Ikumi mi ni Iku

Well those two most dreaded of words, beam and time, have caused a bit of a slow down in my blogging of late. That combined with a round of bad expression from some rather lame duck bacteria has left me with little free time. Good job I enjoy the mountain life style ey. Anyway since I’ve not really been upto much it’s time for the final installment of my golden week adventures.

The final few days saw some mateys and me from the magical ring of mystery and wonder (AKA Spring8) venturing south for warmer climes and the Pacific Ocean. That’s right I finally managed to work my way down to the illustrious southern Island of Shikoku for a bit of a road trip.

We headed out by car for two reasons. Firstly, Shikoku is not so accessible by the wonderful train systems of Japan, and secondly, ROAD TRIP. Traffic was our friend in the early morning, rather surprising as it was the first day of a four day week end for Japan, our guess is that most people were headed in the other direction. We cruised down the expressway to Maiko and crossed the Akashi daihashi no problem.

Moving swiftly through Awaji, the main Island between Honshu and Shikoku, we came to a place I’d wanted to check out for some time, Naruto. This place is famous for it’s awesome whirlpools, 渦巻き in Japanese, and also sharing the name of a rather famous manga character, actually he’s named after the city and features many whirlpool references. Sadly it was not our day as we came midway through the tides meaning the sea was calmer than a Buddhist monastery,　maybe next time. We did get some wicked udon though.

After departing Naruto we found out why the trip had been so smooth so far. It seemed all of Japan was driving through Tokushima. We must have travelled about 3 miles in 30 minutes at one point. Thanks to some quick route plotting, with a little help from our navi, we were soon on our way again.

Our final destination was Ikumi, a small beach on the southeastern edge of Shikoku. It wasn’t the prettiest of beaches, at one point I was reminded of Newbo, but that's not why we were there. Sadly we arrived a little too late to surf the first day but there would be plenty of time afterwards. We met up with one of our friends who had come from Osaka and she introduced us to her friends who ran the surf rental place we’d be frequenting.

After a few self-introductions we turned back around to go to our lodgings, Nasa house. I knew we were onto a good thing when we pulled up outside and there were old surfboards lying about the place and an extremely gnarled skateboard. The bottom floor was one giant living room with more surf memorabilia and a load of musical instruments. This place had a total hippy vibe and I felt at ease pretty quickly.

We set up a BBQ up front and began to chat away. I’ll admit I didn’t catch everything, the Kansai-ben was heavy and these guys spoke almost no English, but everyone was really cool. I think these were possibly the most laid back Japanese people I’d ever met, a total contrast to the guys at work. Nothing was a problem and they were in no rush to do anything.

The night set things up as they meant to go on. We pretty much spent the days surfing and mucking about on the beach, chatting in the sun. Then at night hitting the onsen, a really nice Japanese restaurant and then back to Nasa house to drink and gab on about anything (mostly surfing) till the early hours.

My Japanese still sucks but I’m getting better at communicating than I thought. I’m a guy with a lot to say and so I think the inability to articulate myself is what drives me to learn the language more than anything else. I’m scouse after all; I’ve got a big gob.

I don’t exaggerate when I say that this is the most fun I’ve had since I came to Japan. The surfing was fun and the time to unwind ws nice but it was the people that made it incredible. You can always trust people into board sports to be absolutely wicked and these guys were no exception. It’s nice to see that the attitude transcends nationality. I’d love to go surfing again for sure and it inspired me to pick up a skateboard again.

Mostly though I’d like to get to the bar some of the guys own in Osaka and say hi again. I think the word 幸せ  sums up the whole trip can’t wait till my next bit of free time, roll on July cos May has been a bit of a crap one.

Mata kondo ne.

Yakushima pt 3.

Some how or other I did manage to wake up at 4am. Sadly however a tropical rainstorm was a blowing so all chances of heading up to Jomon-sugi where off. Whilst I’m sure it’s fairly impressive I doubt it would have been quite so if we’d spent several hours slogging through torrential rain.

