Dr Valia Papoutsaki has spent her life studying islands, from Europe to Waiheke. Valia is currently in Japan as part of a Japan Foundation Research Fellowship, conducting research on the impact of tourism on small islands. In part one of this three part series she shares her experiences in the Yaeyama Islands.
I recently visited the Yaeyama Islands in Okinawa prefecture, situated in the deep south of the vast Japanese archipelago, which extends from near Taiwan all the way north to Hokkaido, close to Siberia. It was my first time visiting this part of Japan, and all my senses were heightened, absorbing the striking contrasts in both sub-tropical landscape and social organisation.
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