October 7-11: Yakushima Island and then back to Tokyo

We rode the bullet train down south to see the magical forests at Yakushima Island. This is an island with 5000 year old trees. It has beautiful gardens and wonderful bush walks. Unfortunately only the 2000 year old trees are the easily accessible ones. The really old trees need you to pay a physical price to see them. You have to hike to the top of the mountains and possibly spend the night up there in one of the wettest places on earth.

The first stop on our trip was Kagoshima. A town down south of Kyushu. We did not stay here long but it was an easy going town with a sort of pacific-island feel to the climate and not as busy as other parts of Japan.



We caught a ferry from Kagoshima further south to the island with the old trees. Because of some people who will go nameless (someone deep in the throws of pregnancy) we will do the easy walks and only see the younger trees.







This is only a 2600 year old tree. Naomi wanted to hug it. She did.



Rivers and bridges.





Our shadow on the river bed below.



On the 9th of October we went in search of a real geo-thermally heated onsen. The road was a very empty affair. Nothing drove past us as we walked from the main road inland of the island down to the shore.



What greeted us was a wonderful public bath built by the locals over some time. At first it consisted of stacked rocks around a naturally heated vent on the edge of the island. Then they concreted it and created these rock pools. At high tide the whole thing is under water.
The sea water mixes with the hot water and it is just bearable to get into. I think it sits at around 40 or 50 degrees because I couldn't get in. It felt like being cooked.





Then we rode the ferry back to Kagoshima. It is a city that lives in the shadow of this active volcano. The locals sometime get ash showers and their clothes are kept inside to dry because sometimes it can get covered in ash.



Then the move towards Tokyo. Bikes on a train again.