Travel to Kyushu, Mt Miyanoura, Catching the Bus!

Hi There!

As I mentioned last week, I am traveling this week in southern Kyushu.

One thing that is unique about Japan is that there are many overnight ferries to various destinations. And several leave from either Kobe or nearby Osaka. I had wanted to try the ferry and I saw one that goes to Kagoshima, which got me looking into traveling to that area.

Overnight ferries will usually leave in the evening and get you to your destination the next morning. You can reserve a private room on it, or you can sleep in more basic "2nd class" accommodation which might see you sleeping in a big room on the floor next to other passengers.

But, even though I wanted to try the ferry, I ended up deciding to take a train. Timing-wise, the train just gave me a lot more flexibility and would get me to my destination on the same day. I am hoping to take the ferry on the way back, though.

So, after our last day of school on a Friday, I rode a local train to Himeji (about an hour's ride from Kobe) and then caught the shinkansen train to Kagoshima. The shinankasen is the name of Japan's bullet train system. After about 4-5 hours, I was in Kagoshima!

One of the main things to see near Kagoshima is Mt Sakurajima - this is an active volcano that rises out of the water across from Kagoshima. The first day in Kagoshima was rainy but I had really nice weather on the second day which is the day I planned to go over to Sakurajima.

The best way to get there is, yes, by ferry - they run every 15 minutes from Kagoshima. Once on Sakurajima, I rented a bike from a shop near the ferry terminal and spent the day biking to different locations on the island.

While there, I learned more background about the volcano. As I mentioned earlier, it is still active so they do not allow any hiking of it, but you can go to an observatory fairly close to it.

The active nature of the volcano also means that there is a lot of volcanic ash everywhere - I would see a lot of it on the side of the roads at various places.

Throughout history, there have been a few severe eruptions and there were historical markers of this around the island, mentioning where towns had been destroyed. It was also interesting to see that one eruption actually caused Sakurajima to become connected to the mainland - lava flows filled in the sea and created a land bridge to Kyushu.

A particularly severe and deadly eruption in the early 20th century during which scientists ignored signals and told residents not to evacuate has led to a saying on the island which effectively says - do not rely on authorities.

Thankfully, though, local people (and scientists) believe that major eruptions will provide warning signs (small but growing earthquakes) and give them time to get to safety if another major disaster is brewing.

After a day of biking at Sakurajima and Kagoshima, I moved on to an island even further south - Yakushima.

I had read about Yakushima in a hiking guide book - it said that a hike of Yahushima's Mt Miyanoura is not to be missed! So I decided to try to check it out.

A common way to get to Yakushima is by, you guessed it, ferry. You can either take a 2 hour high-speed boat or a slower 4 hour one - I opted for the slower one since I was not pressed for time and it was considerably cheaper. There is also an overnight ferry option but it sounded pretty uncomfortable - on the overnight ferry, there are no rooms for rent so it sounds like everyone sleeps on the floor somewhere onboard.

The 4 hour ferry, though, was very nice - it looked like a small cruise ship on the inside. There was a restaurant, a cafe and an arcade. If you wanted, you could even reserve a 1st class cabin with beds for your use during the journey. For my 2nd class ticket, we had access to the whole boat, which included an area towards the back where you could sleep on the floor if you wanted. I mainly just stayed in a cafe at the front.

TV monitors played the movie "Babe."

Through the ship windows, you could see views of Kyushu's landscape until the ferry got out into the open sea. There, every once in a while you would see different islands on either side of the boat.

Once I arrived at Yakushima, I caught a local bus that took me to my hostel on the other side of the island. There are two main buses on the island - one that goes clockwise and the other going the opposite direction.

As I mentioned, Mt Miyanoura is the famous hike to do on the island, but the trailhead is difficult to get to without a car.

For driving in Japan, I could get an international driver's license which would allow me to drive in Japan for one year. If I then wanted to get a Japanese driver's license, that is also possible but it involves passing a pretty difficult practical driving test.

I have heard of foreigners needing to take the test many times before passing. The test seems to require drivers to complete many small details in order to pass, such as carefully inspecting your car before driving away.

I have not bothered with either the international driver's license or the Japanese driving test - no need for a car for me in Kobe for the time being.

