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.
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