Arriving Yakushima — Anbou port, Yakushima Island: We arrived in Yakushima with very little in the way of pre-planning, but with the help of the local tourist office, we were able to rent a car and check into a youth hostel all within about an hour. Apparently, we know just enough Japanese to be dangerous. Yakushima is rugged and mountainous, sort of reminding us of Hawaii. The kanji for Yakushima, shown on the left, apparently has changed many times over the years (it's possible to say the sounds "Ya-ku-shi-ma" using many different kanji characters, though they all have slightly different meanings. Most of the meanings are related to medicine because the island has such diversity of plant life that can be used for healing.
Road to trailhead — Road to Yaku-sugi land, Yakushima. It was basically one lane, two way, with lots of mirrors and a very steep drop-off.
The journey begins. — Arakawa dam trailhead, Yakushima. We began our overnight backpack journey from here. The first part of the trail took us along an old logging railroad track (you can see a bridge from the trail behind me). Our destination was about a third of the way across the island in the high mountains behind M: Jomon-sugi, the largest tree in Japan and one of the oldest.
Railroad bridges — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima: We crossed many railroad bridges like this one with no railing and a frightening drop off on either side to a steep, rushing river. So much for the "safety conscious" Japanese culture. We later learned at the museum that the train stopped running on these tracks in the early 70's, but it was still a bit unnerving.
A river — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima.
A river — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. We stopped at nearly every bridge because each one treated us with a fantastic view of a mountain stream. We had a rule that you needed to stop completely before looking up at the view because we didn't want to trip and fall.
Bridge view — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. We did a lot of stopping to enjoy these views.
First cedars — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. Our first site of the famous Yakushima cedars. They only live above a certain elevation and we were slowly wending our way up the trail.
Moss — Trail to Jonmonsugi, Yakushima.
A cedar — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima.
Rain — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. The interior of Yakushima is the wettest spot in all of Japan. A Japanese author wrote the catchy phrase that "it rains 35 days a month on Yakushima." We were somewhat prepared with rain gear and plastic covers for our packs, but this torrential downpour still caught us off guard. We were soaked and still had several hours more hiking before we would reach our destination. At one point, we were only a hundred meters or so from a lightning strike -- there was a flash of light that seemed to come from everywhere and we could hear a loud crack and then what seemed like a sizzling noise followed instantly by a boom of thunder. We considered turning back but decided we were closer to the shelter at our destination than we were to the trailhead.
Still smiling — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. A waterlogged L was still smiling as we made our way up the steep path. Our guidebook says that some parts of the trail are so steep that you are lucky to make 1 km/hr (about 0.7 mph).
It's about the trees — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. Eventually, we started seeing so many beautiful cedars that the rain kind of disappeared.
Roots — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. While the massive trunks were impressive, the roots were pretty spectacular as well.
Another cedar — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima.
Joumon-sugi — Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. We finally made it to Japan's most beautiful tree. It wasn't discovered until 1966 or so, which is not surprising given the density of vegetation in the interior. Now, the tree is so well known that it is very popular for visitors to make the arduous trek to see it. The government set up a small viewing platform to protect the tree. Most hikers do the 10-12 hour round trip hike in one day, so we had the tree almost all to ourselves when we arrived late in the fading light. We had to share the tree with two "locals" -- a deer fawn and her mother resting at the base of the tree. You can barely make them out on the right side of the photo.
DCF_0101 — Jomon-sugi camping shelter, Yakushima. By the time we finally arrived, the rain had let up and the setting sun cast this beautiful light through the trees.
Lodge — Jomon-sugi camping shelter, Yakushima. Our night's accommodation was this fine cinder block building with two wooden platforms for sleeping and criss-crossing clothes lines for attempting to dry things. Our sleeping bags stayed dry except at the very bottom, but almost everything else we owned was soaked. We ate dinner at about 6 and then went right to sleep. We had raced up the mountain because of the lightning and rain and were completely exhausted. The first time we woke up, it felt like we had slept for hours but it was only about 8:30 pm. Our bags were still wet at the bottom and it was a very long, very cold, very uncomfortable night.
It's all about the trees — Jomon-sugi camping shelter, Yakushima. We finally decided to get out of bed after waking up about 2 dozen times during the night. We put on wet clothes, but we soon forgot about that when we realized where we were. It was all about the trees...
