Consulting a map of Okinawa, you might be forgiven for thinking that the Yaeyama Islands group comprises fragments of Japan and China that have become loosened and detached. It's an impression confirmed at every turn once you set foot on these remote littorals.

Ferries from the larger island of Ishigaki — whose airport is the the Yaeyamas' most popular gateway — take little more than 10 minutes to reach the small terminus on Taketomi, an island that was an undersea coral reef before seismic forces thrust it to the surface as a flat landmass just 3.5 km from north to south and 2.5 km east to west.

Bicycle-rental people and minshuku (guesthouse) owners were happy to take visitors from the small port into the village but, choosing to walk, I noticed there wasn't a single tree to be seen. As the gravel road passed by a graveyard, though, I was reminded that death is as much a part of these tiny idyllic islands as the daily lives of this small community of around 300 people who make Taketomi their home.