Why did I move to the southern island?
It’s been three years since I started living on a small island without a convenience store or police, because I only lived within a 10-minute walk of a subway station.
“Why did you decide to live on this island?”
I would like to answer today’s frequently asked questions in today’s theme.
There are several reasons, but here I would like to talk about the following three points.
- Favorite place you want to live
- Natural environment suitable for raising children
- An attractive environment surrounded by nature
【1】Favorite place you want to live
After I was grown up, I often traveled with my friends and boyfriend to the southern islands of Asia and Japan.
Taketomi Island was one of the islands I visited.
Do you know Taketomijima?
I learned that the name and the sand on the shore had the shape of a star, as it was drawn in the “Star Makeup” comic book I read when I was a girl.
When I choose to travel,
“Taketomijima? It appeared in manga. Let’s go.”
I think it was like that.
First experience of guesthouse
On Taketomi Island, we stayed at a guesthouse called “Nohara-sou”.
At that time, it was 5,000 yen for one night with two meals.
Shower is shared. Meals are eaten in the main room by all guests together.
After dinner, “Yuntaku,” and let the old man at the guesthouse listen to the sanshin and song, and all the guests chat while drinking awamori.
It was as if I was staying at my relative’s house and had no privacy at all, but it was a stay I had never experienced before.
It was kind of fun, and I’ve been there twice since that.
After that, we had some exchanges with some of the guests who stayed at the same time, and we met again in places other than Taketomi Island (in Kyoto, Tokyo, Paris…) and got excited about the memory of Taketomi Island.
In such a conversation
“I want to live in Taketomi Island”
Everyone might have been talking without thinking about the possibility of realization.
【2】Natural environment suitable for raising children
Before moving to here, we lived in the center of a city with severe air pollution.
There was a botanical garden in the immediate vicinity and it was also a cultural district, so it was a relatively easy place to raise children.
However, the security is worse than in Japan, and it is a rule that children are not allowed to go out without an adult until around 10 years old.
There were many pickpockets, and in recent years there were terrorist attacks that killed many people not far from where we lived.
The fun of city dwellers is to spend weekends and vacation in the countryside (mountain or sea).
While living in such a situation, I somehow longed for living in the countryside.
I became more interested in raising children in a nature where they could run barefoot on the soil instead of in a park surrounded by cobblestones, concrete and cages.
【3】An attractive environment surrounded by nature
The charm of the island is that it is surrounded by nature.
You can live with turquoise waters, white sands and lush greenery all year round.
Population density and building density are so relaxed that they are incomparable to the land where we used to live.
Once you live on the island, you won’t feel like returning to it when you’re on a crowded train for over an hour and commuting to work.
Since there is nothing extra in sight, you live while conscious of what is really important.
Many islanders are engaged in tourism.
A tourism resource is a village that preserves beautiful nature and traditional culture and traditions.
【4】Summary
There are other reasons besides that, but I decided to move after I found a job.
At first, I rented an apartment on Ishigaki Island.
Taketomi Island has a rule that it is not easy to rent or sell land or houses to people outside the island, so we have to rely on the islanders to find a property where they can live with their families.
While going to Taketomi Island by ferry from Ishigaki Island, I was told that I could rent an old private house in Taketomi Island, and I was able to safely live in Taketomi Island.
I thought that I would never live in a big house with a garden for the rest of my life, so I appreciate it.
