how to play a guitar so we also participated in an Okinawa Guitar lesson. These are held in your villa. An instructor comes along and teaches you a few tunes. It's amazing how fast you can pick something up with a little guidance and encouragement!
Taketomi Town
When it comes to visiting Taketomi Town, there are a few places you can check out. We popped by the below restaurant (Garden Asahi, I believe the name was) for some yaeyama soba. Yaeyama soba is a special type of soba that they do in this area. Instead of using buckwheat, they use flour to create a thicker noodle. Almost like a ramen cross udon. It's a must try if you're visiting the area!
You should also check out Kondoi Beach! The water here is so blue, and I believe you can also go beach-entry snorkelling here which unfortunately we didn't get a chance to do.
Hope you find this post helpful for planning your upcoming travels to Taketomi Island or HOSHINOYA Taketomi! By the way, HOSHINOYA resorts are so beautiful you've got to check them out - they also have resorts in Tokyo, Kyoto, Fuji, Bali and Karuizawa!