The gardens behind the cottages are a great place to admire the starlit sky, complete with the Milky Way and maybe even a shooting star.

The coastline around Taketomi Island measures just 9 km or so, and the villages here retain the old style of architecture and street layout. Lanes of pure white coral sand wind past garden walls made from coral, and behind the walls stand old-style houses with red tiled roofs. This coral island is just a 10-minute ferry ride from the island of Ishigaki-jima. The villages and white sandy beaches are most impressive— Hoshizuna-no-hama Beach, for example, is known for its tiny star-shaped grains of sand.

Villa Taketomi, in the middle of the island, is a collection of cottages built like the houses nearby. This is a good place to get in touch with the Okinawa of a time that is fading away. The experience is real, and well worth it.

The eight cottages sleep two each. There is no phone, not even a clock. Nothing to disturb life on a quiet isle, where time flows slowly. The home-style cooking, featuring plenty of fresh local produce, is tempting and satisfying.

And then after dark there is a view of the starlit sky from the garden. The quiet is sometimes pierced by the call of a bird or the voices of insects. Happiness spreads as the subtropical night deepens.

· Address: 1493 Taketomi, Taketomi-cho, Okinawa
· Tel: +81-90-7156-2431
· Fax: +81-98-899-1529
· e-mail: rumi@taketomi-v.com
· Number of rooms: 8
· http://www.taketomi-v.com/ (Japanese-language website)