I woke up this morning to heavy rain pelting the windows. Guess yesterday’s question of “are we going hiking today?” was answered. As I got ready for the day, the rain would stop and switch to mist which raised my hopes but then the mist turned back into sideways rain again within a few minutes.
Breakfast was served at 7:30am sharp. I was excited with this meal in particular because one of the dishes was natto, fermented soybeans. I’ve only heard of natto and that either people like it or hate it. Putting aside the fact that it’s slimy and kind of bitter, I’m firmly in the like it category. You have to eat it with rice though as it’s got a strong malty flavor if you eat it by itself.
To give you an idea of how humid it was here, I poured ice water in my bottle and 10 minutes later it was drenched with condensation.
Kentaro told us that due to the storm, many hiking trails will be closed and the ferry has been shut down so visitors or supplies will not be able to come in or leave the island today. I felt bad as he was expecting a party of 16 people today for the next 3 days. He said it isn’t good for his wallet but he appreciates the break. Hopefully us two couples aren’t too much for him!
I did want to see Jomon Sugi, one of the world’s oldest trees estimated between 2,100-7,000 years old. Unfortunately, it would have been a several hour hike not to mention with the wind and rain happening there could be risks for flash flooding or the trail could be closed. Another thing I had on my list to check off while on Yakushima was to see wild monkey and deer on the west side of the island.
We headed towards that way after breakfast as there was a famous beach where green and loggerhead turtles lay eggs between May and August. The drive was really nice as we had ocean views on the left and mountain views on the right. I noticed some people were out in the dark grey water surfing what looked like big waves to me. I’m sure they were glad to take advantage of the high typhoon winds.
A little ways later we saw a tall waterfall in the distance. There was a sign for a parking lot so I pulled over to stop and check it out. Sitting on top of the waterfall sign was a welcome committee even though they didn’t look that welcoming.
We found ourselves staring at the almost 300ft tall Ohko Waterfall rated as one of the top waterfalls to visit in Japan. The parking lot was really convenient as it was only a few hundred feet away from the scenic part of the waterfall. Due to the sheer amount of rain in the last few days the water was really pouring down. I tried getting a few shots with my camera set up on the tripod but with the rain hitting the lens, Joanna looked like she was in witness protection as the water was making things blurry. Thankfully a 75 yr old Japanese guy who spoke pretty good English noticed me trying to wipe my camera dry and offered to take a pic with my phone.
Usually for intentional photos I’ll rely on my Canon camera but in this case the Pixel 7 wins purely on convenience.
We got back in the car and continued following the only road on this side of the island. All of a sudden there were a bunch of monkey and deer just chilling in the middle of the road. I slooowwwllyyyy creeped past them trying not to get too close. Some of them just kept napping or grooming not caring that we were driving past.
I drove maybe another half mile where I had to come to a complete stop as they closed the road for construction. I was a little bummed that we couldn’t see the whole island but I wasn’t going to do a 2.5 hour drive to go all the way around just to drive back again in this weather. The bright side was that there was literally zero traffic on this road besides us so on the way back we took our time and got a lot of great photos. One of the deer just had one antler? Either it was in the middle of shedding or I just saw the deer version of a unicorn.
I was very happy with our little Japanese safari. I felt like I was in a real life version of Pokemon Snap. While we headed back into town to get some lunch, Joanna had me stop at a convenience store that specialized in Tankan orange soft serve. I think I might just post on the blog all the times we stop for ice cream just to show how frequent our ice cream breaks have been. Not having to worry about bubble guts from dairy in Japan is SO great.
On the drive, Google decided to take us on a “scenic route”. We found ourselves driving through green tea fields which were perfectly manicured.
We had a few hours before dinner even though we just had food (it’s that kind of trip) so I wanted to give the onsen another try. Joanna figured we had plenty of other opportunities to scald our bodies so she opted out. I managed to stay in the water for at least 5 minutes, got out to sit on the steps to cool down for a few minutes, then managed to do another minute or two before I couldn’t handle the heat anymore.
Last night at dinner Matt and Julie were telling us about some new friends they met while staying in Onomichi, a town right outside of Hiroshima. They asked them what the cost of living was which they replied “Do you really want to know?”
Matt talked about a guy who owned a donut shop and pays between $100-$200 in rent for his business. The government has a program where if you give teenagers free stuff once a week, you get a government stipend. As a result, he only keeps his shop open 3 days a week and said he couldn’t care less if some days he didn’t sell a single donut because his costs were so low.
One couple lives in a house for free as many of the homes in that town are abandoned as the previous owners have passed away and no one has kept the houses up. The descendents gave this family their home because they didn’t want it and the husband was a handy guy so his only costs were put into repairing the house. They have 3 kids and the government pays them $200 per child from 0 to 15 years old. Not to mention they were allowed up to 12 months of 80% paid parental leave when they had a new baby. The hospital cost of having the baby was $1000 but since they got the government stipend, they broke even in a short amount of time.
They asked these people about their pursuit of money and their attitude was basically “Why? Our needs are met and that sounds awful.”
We were SHOCKED hearing that the government worked for the people like this. It all made sense as to why some of the dessert and souvenir shops were on “island time” and were open whenever they felt like it.
After my soak in the onsen I sat in the lobby for a little bit watching the cats and the old man that runs the public bath house. The place is open from 7am to 9pm 7 days a week. It’s clearly a community staple as everyone knows each other and whole families come to bathe together. This guy must live such a stress free life where he has 3 cats at work, he sees his friends come by every day, and he spends his time watching K dramas on the tv.
We also stopped at a cute cafe next to the onsen before dinner that specialized in soft serve ice cream made from tofu. When I ordered it the woman said she was very excited for us to try it as her friend made the tofu herself. This way of life must be so great for these people where they can run a small cafe for 4 hours a day, 4 days a week, experiment with tofu ice cream, and not have to worry about making ends meet.
The soft serve was great btw, came with brown sugar caramel, candied walnuts, and matcha tea to drizzle on top.
We got back to our place and I got changed for dinner. Joanna burst out laughing when I took my shirt off. Can you tell how deep I was in the onsen water?
While the rain prevented us from doing everything we had originally planned to do, it allowed new things to pop up which were nice and memorable. Dolly Parton said “You can’t have a rainbow without a little rain.” I guess in this case you can’t have a double rainbow without a little typhoon.
