Winter Vacation Part 2: Yakushima

The entire reason we ended up way down here in Southern Kyushu was to visit a legendary island: Yakushima. Yakushima is a small, sparsely inhabited island 4 hours south of Kagoshima by standard ferry, which only runs one round trip a day. There is also a faster and more frequent jet ferry that will get you there in about 2 hours.

You may not recognize the name itself, but you might know Yakushima as the inspiration for the setting of Princess Mononoke. It's most famous for it's twisted and mossy cedar forests, which were logged several decades ago before the island became a protected area.

Mononoke-hime

The reason Yakushima is so lush and green is because of ridiculous rainfall. They say it rains 8 days out of every week. For the three days we were there, it indeed rained on and off for both days.


We arrived in Minoura Port around noon, walked into town to get our rental car, and immediately drove into the forest. The closest site to Minoura is called Shiratani Unsuikyou, which in Japanese means "White Valley of Cloud Mist." Inside, you can get your fill of nature and see the massive "Yaku-sugi" old cedars that have been standing for thousands of years. There is even a location called Mononoke no Mori, or "Mononoke's Forest." It was beautiful, and everything I had imagined.

Tall trees...

Wide trees...

Gnarly fallen trees...

Waterfalls... (yes, this picture is straight)

...and moss galore!

We hiked for a while, but took our leave after it started pouring rain. It's just a part of being in Yakushima, I suppose.

I was prepared for the rain, mist, and beautiful scenery, but I wasn't prepared for the monkeys! Before we even made it to Shiratani, we drove past a "Yaku-zaru" Japanese macaque just perched on top of a road barrier. We pulled over at the next turnout to get a better look. We slowly approached it, trying to get a clear shot and snap some pictures. We had read up about monkeys, and how we shouldn't look them in the eye or cut them off from an escape route. We were careful not to get too close, but even at around 30-40 meters, it was agitated enough to charge us. Maybe it doesn't like having a camera lens pointed at it either.

The culprit, just before he pounced.

It growled loudly and bounded towards us, covering the distance between us in the blink of an eye. Shocked into action, we made a break for it, but there was no way we could outrun the speedy little beast (they have a top speed of over 40 kph). I turned back, and he was right on our heels. Seeing Kristin sprinting terrified ahead of me, I decided I had no choice but to stand my ground. I turned around, stomped on the ground hard, and gave a loud shout while opening my arms wide. The monkey made a detour into the forest, where it continued making growling noises. I then made my escape to the car, where Kristin was waiting for me in a panic. Welcome to the jungle, right?

As the sun went down, we drove the 45 minutes or so to our place of lodging all the way on the other side of the island near Anbo Port. We stayed at a fairly unique place called Dai-chan's Mongolian Huts. He has a collection of circular huts designed in Mongolian style that he runs as a backpacker's hostel. Inside were several bunk beds and enough space to sleep 6-8 people. Since we traveled after the winter break rush, we were the only visitors for the night.

Amazing evening view of Minoura.

Our hut in the dark.

The owner, Dai-chan, was a very friendly and talkative fellow. He gave us tips on where to go, what to do, and where to eat. We talked to him about our monkey encounter, and he warned us about how dangerous they actually are. They're much faster and stronger than humans, and when they attack, the best option is to run and pray they don't pursue. Even if we had no choice but to fight them, we stand no chance of winning. That was a reality check.

For dinner, we drive to a yakiniku barbecue restaurant a few kilometers away. While driving over, I noticed two little glints of light and slammed on the brakes as a deer galloped across the rural highway. The island deer are called "Yaku-shika" and are unique to the island. I breathed a sign of relief because the rental car wasn't insured. When we got to the restaurant, we wanted to order deer meat and try it out. It turns out that they'd run out of deer meat and would only get new stock the next day. Damn, and I was just about to kill one too! We settled for a sampler platter and some delicious kuro-buta sausages from Kagoshima.

A possibly-delicious-but-I-will-never-know Yaku-shika.

After a good night's rest in a spacious Mongolian hut, we departed early in the morning before sunrise. We originally wanted to go to a sea-side ocean hot-spring and bathe while watching the sun rise, but the spring was a bit of a disappointment when we got there so we didn't bother going in.

We continued to the Senpironotaki Falls, and were once again the only ones there. The path from the parking area to the viewpoint was very short, at only a few hundred meters. As we enjoyed looking out at the falls in the distance, I heard a rustling noise in the nearby bamboo grass. I held my hand up to get Kristin's attention and whispered, "I think there's something here." As she backed up, I peered around a rock down into the grass-covered hillside. Sure enough, I caught a glimpse of as least two monkeys making their way through the brush. We made the first move and high-tailed it out of there.

