Ishigaki Yaima Village
Last updated: September 13, 2026
On a hillside above Ishigaki's Nagura Bay, Yaima Village gathers the old Yaeyama Islands into one strolling park: red-tiled farmhouses registered as national tangible cultural properties, sanshin music drifting from their verandas, and shisa lions on every roofline. Water buffalo doze by their pond, a protection cage shelters the crested serpent eagle — the Yaeyamas' own raptor — and the squirrel monkey garden lets you feed its fearless little residents from your palm. A walking course drops to the Ramsar-listed Nagura Amparu wetland, where mudskippers and fiddler crabs run the mangrove floor.
Itinerary
- Stop at: Ishigaki Yaima Village
Frequently Asked Questions
An open-air village museum of the Yaeyama Islands: century-old red-tiled houses relocated here and registered as national tangible cultural properties, arranged on a hill over Nagura Bay with sanshin music, traditional costume try-ons and craft corners bringing the old island life back to walking pace.
Yes — the squirrel monkey garden is the village's crowd-pleaser, a walk-through enclosure where the tiny monkeys clamber over visitors at feeding time. Buy the feed at the entrance, hold your palm flat, and guard anything shiny; they are quick-fingered hosts.
The tidal wetland at the foot of the village's hill — a Ramsar-listed mangrove estuary where herons stalk between fiddler crabs and mudskippers at low tide. The village's nature course leads down for a close look at one of the Yaeyamas' richest habitats.
The village sits on the Nagura Bay road about 20 minutes' drive northwest of Ishigaki's town centre and port, with island buses passing on the Kabira Bay route. It pairs naturally with Kabira Bay, ten minutes further north.