Joumon-sugi — Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. The sun was shining and we enjoyed breakfast with just us and Jomon-sugi.
Joumon-sugi — Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. The pictures don't capture the grace and beauty of this tree, nor its setting high in the mountains in the middle of a beautiful forest.
The trail — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. This photo captures the feeling of walking through the forest fairly well.
P1010160.JPG — Trail to Joumon-sugi, Yakushima. We caught occassional glimpses of pretty views.
Yakuzaru — We did not normally associate Japan with monkeys, but Yakushima has this distinct species called Yakuzaru in Japanese. We encountered them in the middle of the forest as they talked to one another from the trees around us. We stayed and watched them for quite some time, mostly in the far distance, but catching a few photos of them as they passed nearer to us.
Baby Yakuzaru — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. This baby Yakuzaru follows its mother by making a huge leap to a neighboring tree. What a treat!
Yakuzaru eating — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. There were apparently many tasty treats for the Yakuzaru in the forest, because we watched them eat a lot.
Hug your local tree — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. In addition to the famous cedars, there were these trees with glistening red bark. In Japanese, they were called Himeshyara.
Red trees — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. We loved these trees with their smooth, red bark.
Us — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. Later in the morning, we started to encounter Japanese hiking groups on their way up to see the tree. We had one snap our photo together with these beautiful roots.
O-sugi — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. Some of the more impressive trees had names. The three kanji in the middle indicate that this one is called, creatively "O-sugi," or "Big Cedar."
Bark — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. Some of the cedar bark was so beautiful with amazing textures.
Sunny stream — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. We managed to make it back to the railroad bridges with the sun still shining. Here is a pretty cascade along the way.
Colorful critter — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. We saw some pretty wildlife. This salamander greeted us after the rain.
Snake! — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. This one was a bit scary at first. The snake blends in enough to stay somewhat hidden in the sticks, but is colored in a way that makes one think "Caution!" We had to remind ourselves that, statistically, most snakes in the world are not dangerous.
3 generations — Trail to Jomon-sugi, Yakushima. This tree was called something that translated into "Three generation cedar." It had grown up, then got knocked down, then grew up again, then was logged. and grew up again. The stump at the base is original but the higher up parts are narrower. The most recent incarnation is over 350 years old and started growing after the previous tree was logged a very long time ago. Some of the wood was used to build the famous pagodas in Kyoto.
Another stream — Trail to Joumon-sugi, Yakushima.
The view — Back on the road, Yakushima. We made it safely back to the car and headed down to civilization, but stopped to snap this photo of the dense vegetation.
Monkeys — Road to Yaku-sugi land. We were treated to another monkey vist, this time from very close. They were right on the road.
Roadside monkeys — Road to Yaku-sugi land, Yakushima. Monkeys grooming.
Don't look now, but... — Road to Yaku-sugi land, Yakushima. There were lots of baby monkeys in the troupe. We watched the mothers nurse and groom the little ones. Eventually, they decided to pack up and move. Apparently, there are two ways to carry your baby -- on your back or on your front. These two mothers demonstrate both methods.
Don't look now, but... — Road to Yaku-sugi land, Yakushima. The monkeys have this distinct colored behind.
Tofu rock — Environment Museum, Miyanoura, Yakushima. We saw this famous rock from way off in the distance. It's called "Tofu rock" because it looks like a perfectly sliced cake of tofu. In fact, it's a massive granite boulder with regularly spaced fractures called joints like the ones that M studies in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada in California. This is a photo in the museum.
Tofu rock — Environment Museum, Miyanoura, Yakushima. M poses with a model of tofu rock in the museum. They had an English language guide to the museum and an IMAX movie with English subtitles that they played just for us. The museum staff introduces the movie before it starts and they added an English introduction for us. When the movie was about to start, the announcer came running to our seats and asked us excitedly, "Did you understand my English?" It was lots of fun. And the movie was absolutely spectacular with a 40 m wide screen!
Ryokan dining — Shisuikan ryokan, Anbou, Yakushima. We checked into a beautiful Japanese inn after our long day of hiking. They fed us all this food (we should have taken the photo at the beginning of the meal to get the full effect, but you can see that we did not go hungry). We also slept very well on the comfortable futons and under the warm, dry covers.
Yakushima — We left the island early the next morning by ferry. What an adventure!
