Japan 3.9: Yakushima Part II

It took us a little longer to get out the next day.  We drove a shorter distance to the Yakusugi Land hiking area.  We took the longest loop which was billed as 150 minutes.  We took our time and finished in a little under 3.  Outside of the first few minutes, we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  It had a slightly different vibe and feel to the hike of the previous day, but it is hard to put into words as to why.  The trail was certainly more manicured, with tons of wooden steps, even on parts of the furthest out parts of the hike.  In any case, it was very pleasant and enjoyable.



On our way out, we saw a few more monkeys on the road.



We headed into the nearby town of Anbo and went to a well rated ramen restaurant.  Not only was the restaurant actually where the map said it was, but it was also open!  We went inside the very small restaurant and sat at the bar area.  Unlike every other restaurant that we have been to in Japan, this menu was only in Japanese, hung on the wall.  All we wanted was ramen, but the woman there had trouble understanding what we wanted.  Luckily, one of the other patrons spoke decent English and was able to translate for us.  I thanked him profusely!

We decided to check out a nearby beach that I had found online, that had rocks that would trap water in between tides(Don't know if this is the correct term, since I am not a water person), which would allow you to see some sea life.  The rocks were very colorful.



Stephanie and Miles found tadpoles swimming about.



We hopped among the rocks and then explored farther down the beach on more rocks.



As we were leaving, Stephanie found sea slugs.



I had wanted to check out some woodcrafting stores, so we visiting one that I had located online, which was tiny and unimpressive.  I asked the woman who rented us the cottage to recommend a place, and after translating the card she gave us, visited another store.  This one was much bigger and had more interesting pieces.  The crafting is done with the yakusugi wood.  Crafters are only allowed to take wood from downed trees, as no one is allowed to cut down trees from the island.

We ended the day by stopping by two final waterfalls located close to the cottage.



Our next day was a travel day.  We dropped off the rental car flew back to Fukuoka, and took our first shinkansen of the trip to Hiroshima.  We arrived around 4:30.  We briefly walked into town, to a covered mall type area and ate at a local restaurant, before coming back to the room.