So, my friend Kelsey, from Reno, NV, had a friend coming into town and wanted to take a trip. She asked if I had interest in traveling with her and some other peeps to Yakushima, a tiny island south of Kagoshima and north of Okinawa. Yakushima is home of the Mononoke forest from the Hayao Miyazaki film: Princess Mononoke. Also living in the forest is one of the oldest cedar trees in the world: Jomon Sugi (Jomon refers to the time period of 2000+ years ago, and Sugi means cedar).
I had interest because of its proximity to Okinawa, because it was an opportunity to see a very old tree, and b/c we had a long holiday weekend (we got the Autumn equinox off). I also agreed to take one day off from work (19 days left on the books for vacay), and we left last week (9/22, Weds night) for Kagoshima City, Kagoshima to find a cheap love hotel. A love hotel is a place people can rent by the hour. They are usually themed (like there's a Jurassic love hotel in Beppu). When you walk into the love hotel, a mysterious phone on the wall calls you, and you pick it up to select the room that you want for the evening. There were 4 of us, 1 boy, 3 girls, and after our selection, we wait in a curtained waiting room with a T.V. and another mysterious phone. When that phone rings, you learn the final price of your room, and you may determine whether or not you would like to stay. While waiting, the T.V. offers a variety of channels from cooking to adult pornography. In the end, it ended up being too expensive, so we decided to split up and stay in a normal hotel, for $30 per person per night, in order to catch the ferry, early in the A.M.
Yakushima is a part of the prefecture Kagoshima, but one must take a ferry, fly, or swim to get to Yakushima, 2 hours away from the port. The ferry is quite expensive (70 per person round trip). Upon arriving in Yakushima, we proceeded to the rental car zone, and then drove off to get some food and sight see.
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| Kelsey, from Reno, NV |
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| Site of the Ocean Onsen |
The first day, we Kayaked (also expensive... 60 for 3 hours) and enjoyed a beach onsen ($1). This onsen, or hot spring, was located in the rocks of the beach, where you would soak while admiring the beautiful ocean within hands reach. When the tide rises, the waves wash over you, and it is then time to leave. These onsens are co-ed. The polite way to enter into an onsen is in your birthday suit; girls may enter using a towel (which is awkward b/c females cover up w/ a tiny towel while in the onsen so as not to make the men uncomfortable... uh... we did not do this... we just hopped right on in). Then we camped at a strange little campsite, made a fire, and then experienced what it's like camping in a down pour... for me it was not bad at all... apparently, in the boys tent, there was some major water leakage...
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| Higan Bana (my friend, Hidemi's flower) |
The next day (day 2) we drove around the entire island. On this drive, we detoured for a Fruit garden, for banyan trees, for deer, for monkies, and for a beach. Before arriving at the beach, we found a cafe that served really good sandwiches and strange pizza and awesome soup. We ended up staying at this restaurant for 3 or 4 hours, just lounging and eating taking turns sitting in a hammock. It was a lazy beautiful day. That morning, as well, we pulled off for a morning dip in a different ocean onsen.
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| Old Jomon Sugi |
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| I'm not sure if these are Madrone trees... Michelle, can you help me with this one? |
The third day was our hiking day to see the old Jomon Sugi. Truth be told, we tried to go on day 2, but it was pouring in the morning, and most of us didn't have rain gear, so we got in the car, returned back to the outer part of the island, and ended up in a junior high school playing soccer with a found ball (this was like 6:30 AM, we had to get up early for the hike in order to return on time, since it was estimated to be a 12 hour round trip hike). It was a difficult hike. It took about 7 hours to see Jomon Sugi, and 5 to return. The hike was up and down, up and down. However, the incredible thing was that the entire trail was maintained. It was either made out of stones or wood. It is pretty technical, and even though I saw it with my own two eyes the fact that many many elderly folk were doing the same hike I was doing, I still can't believe it. We were all very stoked to be celebrating at the end of our hike with a bottle of wine and an onsen (indoors this time, to actually take a real shower).
Yakushima is a beautiufl place. It's quite small. The beaches are either blond sand or bits of white coral shell. I did take back some nifty pieces I found at my camp site. Yakushima is beautiful, not very populated, and the locals are helpful and friendly. I don't think I would return, however, since I feel like I saw the entire island and didn't necessarily feel a big connection to it or to the towns we visited. It was very good to get back home, but then, it was also really strange to return to work after 4 days of relaxing.
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