We got back in the car and drove to our final major destination: Yakusugi Land. Much like Shiratani Unsuikyou, this is a place to hike in nature and enjoy the amazing scenery. Yakusugi Land has done a bit more by building wooden over-ground paths for sightseers to easily walk through the forest. As expected, this is where many of the less adventurous travelers show up, and we saw a tour bus with some elderly people pull up.

As we were about to go inside, a little deer slipped through a railing and stopped in the middle of the road. The elderly sightseers, which many oohs and aahs, pulled out their ancient flip-phones and took a multitude of 1 megapixel photos to show their grandchildren.

Wassup, old peeps.

The park itself is set up as a loop system. The trail for all loops is the same path, but there are turn-back points you can choose depending on the length you want to hike. The shortest loop was only 15 minutes, but you could go as far as several hours or ever overnight. While you'd think maybe the wooden walkways would take away from the experience, it also makes accessing the amazing old trees easier. Besides, the wooden walkways only cover several of the shorter loops. The longer ones return back to nature and get exponentially more treacherous.

Scalp-scraping

Still on the easy course.

As we walked along, we passed each turn-back checkpoint and thought, "Yeah, we could go on the next longer one." Eventually, we ended up on the longest trail, and the difficulty level sky-rocketed. While the 15 and 30 minute courses were comparable to walking on a sidewalk, the longest trail had us tripping through root-filled paths, climbing up and down big tree stumps, and skidding down wooden logs. We wondered if we bit off more than we could eat, but it ended up being the most enjoyable and amazing hike of the trip.

Peek-a-boo!

Such a great trail!

Just soaking in the wilderness

After that extremely satisfying and long hike, we drove back to Minoura to return the rental car and get to our lodging for the night. We checked into a little guest house operating above a fishing tackle store. While checking in, I heard on the radio that there was a big storm coming, and that ferry service would possibly be canceled the next day. Kristin and I began to worry, but we wouldn't hear the final decision until the next day. We walked into the pouring rain and had dinner at a unique local diner that served Western food. We went to bed as best we could with the sound of the shutter rattling in the powerful winds.

The next day, we heard the announcement over the town intercom (yes, there's a town intercom. That's how rural this place is). The jet-foil ferries would be cancelled due to high winds, but the regular ferry would still run. Kristin and I breathed a sigh of relief knowing we'd be on track with our travel schedule.

For the last few hours in town, we headed to the visitor's center to take a look around. We sat down at the craft table, where you can fashion yourself a keychain or cellphone ornament using the wood of a fallen legendary Yakusugi. Using the provided sandpaper and files, I tried to fashion myself a little Yaku-zaru monkey to commemorate how I was nearly torn to shreds.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to one of the coolest places in Japan. The ferry ride back was crazy choppy in the strong winds,and we got horribly seasick, but at least we made it back to the mainland.

Winter Vacation Part 1: Kagoshima and Sakurajima

Now that winter break is less than a week away, I figured it's a fair time to post about LAST year's winter vacation. I decided to stay on the Japanese mainland. However, I wanted to go as far south as possible to escape the frigid Aomori winter, which meant a trip to southernmost main island: Kyushu.

After the usual night bus from Aomori to Tokyo (which almost didn't happen because of full bookings), we flew from Narita Airport into Kagoshima on the budget airline Jetstar. They are the cheapest method of air travel in Japan, but also the most inconvenient. Most cheap flights operate in the early hours of the morning before the trains are even running. Your only options are to sleep in the airport (Narita is much more uncomfortable to sleep in than Haneda) or stay in a nearby hotel. Many hotels in the area have free shuttle buses between Narita Station and Narita Airport, but many of them don't even begin running until it's too late to catch your flight. We stayed at Narita Excel Tokyu, which runs an airport shuttle bus starting at 5 am.

Arriving in Kagoshima early in the morning, we greatly enjoyed "one jacket weather", a nice 15 C temperature increase compared to Aomori. We rode the airport limousine (1200 yen) into Kagoshima City, dropped off our baggage at the hotel, and immediately headed toward the ferry docks. Like Hakodate, Kagoshima has a cute little cable-car system that you can take around the city, even though the stops are somewhat far from many destinations. We reached the ferry terminal after a short ride and a short walk, and were soon on our way to Sakurajima, a volcanic peninsula on the other side of Kagoshima Bay. The ferry is a mere 5-10 minute smooth ride and costs a measly 300 yen round trip for passengers without a car. 

Sakurajima from aboard the ferry.