Anyways, since I cannot drive, the owner of the hostel recommended that I look into doing the Mt Miyanoura hike over one night and two days with the one evening spent in a mountain hut. That allows one enough time to hike most of the way up the mountain, spend the night, summit the mountain the next morning then come down and catch transportation back to the hostel.

But after doing some hiking in the rain on my first day in Yakushima, I did not feel up to doing a two day trek on the mountain.

When I returned back to the hostel, I mentioned to the owner that I might go on a day hike to see one of the famous trees on the island. He seemed to think that I would not enjoy that much, and suggested another way of getting to Mt Miyanoura which would not require an overnight stay.

He said I could catch a cab at 5am the next morning to the trail entrance, hike the mountain (about an 8-10 hour roundtrip journey), then try to find a way back to the hostel - either via a cab or hitchhiking. Only downside of taking a cab is that it can be pretty expensive - around $70-80 one way.

I decided to give the mountain a try. On the way to the trail, the cab driver asked how I would be getting back - I told him that I did not know. He pointed out a bus stop on the way that had a departure back to the city at 2:55pm. Starting the hike at 6am, that would give me about 9 hours to do the hike and get back for the bus.

The hike ended up being very nice, although difficult. Yakushima is famous for having very old forests and, consequently, huge trees. You will see that in some of the photos. Just over half the mountain trail was through the ancient forest - following a winding, tree rooted path.

Slowly, though, the trees begin to melt away and the vegetation turns into waist or shoulder high green brush with large, smooth black rocks dotting the landscape. Along the way, I crossed many slowly moving trekkers carrying large backpacks who planned to stay the evening in the mountain huts.

I ran out of water on the way up, but I was able to refill using a fresh spring. The hostel owner later told me that he likes to do so and enjoy the different tastes of the various springs.

I was initially confused about where to refill for water as the map indicated many water sources along the way. I finally found out that the map expected you to fill up using the natural springs, rather than looking for a man-made faucet or hose.

I reached the peak about 4 hours into the hike. The weather at the top was very beautiful, the clouds nearby had parted and I saw sunshine for the first time in several days. Yakushima is one of the rainiest places in Japan, receiving up to 4 or 5 times the amount of annual rainfall as somewhere like Tokyo.

After spending about 45 minutes at the peak, I started to make my way back down the mountain.

When I was about two thirds of the way back, I realized that I had made a time miscalculation and would be cutting it very close. I might miss the return bus. I started to pick up the pace - it looked like I would get back to the trail entrance about 15 minutes before the bus would leave.

However, I seemed to remember that the bus stop was not located at the trail entrance but I could not remember how far away it was, I was hoping for it to be within 10-15 minutes away at a maximum.

The last 2-3 kilometers of the trail turned into a slow trail run, being careful to not fall on the rocks or roots surrounding me. I soon exited the trail and made my way over to the information board that said where the bus stop was. My heart sank.

30 minute walk from the board to the bus stop. I had 15 minutes.

I tossed my walking stick into the the pile and started the downhill run. I was not sure if I would make it, but I had to at least try. After a long day of hiking, I did not want to have to mess around with trying to hitchhike or making an extremely long walk down the mountain to where I could get cell service to call a cab.

As I descended the paved road towards the bus stop, I began encountering other trekkers who appeared to have just taken the arriving bus up the mountain. The path made several turns and in front of me I saw a group of hikers consulting a map and… just beyond them was the bus, waiting to make the return trip. The group gave me some applause as I approached the bus - I had made it.

I took the bus back to one of the island’s major villages, caught some lunch and then boarded another bus back to my hostel. My legs were so tired with overuse that I could barely lift them - this is something I have not experienced before! But, I would be leaving the next day.

Before I caught the bus to the ferry leaving Yakushima, I found out a bit more about the hostel owner’s story. He spoke very good English - he said that he learned it while working abroad, notably with an energy consulting company in Saudi Arabia.

He said that he was now over 80 years old (he looked and spoke like he could be in his 60s or 70s) and said that he built the guesthouse as a retirement job. Originally from Osaka, he mentioned that the job keeps him healthy - he gets physical activity from its upkeep and mental exercise by managing the reservations and business side. He also said that he paid to build the hostel without taking on any debt, so he has no monthly bank payments to worry about. If tourist business is down, he does not need to stress about revenue.

I have a few more days left in Kyushu before returning to Kobe. I will write more about the experiences later on in the trip in next week’s update.

Until then,