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 foggy valley. We said hi to the deer god’s younger brother. We were incredibly lucky, weather wise as well, as the forecast proofed to be wrong and there was no typhoon heading our way, after all. The only thing disturbing our magical forest adventure were lots and lots of nasty insects (red hornets included) that annoyed and followed us everywhere we went. But what a place of beauty is Yakushima.
Shiratani Unsuikyo
Mononoke!!!
After we collected our things at the hostel, we took the bus halfway around the island to Hirauchi, where we are spending tonight at another hostel, basically in the middle of nowhere, but close to some natural seaside onsen we intended to visit. Making use of the bike rental service of our hostel, we found the first (incredibly beautifully located) onsen, but it was closed due to the tides. In the second one, we encountered some very drunk locals and decided to keep our stay rather short. At least we got to take some very nice sunset pictures on the way, and it seems we provide quite the entertainment for the locals wherever we go, as there are not many international tourists here on Yakushima, and we’re somewhat of an attraction by just going into the supermarket.
As beautiful as the nature surrounding us might be, it has it’s downside – at the moment we’re hiding from the giant cockroaches roaming our room. We’re too scared to go to sleep yet.
Hopefully, tomorrow will bring us more adventures on an island that has to be one of the most magical places on earth.