Sakurajima is home to a very active volcano that constantly erupts on a small scale and emits clouds of smoke. I noticed while on the island that I was having a lot of trouble with my contact lenses. The whole area is constantly covered with a thin film of ash from the eruptions, and that ash was constantly getting in my eyes as well. While that might be slightly annoying, the volcanic activity has its benefits as well. Firstly, it's great for the local agriculture, where farmers can grow sweet mini tangerines, 桜島子みかん, and gigantic round daikon radishes. Secondly, naturally heated ground makes for an abundance of hot springs!

Sakurajima komikan, with 10-yen coin for reference.

They are seriously tiny...

Near the visitors center and hotel, there is a patch of open space beside the bay. Here lies an extensively long footbath, where you can enjoy views of Kagoshima facing one way or the towering volcano facing the other direction. There were a lot of shy stray cats hanging around as well, and one bold fellow strolled right up next to us and parked himself like a sphinx. Sitting there with our legs dipped in warm water while scratching the head of a purring local feline was pure relaxation at its finest.

Sakurajima, footbath, and a friendly feline.

Beside the footbath (behind us in the picture), there is a small hotel and restaurant connected to a hot spring bath. This bath is called the Magma Onsen, and while you won't have the pleasure of seeing magma itself, it features murky brown water heated naturally underground. The water is quite hot, and I probably would have enjoyed it more if there wasn't a strange old man doing squats and pushups in the pool, knocking about waves that splashed me to and fro.

In the other direction, there is a small visitor's center that gives the history of  the island turned peninsula. We were running out of time to catch one of the few local tour buses, so we only took a peek before dashing out the door. We wanted to complete the lava trail walk before getting on the bus at the end of it.

Along the beach, there is a short trail through a hardened lava flow. It's not particularly long, at around 1.5 km, and it offers a great view of some volcanic rock formation. Every so often along the trail, you'll run into a pile of berry seeds that's been pooped out by a small animal. Birds of prey are constantly gliding overhead trying to catch whatever is leaving that poop behind, and you'll spot them perched on the craggy volcanic spires if you're lucky.

At the end of a trail, you can board a tourist bus that will take you to the remaining interesting sites on the west side of the island. For example, there's a large monument to a legendary all-nighter rock concert held in the local quarry.

The main attraction is probably an observation tower halfway up the side of Sakurajima's mountain. You can get great views of both the volcanic peak, as well as Kagoshima Bay below. There are some videos and displays inside the tower that explain the various lava flows that created Sakurajima and connected it to the mainland.

After the entire round trip on the bus, there is still one more interesting attraction just east of the ferry terminal. It's a short walk along a very steep winding road, but the destination is a public park atop plateau. You can get good views of the bay and the mountains, but the most interesting thing about this park is the playground equipment.

DINOS! There is a multitude of dinosaur-shaped playground equipment that you can play on and take funny pictures. While the park itself isn't particularly popular or entertaining, we spent a good hour here messing around on the dinosaurs and trying to take the most comical photos and videos as possible. There's also a huge roller slide too, but the rollers are old and don't rotate very well, making it a slow and rattling ride down.

As the sun set, we trampled back onto the ferry and rode it back to Kagoshima City for the night. The next day would bring the REAL adventure...

Tsugaru Dirt, Sand, and Glass

Now that I've finished taking the JLPT test, I finally have time to write about my most recent adventure deep into the Tsugaru area.
日本語能力試験が終わったので、やっと最近の津軽遠足のことに書けるようになりました！

We started our day in our very own Aomori City. We headed west, crossing Bay Bridge and pulling up to a factory beneath an overpass. Inside, we were introduced to something called "Tsugaru Vidro." Tsugaru Vidro is a local glass-making craft. I didn't know it at the time, but "vidro" is actually Portuguese for "glass."
最初、わが青森のガラス工房に見学しました。ショールームに入って「津軽ビードロ」のことに紹介されました。知らなかったけど、ポルトガル語でガラスは「ビードロ」と呼ぶんだよ！

Inside the showroom

A unique feature of Tsugaru Vidro is the incorporation of color into their works. They start out with a solid color base material, and then apply shards of colored glass to create patterns. The result is mesmerizing to say the least.
津軽ビードロの独特は色です。ベースのガラスに色のガラス破片をつけてパターンができます。その結果はマジですごい！

An example of Tsugaru Vidro, inspired by Hirosaki cherry blossoms.

