Zamami Trip

We had a 4 day weekend for Labor Day so we hopped a ferry and headed to Zamami Island! It is one of the Kerama Islands which are some of the most beautiful of the Ryukyu Islands. We went to Zamami when we first moved to Okinawa and have been dreaming of making it back. We finally made it happen. 

Our guesthouse was a short 5 minute walk from the port so off we went!

It was called the Iyonchi Guesthouse. 

There were individual rooms with a shared space that included a place to enjoy a picnic meal, refrigerator and sink. This was the shared space.

Our room, lucky number 13.

There were 2 sets of bunk beds...

And tatami mats. Perfect for our family of 6.

We also shared a bathroom and separate shower rooms for men and women.

This is the view from the top floor where our room was. The open door down stairs was the shower room.


After dropping our stuff off and claiming our beds we changed into our swimsuits and made our way back to the port to catch the bus to the beach. We lived these funky shisa.

The port

The bus ride was a short one. On our way to the beach we saw these little old ladies in their many layers of clothes(to protect themselves from the brutal sun) sweeping up the sidewalk and raking. It amazes me when I see the elderly working and trucking along just like everyone else. 

Would you look at that view!

We got to the beach and the kids took off. They didn't even stick around long enough for sunscreen!

We spent a few hours on the beach and then went to dinner at a burger and pizza place. It was soooo good!

After dinner we walked to this little grocery store to pick up some stuff for the kids to have for breakfast since we knew that they wouldn't like the Japanese breakfast offered by our guesthouse. This grocery store was small but it had just about anything one could need.

The next morning, Rich and I enjoyed our Japanese breakfast of salmon, salad and miso. Yum!

I love how they put the pronunciation for the Japanese characters for us Americans😂

After breakfast we took the bus to the beach.

On our first day, when we first got to the beach, Arabella spotted a huge unicorn floatie that we could rent for the day. Rich surprised her with it on or second day.



She was in heaven


They all 4 played on it all day.

Zamami has amazing snorkeling and after having taken both Aidan and Maya out, Rich really wanted to take Arabella out. She has recently been really scared of fish and He was hoping to help her overcome that fear. She seemed all for it until she was in the water and it was time to start swimming. That is when she started screaming. I'm talking, someone is trying to kill her, screaming! Rich was super patient. He finally convinced her to give it a try by promising her ice cream.

She did it! She snorkeled and she loved it! 

Her reward.

We all headed up for some lunch.

Took some pictures

Got a treat

Then, we took the bus to Ama beach to finish off our beach day and hopefully swim with sea turtles.

We did swim with sea turtles! We waited for high tide then snorkeled out and watched a sea turtle feed on sea grass. It was pretty cool!

We watched the sunset.

Just as the sun went down, it started to rain. We took cover for a few minutes and then started our 20 minute walk back home.

On our way home we stopped to take a picture with the Marilyn statue. There is a really cute story about this statue HERE



Our last day, we had a few hours before our ferry set sail so we hit the beach one last time. This time we got the duck with sunglasses floatie!

On our way back to our room we came across this Studio Ghibli themed yard!

We all needed a getaway and Zamami was the perfect way to spend our long weekend. On our way home we drove past this cute bus. Perfect ending to a perfect weekend. I love Okinawa!