Instead we opted to head one of the most accessible areas of forest on the Island, Yakusugiland. I realize that makes it sound like a bit of a theme park, and to be honest in parts it feels like it, but it is a genuine are of the forest that has been sectioned off and left open to the public.  The joy of this place is the choice. There are several routes that can be taken depending on your hiking ability and inclination and all of them offer sights of impressively tall and old tree’s.

Thanks to the bad weather we were forced to start a little later but it wasn’t too bad. It gave me a chance to talk to our host a bit more. The auld Dutchman was quite a character and it seemed he had been around most of Asia and Oceania (chasing ladies no less) before finally deciding to settle in Yakushima. It was on his recommendation that we headed to Yakusugiland as it was apparently still pleasant in poor weather.

After another long and windy bus ride we arrived at a hut marking the entrance of the forest and, after a little bit of confusion, we were on our way. We’d been told that the forests are actually best seen after a bit of rainfall and I can now testify that to be true. Not only is the sight of moss glistening on the leaves amazing, but the rivers and falls are much more impressive and that wonderful smell of damp foliage fills the air.

Whilst Yakusugiland does contain many well-paved trails with ample hand rails, if you opt for the longest course, as we did, then there is quite a bit of rough terrain also. After all the rain I was very glad to have rented some hiking boots, I think my ankles were glad as well with the ground being so slippery.

We followed the 3 hour course and far too soon reached the halfway point. It is here that the trail branches off with a steep climb towards one of the giant granite peaks of Yakushima, Tachu dake. I wouldn’t have known about this if not for my guidebook that I’m very glad I purchased. After a short debate we decided to go for it. We still had plenty of time and it felt as though the hike would have been over far too soon anyway.

The initial branch takes a very steep climb and it was surprisingly tough going. Gone where the carefully laid rocks and wood and the trail was mostly outlined by the roots of the trees themselves.  The steep climb is eventually rewarded as the trail levels out into a beautiful patch of forest.

Unlike Shiritani that we visited yesterday, this forest was the real deal. The current situation had been un touched for several centuries. The number of fallen tree’s was far fewer and there was a much higher density of the giants. It was awe inspiring, truly, something I’ve never come across before and reminded me just how much I love nature.

Yomping through the forest was great fun.  The trail was still wonderfully outlined by little pink ribbons but the path itself was not so pristine, occasionally we’d have to scurry over rocks, little streams and duck under fallen tree trunks. Eventually the trail leads into the protected Unesco area itself.

The nicest thing about this trail is it is far less travelled than a lot of the others.. We bumped into about ten other hikers tops on our way giving a wonderful sense of detachment from the ‘real world’. We did however share the toughest part of the climb with a Japanese couple who huffed and puffed up the 1km of about 20-50 degree incline with us.

This part was a lot of fun for me and maybe less fun for my friend. I love climbing as well all know and here I was in my monkey element, bounding up rocks, clambering over roots and hauling myself p the various ropes. To their credit though they managed everything with very little help from me and I only had to slow down a little bit.

That climb up was the most fun I’d had in such a long time, even if it seemed to go on forever. The problem is that the peak of Mt. Tachu is visible for quite a lot of the climb up. It’s always just out of reach as the path winds around, up and down. Eventually we got there though.

After one final rock climb we pulled ourselves up onto Tachu dake to take in the breathtaking view of…well a sea of white actually. It was a pretty cloudy day and at 1400m we were well above the cloud layer. The vast expanse of nothingness was still quite a spectacle however and well worth the climb up. After sharing a few “お疲れ様‘s” over lunch we turned around and began our desent.

At this point I realised we may be a bit short on time so we really had to go for it on our way back down. Since it was mostly downhill I was worried that it may be a bit tricky due to the steep gradient. Thankfully that wasn’t the case and we returned to Yakusugiland in half the time it had taken to climb up。We were even greeted by a troupe of wild macaques on the way down, I thought we weren’t going to see any by this point.

 

 After a brief pause we continued around the rest of Yakusugiland. Some of the paths were really nice, with several suspension bridges over the river that ran through the centre. My favorite of all the tree’s in there definitely had to be the Buddha sugi, on which one of the growths apparently resembles the Buddha’s face. I was definitely feeling a bit spiritual in the post climb euphoria.

