Itinerary Overview

January 18–27, 2027

Naha, Okinawa Main Island, Ishigaki Island & Taketomi Island

This 10-day journey begins in Naha and continues through Okinawa’s main island and the Yaeyama Islands, including Ishigaki and Taketomi.
The final daily schedule may be adjusted slightly as we confirm artisans, workshops, and local visits, but the journey will follow the general flow below. 

Please arrive at the hotel in Naha by this day.

In the evening, we will gather for a welcome dinner — a relaxed first meeting with your fellow travelers, guide, and textile host.

This will be a gentle start to the journey, with time to settle in, introduce ourselves, and begin stepping into Okinawa’s island culture.

Over five days, we will explore Okinawa’s main island through dyeing, weaving, local food, landscapes, and the people who continue these traditions today.

Activities will generally take place from around 9:00 in the morning until late afternoon.

The afternoon of the final day on the main island will be free.

Okinawa has several distinctive dyeing traditions, each closely connected to local plants, climate, and island life.
We plan to visit a Ryukyu indigo workshop and experience indigo dyeing ourselves.

We will also take part in a bingata workshop, learning from a master artist and creating a colorful piece using this iconic Okinawan dyeing technique.

Another visit will introduce uji-zome, a sugarcane-based dyeing tradition that reflects the close relationship between Okinawan textiles and local agriculture.

We will explore Okinawan weaving from the natural materials that grow on the islands to the finished cloth created by skilled hands.

One focus will be bashofu, a textile made from the fiber of itobasho, a plant in the banana family. We plan to visit a village known for this tradition, where you can see how the plant is grown, prepared, and finally woven into cloth.

We will also visit workshops where Okinawa’s unique weaving traditions continue today, including kasuri textiles with local motifs. In one kasuri workshop, you will have the chance to weave your own small coaster using an Okinawan motif.

While most of the tour focuses on learning directly at individual workshops, we believe it is also important to understand Okinawan textiles as a whole.

To bring the bigger picture together, we will visit a museum-like facility where dyeing and weaving traditions from across Okinawa can be seen in one place. There, you can view a wide range of textiles, including hands-on displays that allow you to touch and feel the materials.

This visit will help you understand the diversity of Okinawan textiles — the materials, techniques, regional differences, and cultural background behind them.

✈We will take a one-hour flight from Naha to Ishigaki.

Surrounded by this beautiful island landscape, we will learn about textile traditions that have been passed down in this environment. You will also have time to enjoy a resort-like atmosphere, close to the ocean and the slower rhythms of island life.

We plan to stay at a more relaxed, resort-style hotel, where you can enjoy the slower pace and natural beauty of the island. 

On Ishigaki Island, we plan to visit the studio of a textile artist whose work is deeply rooted in island life.

By meeting the artist in person, we hope to explore how creating textiles on a remote island differs from working on Okinawa’s main island—the challenges, the pleasures, and the ways the landscape, local materials, and slower rhythms shape the work.

More details will be added as soon as they are confirmed.

The final full day will be a free day on Ishigaki. You may relax by the beach, explore the island at your own pace, 

…or take an optional 15-minute ferry ride to Taketomi Island, a small island known for its traditional village, red-tiled roofs, coral stone walls, and white-sand roads. 

This optional excursion is available for an additional fee of US$160.

In the morning, we will fly from Ishigaki Airport back to Naha Airport.

The tour officially ends at Naha Airport.

Guests may book onward flights from Naha after the group returns. If you are considering departing directly from Ishigaki instead, please contact us in advance so we can advise you on timing and domestic flight arrangements.

Notes on the Schedule 

The final itinerary may change slightly as we confirm artisans, workshops, transportation, and local conditions.

Our goal is to create a thoughtful journey with enough structure to feel smooth, and enough breathing room to experience Okinawa at its own rhythm.

Before applying, please take a moment to read the Tour Information. 

Questions? We’ll be happy to help.