Ah, Golden Week. What’s that, you ask? It’s a series of national holidays the first week of May which this year resulted in a three day weekend immediately followed by a four day weekend. I realize that I am super, incredibly, ridiculously, immensely behind in this blog, so I’ll try my best to catch up as quickly as possible. I have a LOT to write about, so please stay with me!
The first weekend was spent on the island of Yakushima with Mary and Hiro. Yakushima is part of Kagoshima Prefecture, which is south of us, but is way out at sea. Saturday morning started off extremely early at 5AM after going to bed at 11PM. 
Since we stayed the night at Mary’s, she fixed breakfast for us, and we were on the road by 6AM to make our ferry in Kagoshima City at 8:30AM, which is the only car ferry to the island each day. That ferry was the nicest ferry I’ve ever seen. There were two decks for vehicles and three for people. In addition to the normal large passenger rooms, there was a gift shop, information desk, karaoke room, children’s play room, locker room, showers, little restaurant, and I’m sure many other rooms that we didn’t even get to explore! While still in the port, we stayed outside on the deck to watch Kagoshima go bye-bye. The water was a really nice blue color, and we could see jellyfish and large chunks of kelp floating by. One thing that really blew our minds was the express ferry (below left). It looks like a normal ferry, but once it leaves the busy port area, it lifts up on stilts and cuts through the water at incredible zooming speeds. Our ferry was four hours long, but I think I heard someone say that the express ferry only takes an hour or so. 
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During those four hours, we napped, talked, wandered around, went out to the decks, etc. I’ve never been out to “high seas” before, so to be surrounded by beautiful blue water on all sides without any sight of land was quite a new experience for me! In addition, it was wonderful weather that day—big puffy clouds in the blue sky, tiny white sail boats dotting the horizon, and when we reached land, it was green jagged mountains in the distance. We did see quite the interesting character (above right) who we named “Mr. Fancy Pants.” This guy looked like he has stepped off of the set of an old western movie, complete with a three piece suit and old timely leather luggage. Although we never actually spoke to him, he was studying an English grammar book.
When the island of Yakushima finally came into, everyone formed a line around the exits to get off the ship. We said goodbye to Mr. Fancy Pants in our mind and set off on our Yakushima adventure! After a quick bit of lunch, we went on our first hike, a five hour trip to a view of the interior of the island. Hiro, Mary’s boyfriend, drove the whole weekend, and his driving skills are…..Asian to say the least. As we were driving up the curvy, dangerous mountain road to the trail, he was rounding out corners, driving on the right side of the road (in Japan, you drive on the left), speeding when he shouldn’t have, etc. I’ve never felt car sick, but I think that’s the closest I’ve come. 
Our first adventure of the day included crossing a small river to get pictures. Everything on Yakushima is green and gorgeous, so of course we had to get to the other side of the stream and pose on the rocks (below left)! The water was crystal clear and very cold. I know this because crossing the stream involved me getting my shoes completely soaked in the area where there were no rocks. On our hike up the mountain, Hiro became our guide. None of us thought he was very physically fit, and Mary even said that he balks when she suggests they work out together. He would be in front of us, and we’d have to holler at him to slow down and let the fat Americans catch up! 
Mary and I joked that his mother is not his real mother. Instead, he is part billy goat. Although the trail was steep in some parts, it was nothing like Mt. Ichifusa, and for that we were thankful!! The hiking trail was rather busy. TONS of people go to Yakushima during Golden Week, and we could literally follow the string of people all the way to the top, which actually worked out in our favor because people at the top could get pictures of the four of us together (below right).
