Monday, May 23, 2011

Yakushima: Day 1 – Shiratani Unsuikyo to Jomon-sugi

I wasn’t the only one up for the early bus and on the trail head at 6AM. Early on I met two girls, in their mid twenties, and we exchanged a few words. But I had a mission, so I hiked on up ahead. I had to try to complete a 12 hour hike in 11 hours in order to catch the last bus into town.

According to Yakushima locals, it rains 35 days a month. Although not the best hiking weather, it is the constant rain that makes the island so special. Everything is covered in moss and the enormous twisting trees send you away to a place I thought only existed in fairy tales. I was in a real rain forest. So fantastic that it seems enchanted.

Even with the nonstop rain, somehow there is more forest than rain. Life sprouted from everything, from old stumps, around rocks and even from other living trees!

I hiked through ravines, over winding roots, rock paths and under thick canopies. These were the forests that inspired artists in the Japanese anime, Princess Mononoke.

The first half of the trail had many people, but the farther into the forest I went the less people were seen until it was only me and the deer. Anywhere else in the world, I may have feared an ambush by some wild animal. However, Yakushima is special in that the wild population mainly consists of deer, monkeys and an unaggressive poisonous snake.

After about 4 hours walking through Shiratani Unsuikyo it merged with the main trail that starts from Arakawa, the more popular trail to the Jomon-sugi. From here, the biggest obstacle was people. The trail itself followed an old rail road, which made the surface flat. It was about as difficult as walking on a sidewalk, except when trying to pass large groups of Japanese tourists flooding to see the ancient trees for Golden Week.

Upon reaching the end of the railroad, I headed up back into the mountains. First passing Wilson Stump, a giant stump that rivals the size of my living room, and also having a special feature resembling a heart.

Onward, up wooden stairs and rocky trails for another hour or two, I don’t know the actual time since my phone was destroyed by the rain shortly after Wilson Stump, I reached Jomon-sugi—the 7000 year old cedar tree. Or so people think it may be that old. Scientist speculate it can be anywhere between 2000 and 7000 years old. However, it is old. The tree isn’t dead, but the first thing I noticed was that the leaves didn’t look like cedar. They were normal green leaves. Then I realized, those leaves were not cedar leaves from the tree. They were trees growing out of the main tree and in order to see the cedar you had to look up through the strange symbiotic relationship to the highest tree top.

It was an amazing sight; however I wouldn’t consider it more amazing than what I had seen on my hike thus far. But if it is truly is 7000 years old, it is more or less to satisfy the imagination than to admire its beauty. Asking a fellow hiker, I learned it was 11:00. I was making good time. I decided to take a 30 minute break and eat some chocolate and a rice ball.

By the time I began my return trek, I was soaked. My Gortex pants meant nothing and my shoes were so wet I soon forgot the dampness. I would have been dryer if I was naked in a swimming pool.

After hiking for about 2 hours, I ran across the two girls I met at the beginning of the hike. I asked the time and they took a picture with me. Again we parted ways, since I was now on the return route. I was hoping that I would see them on the bus home so we could swap stories.

At about 1:30PM I re-entered the Shiratani trail. My muscles were fatigued and my feet were aching. To my guess, at around 3:00 my muscles were almost stopping. Honestly, I never felt my legs so tired in my life. It was as if they would soon just collapse. Every 15 minutes or so, I had to take a break for a couple minutes, otherwise it would have just been impossible. To my surprise I reached the end of the trail head at 4:00, 10 hours. An hour before planned. I grabbed the 4:10 bus and sat in what felt like the most comfortable seat in the world. The 30 minute ride restored strength to my legs, although they were still fatigued, nothing a hot Japanese bath couldn’t help.

I never met the two girls from the trail. However that evening I met another of my roommates, his name slips my mind but we ended up drinking Yakushima shochu (potato alcohol) late into the evening with a few other Japanese hikers which would become a ritual for the next couple nights.

Yakushima: An Isle of Life and Rain

A night in a Kobe capsule hotel could not supply dreams to surpass the beauty of tomorrow’s destination. The early Skymark flight brought me back to my Japanese roots—Kyushu. Arriving at the Kagoshima airport, sharing a table with strangers at a crowded restaurant, and departing from the harbor on a Toppi Hydrofoil was only the beginning of an epic adventure.

After a few hours at sea, the high speed ship pulled into Miyanoura Port. With only minor planning, I was lucky to have see my youth hostel on the coast upon arrival. Recalling from memory I headed to Miyanoura Portside Hostel, where I was met by Miki. Here I was given vital information about the island which would form my plan the next day.