We arrived back at the entrance with about two minutes to spare before the last bus. Bundled back to Onoaida we had a quick dip in the local onsen, an impressively warm 45 degree hot spring, before dinner and passing out from exhaustion.  Sadly that was our last day. The following morning I began the epic return journey to home ready for work the next day. I don’t quite know how I managed to come back to reality after such an awesome trip and I highly recommend spending sometime in Yakushima if your body and budget allow.

読み込みを継続していただきありがとうございます。

Ja ne.

Yakushima part 2

It’s been a tough couple of days so now is definitely a good time to reflect on fun times past. So without further ado let me tell you of my yomp around some of the most ancient forests in Japan in Yakushima to see some really huge trees.

The second day started pretty early, pretty much rising a little after sunset, though we’d been asleep so early the night before it really wasn’t too much of a chore to get up. Also, being at the whims of the wonderfully infrequent buses we weren’t left with much choice.

Our first stop was Shiratani Unsuikyo (白谷雲水峡)　a ravine nestled in the northern mountains of Yakushima. Alongside housing some of the more famous yakusugi (ancient Japanese cedars) it is also well known as the inspiration for the breathtaking backdrops in the studio Gibli film princess mononoke.

The trip from our accommodation took roughly an hour, it would have been a good time to catch some sleep had I not been so excited. Instead I was content to wonder at the windy roads as we ascended to around 700 meters and the start of the hiking trail.

The weather was fantastic and the trails were easy to follow being marked with little pink ribbons all the way. I was a little disheartened by the sheer number of people at first, not exactly the total escape from reality, but as we moved away from the easier paths our encounters, and brief 今日は‘s became less frequent.

There are plenty of different paths to choose from but of course me being me I thought that the 5 hour one would be the best. As well as being a great walk there were also many amazing sights. The Yakusugi’s are really incredible things. It seems they will grow almost any which way, many having sprouted from the husks of their fallen comrades. The intricate twists and turns mapping the ancient journeys of roots and shoots striving for sun and water left me in awe.

The older tree’s are of course impressive, they’re huge and to my knowledge there is nothing quite like them in the UK, but some of the felled trunks are no less beautiful. It is a shame that these ancient giants were felled to make roof tiles for sure but I can’t help but thank those ancient loggers for the sights they have left behind. Also as a complete nature boy I could have spent hour ogling the myriad species growing off those great trunks.

Anyway I could go on about the tree’s all day but I won’t. I’ll just run down some highlights instead.

□  Bumping into a gaggle of Osakan girls chirping “kawaiiii” to discover them huddled around a bunch of leaves that had little smiley faces in them like kodama.

□  Struggling up the steep path to Taikoiwa rock to be rewarded with sweeping views of the island.

□  Coming to a patch of the trail with no one else close by and feeling a million miles away from anywhere.

□  Finishing the hike just in time to avoid the rain.

We were all done and dusted by about 3pm and so took a little detour into Miyanoura, what passes as the capital of Yakushima. I call it that but it’s still no bigger than a village. We wandered about in the rain for a while looking for somewhere to grab some scran but most places were unfortunately shut.

Thankfully we came across a ramen shop and to our luck it was amazing. They served a special kind of “黒めん“ or black noodles. Why where they black? I still don’t know but they were really tasty along with the nice hunk of black pork, just the thing after a long days hiking. The broth was also incredible, and for me is the sign of a good ramen place. I think the owner was a former sports star or something judging by the reaction of a couple of Japanese guys next to us. I couldn’t say for sure though as I didn’t catch most of the conversation.

Well fed we returned to Onoaida and the rains were still pounding through the night and looked set to dash our plans to see Jomon sugi (Yakushima’s oldest tree aged somewhere between 3000 and 7000 years). This thing is hard to get to, the hike totals about 10 hours, meaning a start of around 4am. My friend didn’t look so thrilled on the prospect but said they would sleep on it and with that we went out like a pair of candles in a hurricane.