After our hike, we checked into our hotel, soaked in an onsen, grabbed breakfast and lunch for the next day, and finally made it to bed around 10:30PM. We were already exhausted from our early morning and hike, but the adventure was far from over. Sunday was our planned ten hour hike to the Jumon-sugi, a HUGE old tree estimated to be 2,000-7,000 years old. It’s one of the most popular trails on Yakushima. That morning, we woke up at 3AM after only 4.5 short hours of sleep. We had to be up that early so that we could be at the bus station by 4:30 and on the trail by 5:30. It’s a long, long, LONG ten hour hike, and if you don’t make it to the halfway point of the tree by noon, you have to tuck your tail between your legs in defeat and turn around because under the thick canopy of trees, daylight is lost earlier than normal. I’m convinced that NO ONE should EVER have an alarm set for 3AM. That was miserable waking up that early, and honestly I thought we were nuts for attempting such an early morning hike. How were we supposed to see without daylight??? However, since it is such a popular trail, everyone and their mother was at the bus stop at 4:30AM right there with us. I COULD NOT believe the amount of people! We had to take the bus up to the trail head, another good forty minutes away.
The trail head itself was incredibly busy considering the early morning hour. There were buses coming and going, people using the bathroom one last time before the hike, hikers with high spirits smiling and taking pictures before stepping foot on the trail, guides instructing their followers to stretch, and person after person, group after group starting down the trail. The first part of the trail was rather nice—it was flat and followed an old railroad bed. We didn’t understand why everyone kept saying how hard this hike was—it was flat and smooth! The only downside was that the ties were uneven, so we constantly had to focus on where we placed our feet to avoid tripping. Another downside (kind of) was that the trail had these footpaths over rivers without any side rails (below left). We were up probably 200 feet in the air, and all I could think was “Don’t trip!” Just to show you how high up we were in the picture, those are the tops of the trees. You can’t see the river below, but trust me, it’s there!
The easy part of the trail lasted for about two or three hours, and then we reached the actual hiking part of the trail. That part lasted FOREVER. It seemed to be one continuous staircase. Step after step after step after step. We took breaks often, but my gosh, it just never stopped! One of our breaks was beside the Wilson Cedar, a giant stump of an old cedar tree. At least ten people were standing inside the stump taking pictures, and it wasn’t even crowded. That’s how big this thing is! If you take a picture from a certain angle looking upward into the tree canopy, the opening of the tree makes a heart. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a picture of it because Ian’s camera lens couldn’t fit the open end of the stump in one shot. At another stop, we rested by a stream and filled up our water bottles. Evian, Dasani, Fuji, and all of those other high end water bottle companies, eat your heart out. I drank from a mountain stream, and it actually was fresh spring water! I know that you’re not supposed to drink from streams like that, but I saw other people doing it, we needed more water, and honestly how polluted can mountain stream water be?? By 9AM we were tired and ready for lunch. Whenever you wake up at 3AM, it seems like it’s time for lunch by then! I joked and said to look at how much we can accomplish when we wake up at 3AM—hiking a mountain by noon! Instead of having lunch then, we held off until we literally didn’t have the energy to go farther, and the break was much needed! Ian, Mary, and I made sandwiches, stacking the meat high and thick and calling them “American sandwiches” (above right). Food in our bellies was EXACTLY what we needed, and after resting for a bit, we pushed onward to the Jumon-sugi, which was just around the next curve of the trail.
Although we’d been passing and being passed by people all day, it was strange to see so many people (below left) lined up on a hiking trail to see this tree (below middle). The tree itself is really massive, even if the picture doesn’t do it justice! I heard that ten grown men could stretch out arm to arm around the tree and not be able to reach. That’s quite a distance! We weren’t able to stay at the tree for very long because there was a constant line of people behind us pushing forward and wanting pictures. On our way down the mountain, we were completely surprised to see our buddy, Mr. Fancy Pants (below right) on the trail still dressed in his amazing three piece suit. It was crazy that he hiked that far and that long in that outfit! Although he did look a little ragged…
Our spirits were completely waning on the way down. We had all hit “the wall” that runners talk about when they do marathons and hated our lives at the current moment. There were some pretty cool holes in the ground that we found out were where people hid during the war (below left). You aren’t allowed to go in them anymore, but it was still pretty cool. When we reached the flatness of the railroad bed trail, we celebrated! Even though that portion was longer than the mountain trail, walking on flat ground was such a welcome relief opposed to stumbling over rocks, roots, and steps. Several people stopped at that portion of the trail to break and admire the waterfall. As Ian was taking pictures, I felt a drop of water…then another…and another. Mary said, “Is it raining?”, and as soon as we realized that it was sprinkling, Ian waterproofed his camera, shoved it into the backpack, and back down the mountain we went. The rain started softly—first sprinkles, then light rain. The thick canopy of trees was great for shelter since we knew it was raining but couldn’t feel it. However, as the rain began to pour, we felt more of it. For the last hour and a half, we were walking in the pouring rain. ALL of us were exhausted and moody by this point, and I’m not lying when I say that not one word was spoken on that last leg. We only stopped once or twice long enough to catch our breath and swallow a gulp of water. The longer we rested, the more soaked we got. I had my water proof raincoat, and it really kept my core dry, but my jeans were soaked ALL THE WAY THROUGH from top to bottom. Each of us was drenched by the end of the trail. Mary and Ian were REALLY hating life at that moment, but I said, “I know it sucks now, but just think about the future when we can look back on this time and laugh and say, ‘You remember that one time we went hiking in Yakushima and got caught in the rain…..’” I’m still not completely certain that Mary or Ian find humor in it currently….. If I could title the following picture, it would be “Despair.”