I originally thought of hiking from the Arakawa Trail Head to the Jomon-sugi, but Miki insisted that it would be possible to go from Shiratani Unsuikyo. He said it was a challenging hike and in order to do it in one day I would have to take the first bus departing at 5:30AM and be back by 5:10PM to catch the last bus back to Miyanoura. However, Shiratani Unsuikyo is considered to be hundreds of times more beautiful, and less crowded, than Arakawa Trail Head. Due to the Golden Week Holidays, more people were in Yakushima than usual, but buses also ran one hour earlier making the Shiratani hike possible.

With this plan decided, I checked into my dormitory room. Soon after I met one of my roommates, Daisuke. Also traveling alone we decided to head out for dinner together. Daisuke worked for a French auto parts company in Tokyo. Upon recommendation, we waited for about an hour at a famous restaurant that served Yakushima specialties.

I ate flying fish, including the flying part.



Daisuke was surprised that I was going to hike from Shiratani to Jomon-sugi. He said, it is normally a two day hike. That did not deter me, instead I made sure I packed my sleeping bag in my pack, just in case.

That night I headed to bed early to wake up at 4:30AM and catch the 5:30AM bus that would bring me to the Shiratani Unsuikyo Trail Head.

Monday Reflection

I realize I find myself in sometimes ridiculous or unbelievable situations. However, these situations are not the first time they are experienced. Actually, it's how they are usually experienced when they reoccur.

I now realize they are extraordinary because someone was there to tell me that it was after experiencing it.

The extraordinary is rare, however familiar. So for me, it is an ordinary thing to experience rare extraordinary occurrences. Sometimes awkward, sometimes difficult. However, always memorable. This is what I enjoy most about my life. However, to tell the stories is difficult because I think them ordinary.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Updates and Ramblings

It’s been a while since the last time I have made a post.

A lot has happened, and my head has been swimming with many thoughts. However, I have not got around to sharing many of them.

Every day that passes, the situation in Japan gets better. But progress is slow. There are still thousands of displaced people in Tohoku. But there are also thousands who want to help. The nuclear cores at the Fukushima reactor are still critical, but there are no new developments. News is either starting to die down, or I am reading it less.

Reminder on a Kyoto light post. "Not Alone! Tohoku! Japan! You'll never walk alone."

About a week after the March 11th earthquake, my mom came to Japan. It was a hard decision for her, since she worried about Japan being in a state of post apocalyptic collapse. Thankfully, her coming has shown her that Japan is a much larger country than just a small speck that was radioactively washed away in a big wave. I took her all over Kansai, and hope that she has fond memories of a country that has played a great part in shaping who I am today, for better and worse.

My mom has many Japanese boy(?) friends.

At an old temple in Nara.

It’s already May! It’s seems like a few weeks ago was the New Year and I was in Thailand. On Saturday I went for a hike through a ravine filled with wild flowers.

My town's flower: Rhododenron

Nature's symmetry

As time passes I am both happy and sad that I will be in Japan until July 2012. Happy that I have a job, but frustrated at the isolation that living in Japan can bring. This is compounded by living in an isolated town. I’m noticing the passage of time moving more quickly, and realizing its effects on my physical body. It’s madding, knowing that every minute that passes is a minute lost in memory.

I’m unsure if I am getting stronger or breaking down when it comes to my social life. I’ve been pretty burnt out at trying to feel included in things, to actually feel wanted somewhere. The amount of money I have to spend to try to connect with people is enormous, resulting in a few recent lonely weekends and realizing that people rarely go out of their way for me. I try to inject myself into situations hoping to give myself the opportunity to meet someone awesome. However, most times even if I do meet someone, a true and lasting connection is never made. The friendship is fleeting and has no concrete value. This superficiality of things has worn on me, and the mask that everyone wears has confused everything down to my very mortal existence. I’ve considered that although I long for this connection there is the possibility that subconsciously I fear connecting with others.

Every time I feel I am moving forward, I am somehow beaten back. I’m starting to think this is how it is suppose to be. I’m becoming less depressed and more complacent; maybe I was destined to be solitary. Although I enjoy the comfort that the invisibility can give— it is empty. The battle against loneliness has been stressful with very few spoils of victory, and it may be less painful to just embrace the emptiness. After all, the better half of a cup is the empty half, if the substance is poison.


In hopes to clear the madness from my own mind, I leave tomorrow for Yakushima, a small island south of Kyushu. Alone in the primeval forest I hope to find something, hopefully some peace from my own negative thoughts and some enlightenment.