villa HIRUGI

We only spent 2 nights at Villa Hirugi, but we wished it was more. The weather was mostly bad so we could not swim or enjoy the beach very much, but thanks to Villa Hirugi we could nevertheless enjoy our stay very much. The owner and her kids are very lovely and the facility is well maintained and clean. There were no other guests around so we got a free upgrade to a room equipped with an own bathroom. The Izakaya 5 minutes down the street (Pocket House) provides good basic food and drinks and a small shop in a guesthouse next door (Mariudo) offers cigarettes, beer and other small snacks to buy. We booked a Kayak and Jungle hiking tour with the afilliated Kaguya tour guide which was a very pleasent experience too. The bicycles (one day for free) are well maintained and perfect for a trip to Hoshizuna Beach (20-30min). Due to weather conditions the ferry to Uehara was canceled so we ended up in Ôhara. A free shuttle bus to Uehara (approx. 1 hour) let's you off wherever you tell the driver to do so. For Villa Hirugi, what would be the Izakaya. From there it is a 5 minute walk. On the return trip, we were directly brought Ôhara by Kaguya staff. We mostly communicated in Japanese, so no experience with language problems. There ware almost no negative things to say. The floor in our room was stained from what may be rain. It looked like somebody forgot to close the window once. This was not a real problem, though. Note there is not much around except the Izakaya. But this is true for almost all of Iriomote island and the very reason you go there anyway.