It continued to pour and pour and pour all night. We soaked in another onsen and grabbed dinner, and after that, we all collapsed into bed. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I slept like a rock that night. It was beautiful. I think we all got about eleven hours of sleep, and it was WELL deserved. After packing up on Monday morning, we grabbed breakfast/lunch in town at a Japanese/American (ish) food café. Mary and I both had taco rice (remember this—it comes into play later). Our last thing to do in Yakushima was to find the waterfall park. Since we didn’t have a lot of time, Hiro used his crazy Asian driving skills to get us there as fast as possible. Sadly, we ran out of time and had to turn back, but the trip wasn’t for nothing. We did indeed see the monkeys and deer that roam around Yakushima and are for the most part unafraid of humans (below). These guys we just found hanging out along the side of the road. Some of the monkeys we almost hit because they WOULD. NOT. MOVE.
On the way back, Mary told Hiro that we didn’t have much time to get back, so he should drive fast. He said, “challenge accepted” and drove like a crazy person—rounding corners on a one lane road, whizzing through a construction zone that he should have stopped at, and bouncing over pot holes so quickly that my head literally bumped on the ceiling, but we made our ferry! The ride back was….special. We felt the boat rolling over waves as we left the port, and I jokingly said, “I hope no one gets sea sick!” The farther we got away from the island, the worse the surf got. That ferry was bobbing up and down, up and down, up and down in the ocean. Ian estimated that it was fifteen to twenty foot swells, and it felt like being on a really turbulent airplane. The boat would rise up and crash down as I got that weightless feeling in my stomach. At first it was fun and thrilling, but after two hours of that, it got really old. Even though we were on the second passenger deck, we could see the waves splash up on the windows. Mary was starting to feel sick, so she went to the bathroom, and Hiro followed, waiting outside the door for her like a good boyfriend. Ian and I decided to be adventurous idiots and go outside on the deck (below). From the second passenger deck, I could feel ocean mist blowing on me. The wind was ridiculously strong, and I felt like one of those reporters who cover hurricanes. Even though I tried, I literally could NOT walk forward to the front of the ship because the wind was so strong. Ian posted a really funny video on facebook of me trying to walk forward. When we had had our fun and came back inside, Mary and Hiro still weren’t back, so I went into the bathroom to check on her. Each stall was being occupied, and only sounds of vomit were coming from each. There was a little girl puking in the sink because she couldn’t get to a toilet. Just being in there made me feel sick, and I told Mary sorry, but I couldn’t stay in there. I hadn’t felt sick until that point. When I got back to our seats, I had to lay down and ended up falling asleep. When I woke up, we were in Kagoshima Bay, and the seas were much calmer.
Mary insists that it wasn’t the bumpy ride that made her sick. Instead, it was the taco rice. I agreed. Later that night I got sick as well, but neither of the guys did. Not exactly the best way to end a vacation, but it was indeed quite the adventure!! Stay tuned for the next blog about Nagasaki!
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