Yakushima was the main destination of my trip to Japan. Yakushima is an island located off the far south coast of Kyushu. It’s almost a tropical climate there, hot and humid, raining and drizzling all the time. Obviously everything green grows like crazy, plus, Pacific typhoons often sweep over this area on their way to Japan. One of these typhoons named Chaba 18, held me in the port of Kagoshima for one whole day. I was forced to wait for the sea to calm down so that some ship could give me a lift to the island. When boarding the first morning ferry after the typhoon, I was told there is fifty percent chance that we would be forced to return to mainland due to the weather. If it should be it will be I said to myself. I had a soba soup in the ship’s canteen and slept on floor during the trip. The rough waves cradled me like a baby and then I was there.

There are cedars on Yakushima that are thousands of years old. Three hundred and fifty years ago one could find them everywhere and locals considered the trees to be sacred. They believed the Forest Spirit lives in mountains. Later on, some Confucian scholar came and convinced local people and the government to lumber the ancient forest. So they cut their sacred trees for roof tiles.

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