Yakushima

Having spent the last three weeks travelling “mainland Japan” we arrived Yakushima mid July 2023. The same means of transport (ferry) as everybody else took us from Kagoshima to Miyanoura Port and we started the visit by renting a small car at the harbour.

We drove immediately towards the Yakasugi Museum close to Anbo harbour. We had already decided that we wanted to do the long hike to Jomon Sugi the next day. At the bus stop close by there was a small kiosk that sold tickets for the hike.

We stayed the night in a guesthouse in Anbo called La Isla Tasse, very convenient for the hike. The next morning we left at 4:15, with packed breakfast and lunch. At the bus stop we had some trouble understanding the Japanese queuing system, but we finally found our place. At 5 we were on the bus leaving for the trail base. It started raining during the 40 minutes bus ride, so we prepared by pulling out our raincoats. Starting the hike with several others from our bus we were surprised by the Japanese culture of always using umbrellas, but only 5 minutes into the hike we understood! In this humidity a raincoat makes you more wet on the inside than on the outside, thus umbrellas for everybody – even on a long forest hike. Luckily the rain stopped after a short while.

The trail is on a narrow-gauge railway track which is not steep at all even …

Yakushima is one of those places that just wows you as you even get close to it. It's so amazingly green for one, and the mountains seem to stretch forever even though the island is quite small. Most visitors seem to do a 2 day trip, with the first day of arrival making a visit to Shitatani Unsuikyo (ravine) which inspired the movie Princess Mononoke. This part is great and a 3h hike through mostly roots, rocks, rivers and steps prepares you well for the rest of the hikes on the island. The ravine is NOT inside the UNESCO protected area but I do recommend it for a half-day trip after landing on the island assuming the water levels are low as the river crossings aren't easy.

Yakushima was inscribed for 2 reasons. The "natural beauty" is a little odd-ball because those opinion-related inscriptions are all in the eye of the beholder. The second one is for the vertical distribution that changes with altitude and can be easily observed inside the protected area. There is a great illustration of this inside the World Heritage Center up at the Yakusugi Land museum (free entrance for the center and lots of info on world heritage, Ramsa and other stuff around the island). Basically they make an example that the height of the island has similar climate as up north in Hokkaido but the island is located very south, and the vegetation has EVERYTHING of Japan in one tiny spot, i.e. from …

I visited Yakushima in 2007.

Yakushima is my favorite world heritage site in Japan, hands down.

When I visited, I was the only non-Japanese person I saw on the island. Being located south of Kagoshima, the southernmost city on Japan's four main islands, it isn't on the radar for most tourists visiting Japan.

Yakushima was the inspiration for the animated film Princess Mononoke.

A cedar forest located in the clouds on top of the island, the mood can be very eerie and surreal.

Read more about Yakushima on my website.

I arrived at Yakushima’s Miyanoura Port from Kagoshima by jetfoil. There are several boats a day by various companies, which is indicative of the popularity this island has among Japanese holidaymakers. People do come here mostly for hiking, and in the main street of Miyanoura well-outfitted Japanese hikers is a common sight. The town itself has a few thousand inhabitants, several good restaurants, a large supermarket and places to stay. And plenty of souvenir shops, of course, selling mostly wooden items.

Hiking is what I did on my first full day too. I went to Shiratani, located a mere half hour uphill by bus. This is the starting point for several short and longer walks. The drive up there already was enough to win me over for this island. The scenery really is spectacular – trees, trees and more trees, in every shade of green that exists. I was on a “normal” local bus, but the bus driver halted at a viewpoint anyway to let me and 6 fellow passengers take photos of the landscape. And he did so too when we encountered a group of Japanese macaques by the side of the road. Many “oohs” and “aahs” were uttered at the sight of these monkeys just next to our bus. It even got better when they were joined by a Sika deer. So we had seen the two most prominent mammal species of the island before even getting into the national park.

At Shiratani, I opted to …

I travelled to Yakushima this year in April. The purpose was to see this 7000 yr old cedar tree called Jomon Sugi by the locals. To get to yakushima, we caught the rocket ferry (fast ferry) from Kagoshima.We stayed at the Youth Hostel there and it was clean comfortable accomodation with english speaking host. We were given very clear directions and maps on how to climb to Jomon Sugi. The next morning, we set off around 430am very early to catch a bus to the starting point of the walk. By the time the bus got there , it was alredy 6am. It took us 5 hours to get to Jomon Sugi and another 5 hrs to get back to the starting point .. we saw monkeys, birds,snakes, lots of unusual mountain plants, streams, rivers.. it was just all very well preserved. The walk is very well maintained..and most of the time, you walked on the old railway.. or on wooden steps. sometimes, you will have only dirt tracks and tree roots and rocks to walk on. By the end of the whole walk, I think we were all ready to catch the bus and get back for a shower at the hostel. Good things too about Yakushima is the seafood there, the wagyu beef there. The Japanese people there are so friendly.. and we met one that spends a whole week trekking around Yakushima. Its an amazing island to go to.