Back to southern Japan, this island is south of Kyushu (*), but not as southern as Iriomote! Just some 80-90 km south. (*) strictly speaking Yakushima is part of Kyushu, since the island is within Kagoshima prefecture, but it is a different island south of main Kyushu It is very popular and therefore attracts lots …
Continue reading “4.a 11 to 15th Feb – Yakushima, last week with Yann”
YES! The blog is slightly lagging behind… still reporting about Iriomote some two weeks ago!! who said internet is immediate ?? So this island also has its marathon (note that ten days ago it was the turn of neighbouring island!), half-marathon to be precise… joking that to arrange a full marathon, one would need to run several times around the island – joke! We started helping the Oohama who were preparing some onigiri 🍙 (rice …
Kazushige’s rice machine has returned from repair and they started planting the seedlings we had prepared together… Kazumasa is preparing a rice paddy, secondary tillage (harrowing to break up the soil clods…) Then… — brought to you by HĂ©lène, Patrick & Yann from Oohama farm —
An easy 8’ walk up their back-yard stream…
Another full day visiting Iriomote, this time we aim for some famous waterfalls upstream from Urauchi river, Mariyudou waterfall , Kanpirei waterfalls, and maybe even Mayagusuku waterfalls. We first start by taking a boat up stream on Urauchi river. That part would be virtually impossible on foot, the river is here subject to tides and on …
Next day as weather was to be less raining, even sunshine, so we headed for a town only accessible by boat (same island but no roads to reach it, only a boat that crosses the bay) – Funauri. So first a little cycling until next village – Shirahama, then a ferry to Funauri. Not much …
Not WWOOFers anymore we set out to discover more of this island, well at least the part accessible by bike. First hike was along a main river and through mangrove to an old abandoned coal mine “village”. It was to be one of those rainy days, but we kept going and were amazed by mangroves …
Monday 4th Feb., Yann joined us for our last day of WWOOFing at Ohama farm. Â Unfortunately for all of us it was to be a very wet day. First some outdoor work, preparing soil for future planting. Tomo a new WWOOFer is also at work. After lunch the weather turned to light rain or scattered …
Saturday, we take it really easy with just a dip at our favourite beach and then head on to catch the ferry to fetch Yann. So another crossing on these speed boats (30kn -> 60km/h). At Ishigaki we knew where to go as we got some tips… a shabby looking shop on the harbour with …
Continue reading “3.i – When YANN joined us for a fortnight…”
Second week at the farm, we more or less did similar work but not the same group of WWOOFers and more rice sorting (tchaka-tchaka) as Kazushige was away for 2 days and we also had lots of rain (tchaka-tchaka takes place indoors). At the back of the warehouse we built the frame for a future …
