Yesterday, it was time to say goodbye to paradise, when we left Yakushima and returned to Kagoshima via ferry. Paradise tried to make the departure easier on us by sending heavy rain and wind our way. On Sunday, we left Hirauchi and took an early bus to Anbo to enjoy some canoeing on Anbo river, which was quite pleasant. We’ve adjusted to life in Japan by now, not freaking out anymore whenever we have to leave our luggage somewhere unattended, and locking our doors becomes more or less optional. We also noticed our tolerance towards bugs and critters has significantly…
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On our way to Shiratani Unsuikyo After a relaxing, but short night at our lovely hostel in Miyanoura, we took an early bus to Shiratani Unsuikyo this morning – the magical forest that was inspiration to Studio Ghibli’s masterpiece Mononoke Hime. We hiked through the forest for 5 hours, and words will fail me to describe the beauty we witnessed. It was incredible. Magical. Little mononoke (spirits) everywhere, rotating their heads, sitting on moss covered branches, with Joe Hisaishi’s The Legend of Ashitaka playing in the background. In my mind, at least. We sat on San’s rock and looked into the…
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Greetings from paradise. It’s name is Yakushima, and it’s a little subtropical island located about 4 hours south of Kyushu by ferry. It’s where Miyazaki Hayao and his fellow animators from wonderful Studio Ghibli went to get inspiration for drawing the magical forests (and it’s creatures) of their masterpiece Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke). And it’s so beautiful here, even without having set foot into the magical forests yet, we’re already suffering from reality detachment syndrome. Big time. Our tiny minds just fail to compute so much beauty. After leaving Hiroshima on the beloved Shinkansen, we spent half a day and…