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By day, however, it must be admitted, there are not too many sights in town, although one
you'll always find listed in the tourist brochures is Miyara Donchi ( 宮良殿 内 ), a museum,
but still a private residence. It's an example of a traditional, old-style Okinawan house dating
from 1819. As such, it is similar to the Nakamura Residence on Okinawa, the Takara House
on Geruma and the Uezu-ke old house on Kume. There is an admission charge of a couple of
hundred Yen and an old man prohibiting visitors from taking photos. I'd give this attraction
a miss and visit the ones on Okinawa or Kume or Geruma instead.
The other big “sight” in downtown Ishigaki is the 730 Crossing Monument (730 記 念碑 ;
Nana-San-Maru), named for July 30, 1978 when Okinawa's right-hand side traffic returned
to the left-hand side, which is the pattern for Japan. Under American occupation from the
end of World War II, Okinawa's traffic system had been changed to the US right-hand side.
Although the islands were returned to Japanese control in 1972, it took six more years for the
roads to be reversed to their original left orientation. The 730 Monument is a proxy for Ok-
inawa's return to Japan. It's a stone with a traffic arrow carved and painted into it indicating
the shift from driving on the American side of the road (right) to the Japanese (left) side.
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