yakushima

well, as i said, yakushima was another story and i want to give it the space it deserves. only, i just wrote the kagoshima II article, which, as you might have realized, ended up pretty long (sorry!), and i am actually not in the mood to write another entry, especially since i also have to write a official report about my time in kyoto for my programm. but if i don't write this entry now, when will i have the time for it? so i'll try my best.

so. yakushima. a small island south of kagoshima, four hours by ferry (less by speedboat, but that's more expensive). several people had recommended me to go there, and i had the time, so why not? sounded nice.
i had no idea...

at the ticket counter

off i go...

farewell greeting from sakurajima (yes, that's no cloud, that's ash)

inside the ship: perfect for sleeping.

coming there, after leaving kagoshima 7:00 in the morning, i was excited. how would it be? how would it be to travel completely on my own? and then i saw the island. steeply rising out of the ocean, hill-sides climbing high to mountain-peaks, green forest shrouded in mist, but the clouds parted here and there and shafts of light slit through. fuji's words rung in my ears; 'magical', yes, and 'the place that inspired princess mononoke' (an anime movie). indeed, i could immediately imagine some forest deity looking out from those woods.

the owner of the inn i was staying in picked me up. he seemd friendly, and the place was comfortable. however, since it was really off-season, i was the only guest.

after having setteld in (following my first travel rule: unpack everything), i went to explore. all the time i looked to the mountains again and again. i wanted to go there immediately, walk through there! but it was already afternoon, too late for that. instead, i decided to take the bus down south.
well... the buses. they were my main source of frustration during the next days. so few, and the last bus so early (around five, six o'clock). thus, i ended up doing nothing on that first day but going south and back, with no time to do anything there.

but on the next morning i went into the mountains. there is one ravine close to miyanoura, the port city where i stayed, and a bus takes you up there.
so, finally. the forest. though the weather on the coast was quite warm (it's subtropical, and it was about 10°C and more in the sun), up in the mountains it was cold. there were many hiking tracks, and also some other hikers, so i didn't have to worry. so i started. into that deep, old forest.
well, what can i say? it was magical. those trees... old, twisted, beautiful. the whole forest felt kind of alive. i almost expected those little white forest spirits to come out and look at me. and i felt like an intruder, hoping that i wouldn't disturb anything. there was water running everywere, small trickles and stronger mountain streams. there was snow, little at first, but more the further i went inside. it became harder and harder to follow the path, i had to be careful to avoid slipping, and while climbing up i really worried how i would get down again. there was moss, and undergrowth, and birds, and stones - some of them huge, reminding me that this, too, was a volcano. and then, after some time (maybe two hours?), i suddenly ended up at the taiko rock which commands a wide view over the inland - more forest, and mountains, rising higher and completely covered in white. the weather was beautiful, which is unusual for this island (famous for its frequent rainfall), and you could see far.
(by the way: sorry, this article might have more mistakes in it than usual. i can't concentrate so well, since there is a volcano erupting right in this backyard.)
however beautiful, the climb back wasn't much fun, and at the end i was swearing at everything alternately - the slippery snow, my damn boots (completely soaked through), my foolishness for not taking a stick with me, the fact that i was alone...
even though i was alone, i had many friendly short meetings. many people were surprised to see a foreigner (two young guys from kumamoto immediately asked for a picture with me) and started a conversation with me. unfortuntely, due to my damn bad japanese, it could never be more than just small talk. oh, it is so frustrating!
the next day i went around the shoreline, to see ohko no taki (a waterfall), the beach with pillow-shaped lava (well, didn't see much pillow in the shapes, but the beach was stunning nevertheless), the beach where sea turtles lay their eggs in summer, etc. it worked surprisingly well, despite the buses.
ah, and i saw monkeys twice.
during my last night, i woke up at night and listened to the wind howling around the house. usually, that gives me a homely feeling. but there, i just felt how fragile this house is, how fragile the human existence on that island is, on a small strip of flat land between towering mountains and roaring sea. it reminded me of something i had learned during my studies in kyoto: in shinto, many things can be holy/places where deities live. but the most important are the mountains and the sea. and i wondered if humans really should live on that island, because it felt more 'deity-having' than any other place i've encountered so far. indeed, i felt you should have to go through a torii when you arrive on that island.

some of those cedars ar several thousand years old...

this is the path

this is so big, i could have crawled through without ducking

just to give you an idea of the size of those trees

weihnachtssterne! büschehoch!

sea turtel's nesting ground

i guess it's a mangrove

sayonara!

on the way back i was seasick...