Ja neeeee

Yakushima pt 1

Well Golden week has come and gone but I figured it's about time I let you know what I got up to. I’ve become more than a little burned out with all this hard work so its good to finally get an opportunity to relax. Golden week is a bunch of Japanese holidays that are organised together to allow for the maximum amount of holiday time during the week, and many people take the extra intervening days off as well.

My first destination for golden week was to be the gorgeous, sub-tropical, island paradise of Yakushima. It lies a couple of hundred kilometers off the coast of Kyushuu, the southern most region of Japan’s mainland. The journey there itself was quite an adventure. Due to a miscommunication with my friend I  did not have a flight ticket booked to Kagoshima. Disaster. Thankfully Japanese trains are incredible so it turned out to be no problem whatsoever.

I took a 5am sleeper train out of Himeji followed by a 3 hour Shinkansen ride to Kagoshima, good job I like trains and the Shinkansen are more comfortable than planes anyway, you even get a charger point for your phone or laptop. Once at Kagoshima it was another twenty minutes on the bus to the port and then a two-hour jaunt on a high-speed jetfoil to reach Yakushima itself.

The boat ride itself was amazingly comfortable thanks to a very still sea. We were treated to some excellent views of the many Islands of Kyushuu’s coast along the way including an active volcano. Even more of a surprise at about halfway we were joined for a short while by a pod of dolphins.

Yakushima is a hugely impressive site upon arrival. It is predominantly mountain and from the coast you can see what appears to be an impenetrable wall of towering peaks. It also gets an incredible amount  of rainfall , about 10000mm a year, and as such is full to the brim of plant life.

It is the plant life in fact that Yakushima is most famous for, in particular the giant cedar trees, or Yakusugi (屋久杉)These towering green giants live for millennia and attract tourists from all across Japan, and the rest of the world, to visit and bask in the glories of nature.

The cedar themselves were once harvested for building materials, mostly to be fashioned into rough tiles. They are particularly tough, the wood itself is very hard and due to the consistency of the resin within also highly waterproof. Sadly this meant the great trees were felled in their hundreds for several centuries. Sometime in the Edo period however it was decided that they were a national treasure and should be preserved.

This has now been extended to giving around two thirds of the island natural world heritage site status and the trees are no longer cut down. Now people come to the island to trek through these, almost, virgin forests and escape the drudgery of everyday life. Whilst it isn’t the wonderful isolating experience one would hope for it is still astoundingly beautiful and Yakushima caters for everyone from the casual stroller to the hardcore mountaineer.

Once on the Island our first port of call, after the port, was to get to our accommodation. This was a little easier said than done. The Island buses were on a pretty irregular schedule and stopped running fairly early. This isn’t helped by the fact the island really only has one main road.

Still somehow we made it to the sleepy little town of Onoaida and our lodging for the next few days, Jerry’s Mandela campsite. It was a nice enough little place run by an elderly Dutchman called Rainer, who’d travelled the world it seemed and decided to settle on the island, and his wife (I assume though I didn’t ask) Naoko. They were both friendly and very helpful the whole time. I think had we not been so knackered from travelling and hiking it would have been nice to chat to them a bit more.

Settled in we then wandered around the village a bit. It really was very quiet, with a single shop and a couple of restaurants. Apparently it had been a bit more of a hub of activity in the past with the southern administrative office being situated here but this, along with most of the official buildings had been moved to Miyanoura.

We wandered around a bit more before attempting to get to the coast. As I mentioned Yakushima is almost exclusively mountain so there is not much space to build inland. With a bit of clambering we got down to the sea and I was hit with another wave of nostalgia. Sitting on those large granite outcroppings and peering into rock pools took me right back to childhood trips around the Wirral and into Wales. It helped that the weather was absolutely beautiful as well.

As the sun began to set we made our way back up to the guesthouse and started making plans for tomorrow. Thanks to the quirky bus schedule it’d be a pretty early start, those buses were the bane of my existence I need to learn to drive. Since we’d been up at 4am that morning and not really stopped since it wasn’t long before we ventured into the land of nod, softly dreaming of the wonders to come. 

Mata kondo ne