Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The island has a large number of beautiful white sand beaches. Its most western beach
starts at the Pricia Resort Hotel and wraps itself around the little cape where the airport run-
way begins. In fact, but for a security fence you could walk from the hotel to the air terminal.
Since this beach is the last to see the sun go down, it's popularly known as Sunset Beach (
兼
母海岸
; Kenébo-kaigan). Much longer, almost the entire length of the island's east coast is
one great beach, or rather more precisely, one beach after another. Starting from the north
and traveling south, you'll see Minata bīchi (
ミナタビーチ
), then Crystal (
クリスタルビー
チ
; Kurisutarubīchi), then “Funagura” (
船倉海岸
; Funagura-kaigan), then Yoron's most pop-
ular and longest beach, the 1.25-mile (2-kilometer) Ō-Ganéku-kaigan (
大金久海岸
).
Blowfish, Pufferfish, Porcupinefish
These and other common names are used for over 100 different species commonly known in Japan as
fugu
(
河豚
or
鰒フグ
; lit. “river pig”) Our litle spikey friend, ater proper preparaion, will ind himself
on someone's dinner plate. He's an expensive delicacy and, if not correctly cooked, deadly poisonous.
An average blowfish contains enough tetradotoxin to kill 30 people, making it one of the world's most
toxic substances, 1,200 imes more lethal than cyanide. To be licensed, Japanese chefs must be spe-
cially trained to remove the poison porions of the ish, then it's said to be delicious. Nevertheless,
each year, about a dozen people in Japan die from eaing
fugu
.