This company's glass didn't start out beautiful and artistic. Hokuyo Glass (known as Double-F Glass internationally) used to make glass fishing buoys out of the sand out west in Ajigasawa. The glass was tinted a light green from the various impurities usually found in natural sand. After plastic buoys began to replace these glass ones, the company started making household glassware.
ずっとこんなアートのガラスを作ったわけではない。北洋硝子は最初から漁業のガラス品を作る会社でした。鯵ヶ沢の砂を使ってすごし緑色のガラスを作っていた。だが、ガラス品の代わりにプラスチックの品物を使ってきてから、この会社が日用品のガラスを作ることになりました。

Notice the making for Hoku (北) in the center. Flipped upside-down, the marking looks like the letter "F" mirrored

.

We took a tour though the workshop. Workers were blowing, molding, grinding, sanding, and tempering away. It was near freezing temperature outside, but the inside was toasty like a summer day.
工房の見学をしました。外は零度に近いですが、奥のほうはまるで夏のようだ。職人たちの手早い動きを見たら、「ガラスを作るのはたいしたもんじゃない」 と思っちゃいますが、それは大間違いです。

After the tour, they let us try to make some glass tumblers ourselves. They were trying to demonstrate how difficult it is to make a good piece of glass, so naturally they didn't explain what we needed to do. We flailed about following the very cursory instructions of the craftsman. 
ツアーが終わってから、自分もガラスを作らせてくれたのです。特に説明してくれなかったから失敗することは当たり前なんですけど、やはり得意な職人しか良いガラス品を作れないのわかりました。

Thumbs up for "acceptable!"

Once we finished, we were hungry. We rode a bus deep southwest to the small town of Oowani Onsen, tucked just underneath Hirosaki City. Oowani, which means "big crocodile," is famous for its hot springs and ski resort. Strangely enough, there are no crocs here, save for this one:
ガラス工房をでて、おなかがすいてきました。西南のほうにバスに乗って、弘前市に南側の大鰐温泉に着きました。大鰐町の名物は温泉とスキー場なんだけど、鰐でないのは不思議だにゃ～。

Kristin holding her Oowani.

Apparently, Oowani Onsen is also famous for growing something called Oowani Onsen Moyashi. These bean sprouts are long, skinny, and supple in texture. Its attributes are most accentuated when used to make their popular "Umaka-don," which can be found at the main tourist building, "Wani-come."
名物は他にあると始めて知りました。大鰐温泉もやしと言うもやしが長くて細くて感触も違う。大鰐温泉もやしが使われている料理と考えれば、一番目立つのは「ウマカ丼」です。鰐Comeの中のレストランに食べられます。

Umaka-doooooon!

We ate up our delicious meal and went out to see how the main ingredient was grown, which is the same way it's been grown since the Edo period 400 years ago. We all stepped into a long shed. Long trenches were dug into the ground, and pipes running hot spring water passed through them. This spring water keeps the ground warm and is what causes the bean sprouts' amazing growth.
ご馳走してから、その温泉もやしをどうやってそんな形で植えるか見に行きました。４００年前の江戸時代と同じように植えていたそうです。光がない温室に溝があり、温水のパイプも地下にあります。温水の熱のおかげで冬でも土の温度が高くて、もやしがのびのび伸びる！

After the soybeans or buckwheat grains are planted, the trenches are covered with bales of rice straw to keep in the heat and absorb excess moisture. After only a week, the bean sprouts reach 40-50 cm in height!
植えた大豆、またはそば、の上に稲わらをいっぱい重ねます。熱を囲むため、そして水蒸気を吸い込むために必要だといわれます。たっだ一週間後、もう４０－５０ｃｍ伸びます！

Bales and bales of rice straw.

Here they come! These are still a day away from harvest.

 Once they've reached desired length, the growers harvest through a technique best described as "hugging it out." Since moyashi doesn't keep very long, the crop is then ready for sale at markets the very same morning.

その長さでもう刈り入れタイムだ。長いもやしを出す技は簡単に言うと「抱っこ」に似てるでしょうね。そやしはもやしなので、長く持たないからすぐ当日の朝に市販する。

Our day ended early, so we headed back to Wani-come to soak in the hot springs for a bit. The outdoor bath was really nice, especially in the cold rain. The close proximity to the women's bath means you can hear your travel companions talking over the fence. I joked to the other boys that several well placed benches along the fence line could allow us a peek. They didn't seem to have the same sense of humor as me.

旅がもう終わっている所だったので、鰐Comeに戻ってお風呂に入りました。寒い雨天に露天風呂が最高でした。女性の風呂が女子の仲間の声を聞こえるくらいに近くて、男性のメンバーに「あのベンチに立てばちらっと見えるだろうな」と冗談を申した。僕の皮肉を聞き取れなかったみたいんで、「君、最悪」と返事してくれました。以上。

That's all for this time! I'll be traveling during winter break, so maybe I'll have a post up about it next month. However, I haven't even managed to post about last winter break yet, so we'll see how that goes.