Doshisha Days

I was awoken by the wrist watch alarms around 4, and by 5 half the shelter had been deserted by people obviously more concerned than we about reaching their destination by sundown. I checked in with Milo before heading out, around 5:30 to check in with Joe and Haunani. They were already awake having slept in a tent on what proved to be a rather frigid night under the thick cover of fog that clung to the ground in such high elevations. We gathered all our belongings and set off for Miynoura-dake, the tallest peak on the island and the whole of southern Japan.

It took us a few minutes to realize it was not raining. Instead the severe winds were blasting the dew off of the trees and onto us below. A few instances I thought I was going to be knocked over and standing still for too long without cover was no fun at all. We slowly ascended above the tree line and were now climbing on and around massive boulders, seemingly placed haphazardly around us by giants long ago. At last we reached the juncture where the road split in two: one toward the summit and then south toward the coast and one west where we would later have another set of options. We chose to head west and so we dropped off our bags and summit the peak. I ran for about 40 meters before almost falling on my face, and then resigned myself to walking the rest of the way, a prescient move in the end.

As we approached the summit, the sky started to clear, and we were finally treated to a majestic view of our surroundings, up until then obscured by the dense cloud cover. It was a 360 degree view of rolling hills and peaks, green terrain interspersed with massive boulders. We stayed up there until the wind became too much and we headed back to collect our things. On our way toward our next junction, we climbed another peak, which had similarly majestic vantage points. We could not see the ocean, it being obscured by the distant cloud cover.


We then started our descent and the terrain made a abrupt change once again. The trail seemed to lead down into a small ditch underneath a tree branch and at once, the arid alpine terrain gave way to dense humid forrest. I felt like I had fallen down a rabbit hole. All of us were astounded by the speed at which the terrain changed. We were once again jumping from rock to rock and over puddles in effort to not get wet. We finally arrived at another campsite, where we made lunch and prepared for a final 16 kilometer push to the shore.



The hike was long and tiring. All of us were feeling the weight of our packs as we made the final push anyone. The west side of the island was completely empty, or perhaps people had chosen to hike earlier in the day so they could make it back before nightfall. We were not so lucky. At 7 pm we had made it to a service road that lead down to the main ring road that circumnavigates the island, but there were no people or cars to be found. And so we hiked down the final 7 kilometers underneath the stars. Weary and forlorn, we arrived at the main road and made our dinner in a parking. Fifteen minutes had gone by and a car passed us. We flagged it down and inquired about lodging for the night. They told us that there was a beach side campsite only a 15 minute walk down the road. Nice. A van, going the direction we needed to go, passed not soon off the mountain side. While mostly downhill (we had been coming form the highest point of the island no less) there were plenty of uphill still - which we of course noticed quite quickly. We stopped a few times, to drink water, to take in the beauty of this beautiful island a final time. We were most definitely not bothered by after. Milo ran out and flagged it down, jumping up and down with far more energy and enthusiasm than I had guessed we had in all of us combined. The driver got out, and we explained our situation - while a Japanese couple sat frightened in the passenger seats as if we were a group of North Koreans. The driver, on the other hand, was more sympathetic to our predicament and our state of utter exhaustion, having hiked 22 km since 6 am that morning, helped us load our gear into her van and drove us to the campsite where we set up camp and I collapsed inside my tent, physically spent.

Joe came to our tent right after this to inform us that a sea turtle was laying eggs on the beach and that a group of Japanese were heading out to see it. Milo had hoped to catch a glimpse of these amazing creatures and she got out of her bag and headed down to the beach to check it out. I do not regret my decision to stay, although I do know that I missed an amazing site. Sea turtles come ashore on Yakushima during May and June and lay there eggs in the sand before heading back out to sea. Although most turtles come to the northern beaches, this one turtle came to the beach we were staying on the south-west section of the island.

We woke up at 8 the next morning, Milo and I took a stroll down to the beach after breakfast and before packing up and moving out. We had to make it back to the port at Miyanoura on the Northeast side of the island by noon to catch our ferry back to the mainland. A bus left a little after 10 down the road from the camp ground but we were going to try to hitch our way back. Joe flagged down a small car with two older women and they said they were going to check out the waterfall and that they would stop and pick up Milo and I on the way back, while Joe and Haunani tried to find another road. Sure enough, 10 minutes later they came and Milo and I got in. The sky was clear and the inland mountains were clearly visible as we drove along the coast. The women said that there was still plenty of time and so we stopped at a hotel for some coffee and juice. Milo had fresh passion fruit juice and I drank a coffee. When I attempted to buy some gifts for people in the store, they insisted on paying for that as well. I cease to be amazed at the hospitality and generosity of the Japanese, particularly those in the countryside.

The kind ladies dropped us off at the pier with time to spare and we waited for the other half of our crew. I finally got a message from Joe, he was not sure if they were going to make it, the bus was running late. Milo and I decided that it would be better to wait for them on the island and not in Kagoshima and so we asked the ticketing agent to change our tickets. At 11:55 the last call for boarding came and went, but at 11:58 the bus arrived with our companions and we raced to the dock where we were ushered on board and into first class (they let us sit wherever we wanted, and we gladly complied). Two hours later we were back on the mainland and our adventure on Yakushima had ended.

The final days of our trip were nice and relaxing. Joe and Haunani went back up to Kumamoto the night we got back and Milo and I spent a nice relaxing , albeit rainy, day wandering around Kagoshima and then taking the shinkansen back up to Kumamoto, where we dined on Sri Lankan and bought some final omiyage for our friends in Kyoto. It was a perfect trip, from the companions to the weather to the sites, it was quite simply a golden week.