You quit the airport and drive along roads flanked with palm trees, past fields of tall sugar cane and stone-walled gardens bristling with red hibiscus flowers, and it's clear that you've arrived in a very different part of Japan.

Ishigakijima Island might be the main transport nexus for the Yaeyama Islands, situated at the southwestern end of the Okinawan archipelago in Okinawa Prefecture, but the airport itself is a pint-sized affair, sleepy like the rest of this island. Ishigakijima is keen to proclaim the fact that its main city, also called Ishigaki, is Japan's southernmost city, but it's one where the main road is completely deserted on a Saturday afternoon, its shops devoid of customers.

Though Ishigaki is for the most part about as quiet a city as you are likely to find, one hive of constant activity is its harbor. From here, boats large and small depart for the more famed other islands of the Yaeyamas -- Taketomijima with its delightful streets of coral sand; Iriomotejima with its primeval jungles; and Yonagunijima, home to mysterious underwater structures some believe were the handiwork of an ancient civilization.