Word: island
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Sunset Beach House This small boutique hotel, sunset-bh.com, in Onna-son in central Okinawa Island, is run by a young bohemian couple from mainland Japan. Slap-bang on a picture-postcard beach, it has just four stylish rooms. And the food is something else. Make sure you sample local delicacies such as squishy umi dubi (sea kelp), delectable crispy pork grilled BBQ-style in garlic sauce, and purple sweet potatoes, all served up on the ground-floor patio. Wash it all down with an Orian beer or awamori, a local high-octane version of sake, while you soak...
...less well known is that 200,000 people, including 100,000 civilians, died during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, the biggest campaign of the Asia-Pacific War. The Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum, peace- museum.pref.okinawa.jp, is located in the eponymous park on the southern tip of Okinawa Island and showcases poignant exhibits. One section covers the lead-up to WW II, another the postwar period when Okinawa was transformed by U.S. military occupation...
Kayaking in Iriomote Ninety percent of the beautiful and remote Iriomote Island in the southernmost reaches of Okinawa Prefecture (it's an hour's flight from Naha to Ishigaki Island and then a 40-minute ferry ride) is covered in mountainous virgin jungle and mangrove forests. Tailored ecotours like those offered at Hirata Tourism's Jungle Adventures, hirata-group.co.jp, allow you to get up close and personal, either on foot or by canoe, with mysterious creatures such as the Chinese box turtle and the indigenous yamaneko wild cat. Abundant reefs and sparkling blue waters have also made the island a playground...
Though bitterly divided for 35 years, the Greek and Turkish communities on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus share an islander's love of conspiracy theories. But the macabre theft of the remains of a hard-line Greek Cypriot President from his grave on Friday has even the most far-out pundits stymied. Was it politically motivated? For ransom? Was a mysterious gang of Romanian grave robbers involved...
...Mehmet Ali Talat is up for re-election. If peace talks with Greek Cypriot President Demetris Christofias fail to produce any substantive development by then, he is likely to lose to a hard-liner opposed to negotiations. That could close the door indefinitely on what observers agree is the island's latest and best shot at peace in three decades...