Yakushima, Kagoshima

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Wednesday
I was awoken by the 6am train going past my hostel the next morning and moved around in the slight darkness to find and stuff all my things into my backpack before heading out into the morning light. Walked up to the station taxi stand and rode off into the dawn to get to the ferry terminal before the 7:45am ferry took off. Since I had made a reservation the day before I had to go back and get my ticket and pick where my seat would be. Still feeling a little green around the edges from the day before, I decided to play it safe and sit away from the windows and tried to take a short nap during the 2 hour trip.

Yakushima is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the huge cedar trees that are growing there. There are trees that are well over 1000 years old and a 9 hour hike to go and see some of them. It also has one of the wettest climates in Japan. It rained both days that I was there. There are an abundance of waterfalls, onsen in the ocean, deer and monkeys if your lucky to see them. The outer rim of the island is developed with little businesses and houses but the rest of the island is mostly forest.

Deposited off at the marina and more then ready to get rid of my backpack, I set out in search of my hostel. Without a map. I knew that it was pretty close to the marina, so I wasn't too concerned about not finding it. After a little look around I spotted 3 of the other riders on my ferry with what looked like a map. Figuring that I didn't have anything to lose I followed them and sure enough, they were going to the same hostel. I got in a couple minutes after them and planned to dump my pack and head out again. As I was telling the owner my plan he said that the buses weren't going where I wanted to go. One of the other 3 from the ferry spoke up and asked me if I wanted to join them for an afternoon driving around the island in a renal car. I figured that it would be an interesting trip, so I climbed on.

My new companions were Chay, said like Che, Misa, and Daisuke. Chay was from New Zealand and living in Osaka, Misa was his friend and Daisuke worked with Misa. Daisuke drove; which turned out to be a really bad thing, and we started off around the island. Renting a car is a really great way to see the island because you can go at your own pace and you are stop at something that catches your fancy. We ended up stopping at waterfalls, botanical gardens (I ate a star fruit!) and cedar parks that let you walk around some of the woods. It was great fun and it was nice to have some companions to enjoy the scenery with.

The drive though, it could have been better. Daisuke, our driver, was rather bad at it. Very heavy on the breaks and didn't seem to want to stay to the left side of the road. On top of that, we were riding around a rather long and curvy road; which I don't really deal with very well, and we have a combination that equals car sickness. I had to ask him to stop the car a couple times to let me get my stomach in order again. As we were driving we passed 2 monkeys on the road! Yakushima has them and there are signs all over the place saying not to touch them, but I never actually thought we would see some!

After 6 hours, we dropped the car back and headed back to the hostel where we could get into our rooms and relax. Our hostel was having a New Years party and it started at 7pm, so I cleaned up and decided to start a little writing in my journal about what had happened in Kagoshima. I was sitting in the common room when a couple of the men/guys staying at the hostel came up to talk to me. It was basically a group setting of conversation practice.

Finally, dinner was served. I think the managers wife made some if it, but we had sushi and some great fried food to go along with our beer. Conversation flowed until we got started on the game. The manager put a poster on the wall with numbers 1-20 on it. Eighteen of the numbers had a name under them of somebody staying at the hostel. If your number was called you had to introduce yourself and say your New Years resolution. After that you picked a present from a box that included sake, calenders, small pottery, candy, and stay vouchers for a free stay. After you picked your present you had to pick another number. Thing was, two of the numbers were gift return, so you had to give your gift back if you got it.

After the introductions and gifts were passed out, we all headed over to the local shrine to ring in the New Year with a loud taiko drum roll, a cup of New Years sake, and the first prayer of the New Year. After returning around 1am I crashed for the night.

Thursday
Sleeping in that morning felt wonderful, even if was only until 9:15am. I missed the mochi grilling breakfast, but I wasn't too concerned with it. I just got up and had my plan of doing lots of postcard writing and updating the journal. After I was awake and more alert I asked Misa where she was going and she said they were going hiking then asked if I wanted to go too. Thinking it wasn't going to be much and I wasn't really doing anything anyway I said I would go along.

Our hike turned into a 3 hour excursion into the woods to see some of the older trees that were in an area that was used for forestry. The trail was a nice board walk at the beginning and then turned into little pink flags tied to tree branches through the forest. The trail was full of snow and mud from the past hikers. When we got to a split in the trail it started to hail. HAIL! I was so cold and Chay and I planned on heading back because we were both a little unprepared for the cold and the conditions that we were hiking in. We hit a hut, ate a quick snack/lunch and then separated from the rest of the group to catch the earlier bus back.

We ended sharing a taxi with a Tokyo couple back into town. I went to the ferry terminal to reserve my ticket for the trip back, buy some postcards and ate that the restaurant that was over the omiyage shop. After I got back I got a shower and a quick soak in a bath before I set up shop in the common room and wrote away the rest of the afternoon. The rest of the day was spent like that. Writing and talking with the others at the hostel, with a quick dinner break.

I ended up falling asleep around 10:30pm that night and didn't get nearly enough writing done in my journal.

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Photos

Yakushima
Me, Chay, Daisuke, and Misa

Comments

[LebdaWhen]

Beautiful pixs!
Kathryn - your pictures are beautiful! The coastline reminds me of California - what a wonderful place to celebrate the new year. Happy 2009! Love you, LebdaWhen