Yacïkï buduï (八月踊り, roughly pronounced "yachihkih buduih", meaning "August dance"). Every year, at the beginning of eighth month of the traditional calendar, the village has a traditional festival called "Yacïkï buduï" lasting 3 days and 3 nights. All schools and most businesses are closed for the duration. There's also an increased media presence, and anthropologists come to document it as well. Also, many Taramans who are now living off-island return for this festival. The island is basically stretched to its seams for the festival. If you're not interested in the festival, you'll probably want to make sure you're not on Tarama during it. Although there's a lot of drinking, things stay relatively calm, or at least as calm as a festival of this magnitude could ever be.
Tarama Village Ethnographic Learning Center (多良間村ふるさと民俗学習館 Tarama-son furusato minzoku gakushukan). Find out more about the history and culture of Tarama. Tel: 0980-79-2223. Open every day except Monday from 9 AM to 5 PM. Discounts for primary and secondary students.
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Yaeyama Enkendai (八重山遠見台). Location: 多良間村字仲筋1097 (1097 Jinakasu, Terama village). Tel: 0980-79-2674 (not to the tower itself, but rather to the organisation responsible for its maintenance). Because Tarama is very, very, very flat, the highest point is not a geological feature such as a hill or a mountain, but rather a 33m-high structure named "Yaeyama Enkendai" because, on a clear day, if you look west you can see clearly the shoreline of the nearest of the Yaeyama Islands, Ishigaki ("Enkendai" means that it allows you to see way out into the distance). You can also see all of Tarama. You might see Miyako, but other than that you probably won't see much more than open water. Obviously, there aren't any obstructions, so you can see as far as the current visibility conditions permit, in all directions.
