In which Layla and Roz hike in Yakushima's ancient cedar forests and meet friendly locals

By Layla

When we got to Kagoshima, the southern tip of Kyushu island, we had some regrets that we were just passing through: it looked a lovely city, all surrounded by ocean and loomed over by an active volcano. But we had lunch at a charming outdoor market between a book stall and a flower stall, and felt quite cheery, before boarding the jetfoil boat to Yakushima.

Yakushima is a small, southerly island famed for its amazing ancient cedar forests, inspiration for Japanese anime and catnip for those of us who love beautiful hiking routes. Other than hiking, and onsens, there is not much going on… After dumping our bags at the hotel, we strolled around Miyanoura town marvelling at how little a town could offer in terms of things for a tourist to do. But then, attached to the tourist information office, we found salvation in Jane, a lovely little café sporting not just delicious chiffon cake, but also British tea. Roz’s eyes glowed with the crazed anticipation of a tea junkie in withdrawal, and so we whiled away our afternoon, lamenting that in our day of mostly transit, we lacked any good photos for our daily Facebook update. ‘Uneventful’ we branded the day… which was of course tempting fate.

Later that evening, after stocking up with breakfast and snacks at the local co-op grocery store, we went in search of somewhere to eat. We walked miles but the potentially vegetarian-friendly option identified by the tourist office seemed to no longer exist. Finally I announced that I was going to just open the door of the next Japanese style restaurant/izakaya and try my luck. One frustrating thing about Japan so far is that their restaurants, other than being subtly marked by a lantern, seem to be entirely concealed from outside perusal, so you can’t peek in a window to see if you like the look of it or not. You either know about it in advance, or just take your chances! So when I got to a random one, I pushed the door and in we went.

It was immediately obvious that it was indeed some kind of restaurant and that the ambience was convivial. There was a waiter-looking man washing his hands near the door so I turned to him and in my best Japanese, enquired as to whether there was any vegetarian food. “Vegetarian!” he exclaimed in vigorous delight. And then (in Japanese) “Come and eat with my family!” Ah, so not a waiter. He vigorously dragged us all the way through the busy rooms til we found his mother, father and younger brother sitting on the floor, finishing their meal, and looking a tad alarmed. Still, we were made to sit, beer was ordered, and once they had established the parameters of our freakish dietary needs, shouted loudly for vegetable-based tapas-type items which were duly delivered. Conversation flowed – from them to us, while we looked mostly bemused and desperately tried to catch occasional words that might give us clues as to what the topic of discussion might be while they stared expectantly at us, awaiting our answers to their questions. Then as our odd host proclaimed himself a samurai, possibly a chat up line, his parents declared they needed to take the younger son home to bed. A lot of discussion was had which involved money. Then, with entreaties to eat and drink a lot, they were suddenly gone. We were left trying to make conversation with a delighted-looking boy. This went on increasingly awkwardly for about 10 minutes. Then the waitress approached the table holding a comedy old-style phone, telling our samurai that he had a phone call. He duly took the short call, said something to us about a job and an accident, tried to throw loads of money at us (which we declined) and fled. What had happened? Was this a scenario of getting a friend to call with a pseudo-emergency to get one out of a bad blind date? Was there actually some kind of emergency? We will never know. All we know is that we were left with a pile of food and beer, lots of Japanese people staring at us… and all expenses paid.

The next day we took the bus to Yakusugiland, one of the two best hiking areas on the island. Winding our way up into the mountains (and sadly into the clouds), we got excited… then we were there. Japan seems to do a good line in hiking routes where the first couple of miles are nicely paved and form a little loop for those who are more strollers than hikers… then they produce a range of ever-longer loops for the more hardcore hikers to choose from, all beautifully, tastefully signposted. Obviously Roz announced that the longest route had our name on it and off we went. The scenery was indeed beautiful and otherworldly, all green moss and ridiculously large trees (you could walk underneath their roots!). We had a fun bento box picnic, with a Japanese-style packed lunch from our hotel, and then walked on and on, across cool bridges, up hills… most of the walking involved picking our way through huge tree roots, so I was physically and mentally exhausted by the time we got the bus down the hill (and back to Jane café for more tea and chiffon cake – medicinal!).

That evening we tried out the hotel onsen, which was fun and relaxing, then had a huge walk to another restaurant, this one more of a Western-style sports bar. We ate French fries, rice balls, and salad while watching the women’s ice skating championship on TV – not the sort of sports that you’d expect on a sports bar TV at home!  By coincidence we were there just as all the Japanese competitors were on – and at that time doing well – and we cheered on Japan with vigour. Torrential rain ensued and we taxied home.

The following day we had decided to tackle the best hike on the island and, some say, in all of Japan. Shiranti Unsuikyo is a truly ancient forest and the place that inspired the famous anime scenery. The whole place was full of waterfalls and coated in a thick, vibrant layer of moss. It felt like we were in a fairytale, where anything might happen. Obviously what did happen was lots of hiking up hills, precarious crossing of rivers, and me wishing that my breath and leg muscles matched my enthusiasm for vigorous hiking! It was also unfortunate that I dropped Roz’s wallet and iPhone in the river… However, we all survived (including the iPhone) and entirely exhausted, caught the bus home. We’d hoped to go paddleboarding in the afternoon but alas the wind picked up and the paddleboarding man emailed us that this was a bad plan. So what could we do: Jane café and the chiffon cake and tea awaited! The man who ran it was delighted to see us again, gave us our “usual” and sought reassurance we’d be back again next year – and so we felt like locals.

After partaking of another onsen, we dined in the hotel restaurant. This was another multi-course extravaganza (the normal type of meal in a ryokan) involving, in our case, all the vegetarian things in the world. Extra fun as we were wearing the hotel dressing gown-type garb called yukata. Very comfy and nice, but as Roz swanned around elegantly in her, I had to concede that the particular dimensions of my bottom, hitherto unanticipated by Japanese yukata designers, were rendering my whole yukata-wearing experience somewhat less than modest…We retired to our bedroom and rounded off the evening with a game of Scrabble in our bedroom (where I regained my previously lost Scrabble dignity with a score of over 400). Early to bed for a horribly early start the following day: a ferry back to the mainland and then onward: to Hiroshima!