Learn and savor the history and culture of Taketomi Island: an invitation to a premium
“To Know is to Savor.” Returns: HOSHINOYA Taketomi Island Edition (Part 3)
The morning after "Island Terroir": "Hatidun-gayu" Breakfast
Hatidun-gayu breakfast. You crush the life herbs yourself and add them directly to the porridge. As I carefully savored the aroma, my breathing naturally slowed and deepened.
"Hatidun-gayu Breakfast" is a breakfast menu that Aoki-san, who deeply loves the island's ingredients, created with great effort, pondering "how to make the island's ingredients more accessible and enjoyable to eat." You grind Handama, red perilla, Chomeiso, Fuuchiba (mugwort), and Hamamachi in a mortar, and then add them to a porridge containing millet, barnyard grass, and Chomeiso, along with Andasu (oil miso). This porridge, with its gentle yet distinct herbal bitterness, will surely soothe a body recovering from Awamori.
This is a top contender for the championship of the "I wish I could eat this near home" competition.
And then, I was given a tour of the resort's fields. As I mentioned in the previous article, HOSHINOYA Taketomi Island has fields on its grounds! Taketomi Island has a unique "field culture" due to its lack of abundant water and soil unsuitable for cultivation. However, traditional crops are now facing extinction. In light of this situation, HOSHINOYA Taketomi Island launched the "Field Project" in 2017 to inherit this unique island field culture and its crops.
The leader of this project is Hayato Oyama. Upon joining HOSHINO RESORTS in 2016, Oyama-san came to HOSHINOYA Taketomi Island and learned from Ryuichi Maetomoto, the only person continuing to cultivate fields on the island, receiving seedlings from him to begin growing traditional crops. Taketomi Island has 54 native species, and "we are currently cultivating 42, but our goal is to eventually grow all 54 traditional species." I recall there were about 30 varieties two years ago. At this pace, achieving this goal doesn't seem like a distant future.
"Fields strongly reflect the culture of the land. Taketomi Island is an island formed by the uplift of coral reefs. The ground is coral just below the surface, and when you till it with a hoe, you immediately hit stones. Those stones were dug up and piled to form the stone walls."
Upon closer inspection, there are countless small stones around the fields. The unique landscape of Taketomi Island tells the story of its soil's properties.
"Since I started working in the fields, my knowledge of the island has deepened," says Oyama-san, who appears more robust than he did two years ago. He now embodies the very image of an islander tending to the fields.
Mozuku Soba (Lunch Menu)
When staying at HOSHINOYA Taketomi Island, you'll feel it's almost a waste to leave the resort. The 46-meter-long pool, open 24/7, is absolutely wonderful, and even just walking along the paths, designed in the traditional island style, feels magical. There's also so much to eat (the "Mozuku Soba" for lunch is highly recommended!).
All 48 guest rooms are detached, single-story wooden villas, following the traditional island housing style. Each villa, including its private garden planted with Okinawan flora, spans over 260 square meters. And the rooms are all south-facing. If you open the large south-facing window in the living room and the small north-facing window, the "Paikaji" (south wind), said to bring happiness, will flow through. The bathtub, positioned in the path of this south wind, is almost breathtakingly perfect (laughs). I mentioned this in the previous article, but it's important, so I'm repeating it.
The Sanshin (Okinawan three-stringed instrument) activity at HOSHINOYA Taketomi Island is soul-stirring. I am grateful for the profound depth of this island. And my deepest respects to the wonderful traditional performing arts of Yaeyama.
Making "Nuchigusa" bath salts. Please try this as well. As you concentrate on the task, your mind feels cleansed.
Making "Nuchigusa" bath salts. Please try this as well. As you concentrate on the task, your mind feels cleansed.
HOSHINOYA Taketomi Island also offers spa treatments. You can spend an exceptionally luxurious time in this spacious environment.
HOSHINOYA Taketomi Island also offers spa treatments. You can spend an exceptionally luxurious time in this spacious environment.
The "Melody of Sanshin" (paid activity), where a professional musician plays the sanshin in your room, is perfect for that slightly detached resort time on a remote island. The "Nuchigusa Water Making" (free activity), where you pick your favorite aromatic herbs from the fields on the premises to create aromatic water, is also fun. And don't forget to enjoy the spa, where you can fully embrace the blessings of the sea (paid). The seaweed pack, which gently warms the body, is something you should definitely experience.
Indeed, an active "staycation" at HOSHINOYA Taketomi Island, without venturing out, is the best. It's a resort that teaches us the simple joy of "travel is fun," and more profoundly, the joy of "living," with its immense capacity for warmth, making us feel as though we've connected with history, nature, climate, and culture. And I vow, I will surely return here again.
