Blog de Pat et LN

6.d 2 to 6 Mar – Shimabara Peninsula

Shimabara Peninsula, this is where we visited the volcanoes and hot springs around Unsen, see earlier post 6.a 2 to 6 Mar – From Amami-Oshima to north of Nagasaki.

Starting from south we passed some nice rice terraces with solid stone walls (notice their angle).

Some terraces are used for other crops too…

We stayed 2 nights at Shimabara-Shi, a nice town on the inner coast – so good for sea food.

Also nice antique shops, little canals with carpes, a beautiful castle… all on rented bikes, and under a light rain:

When they are carpes swimming… you surely don’t call that a gutter anymore??

By chance along a street we came to a tatami shop & atelier. Two workers busy on a specific order (some tatami are custom made to fit the specific shape of a room) explained some parts of their work and the sewing machine at work.

Tatami prices will vary a lot, but count on ~10000¥

Yet another machine + adjustments by hand

Sewing machine that binds the hemp surface to the base

To another machine for the sides… tatami rim

Some shops and then a train to meet our next WWOOF host.

The sign says: “*Please enjoy the scenery seen of the beautiful Omura bay at a precious seaside liner.*”

6.c 2 to 6 Mar – Even more along the way from Amami-Oshima to Shimabara

4th March … continuing from last post, so still in Amakusa but leaving Hondo city.

As in Europe, the graveyard are located at the best spots!

We visited a potter’s workshop, nice pottery too, but too early in our trip to consider buying anything.
Notice the connected kilns in a slope – seems to be characteristic !?!

They have a tendency to over do it.. but this tree maybe really needed the extra support !!!

Typical countryside landscape, hills/ mountains are usually with very steep slopes, but they have also hyper-flat valleys… if it was in France I’d be guessing a glacier formation but here ??
Also characteristic of Japan countryside are the super-well canalized rivers/streams ! Like water is no joke in those parts!!

We had heard of a sea salt production…

… but first met a couple collecting their own seaweed…

… and there we are, we would have not guessed or dared!!

Thanks to the call we also got a guided tour…
an amazing amount of sea water is pumped and boiled!

Calling on his own initiative to lake sure we could visit the salt « *factory* »

But some part is also produced by slow « natural » evaporation…

Was it to thank us for providing an excuse to have a break in the tedious work of salt packing… not sure, but we did get a pack of their salt as a gift – amazing!

But also found a small factory processing wakame a seaweed used for instand in traditional miso soup or simply as salad.

*(Not part of that factory, but same area…)*

A young girl, employed there, wanted soo much to speak english with us… but could hardly say a word…

As it was the girls’ day shops were selling dolls… for boys day it is wind vail in the form of carpes.

We were thinking of bying one for each of you as souvenirs, but there was unfortunately no more space in our haversacks… 🙂 ! Too bad hey??

Bye bye Amakusa… off to Shimabara Peninsula…

6.b 2 to 6 Mar – More along the way from Amami-Oshima to Shimabara

There was more than the volcano and Shimabara Rebellion, more in the line of classic tourism…

Amami-Oshima:

We parted from the Gomairu team…

Rented a car for 3000¥, pickup and left at different town, no need to refill! And went along west coast from end to end.

*Sorry purists, the map is leaning to fit nicely…*

At Nagara bay, we ask few questions to workers on a raft which were hooking glove shaped mussels to ropes… these are producing half pearls in 6 years (or 8, varies with translation 🙂 ).

The route was for most part along the west coast, but we then headed for main island summit, Mt Yuwen at 946m … the road to get to start of that walk is narrow and winding like a snake, wouldn’t dream of cycling this, unless it is with am e-bike!

Someone tried to build a kern to tag the way… but it got overgrown quickly! Need some roundup to keep paths clean.

Reaching the summit, good they put a stone there, else you would not tell, still surrounded by vegetation as we were!

Still worth a panorama photo, standing on tip of toes!

And as always wonderful vegetation:

Halfway up, a shrine.

We then took our time until Naze, as our night boat was leaving at 9 pm…

The night on that boat, dormitory turned out to be ok – luckily, not like the Nicot’s experience…

Amakusa 3rd & 4th March

From Kagoshima, we headed straight to Amakusa, with a car ferry from main Kyushu.

Local fruit and veggies on the way, fields of imo (potatoes) – but beware there are potatoes and potatoes, not just varieties: satsumaimo, jagaimo, nagaimo, and many more.. each having many varieties too!

On our way…

We overnighted at Amakusa city, or Hondo. And in morning made a visit of city on rented bikes…

Renting bikes for few hours, best way to visit a town (that’s our opinion!)

You most likely noticed our fascination for roof tops…

Fish market, or more like auction … at the docks

Larger fish tanks directly in harbour…. likely used as intermediate storage before auction.

impressive not just by its age (1824), by its make too (fully in stones, even the deck/roadway) + fact it was made by volunteers on an initiative of locals!
We met there an old lady who explained she had helped with maintenance and he name is engraved on a stone that commemorates the work.

so bikes can be parked packed alongside each other’s

… as we were showing so much interest, the guy gave us a fresh squid…

Not everybody would know what to do with a fresh squid – tentacles still pinching

And more… see next post…

6.a 2 to 6 Mar – From Amami-Oshima to north of Nagasaki

Between WWOOF 2 and WWOOF 3 we did a bit of sightseeing.

First across Amami-Oshima to Naze, where we took a night ferry to Kagoshima (on Kyushu main island).

Then we rented a car from Kagoshima and went up north along the coast to take a car-ferry to Amakusa’s main island (Shimoshima), overnighting at Amakusa-Shi (Hondo).

Next day slowly progressing north with another car-ferry brought us to Shimabara peninsula. A first overnight up on volcano slope at Unzen.

Then from Unzen to Shimabara-Shi, another night.

And finally from Shimabara to Isahaya, and a train to Omura (northeast from Nagasaki).

Most of the distance was covered on the night ferry.
Moving North == getting back to real winter 🥶

Overall the two most interesting features during that short trip were the volcano at Mt Unzen with major eruption from 1991 to 1995 which created a new summit but also destroyed many lives, and the historical importance of that region in relation to the persecution of Catholics, the Shimabara Rebellion in mid 17th and later the role in Japan’s opening to occident and industrial revolution.

Shimabara Rebellion & Opening to the west

No photos to cover this topic, as we were visiting museums. Still, let’s point out that this region had the highest percentage of Catholic’s and most likely even so nowadays. A Collegio (seminary) was even opened in Amakusa to educate missionaries from 1591 through 1597.

The Shimabara rebellion (1637-1638) although in direct relation with persecution of Catholics (~ 1600-1800) was likely also about peasant rebelling against too high taxes which they had to pay to their lord.

Let’s say it did not end well for the rebels…!

Catholic’s had to practice their religion under cover. Still, some of the western culture transpired in the process: music and musical instruments (sometimes with local adaptations, like the bamboo pipe organ), a Gutenberg printing press – which is said to have printed more copies of “Aesop’s Fables”, etc.

Mt Unzen volcano, and new Mt Heisei-Shinzan

Hard to believe we would do a walk on a mountain younger than us!!

Well with vulcanoes this is possible.

Illustrates well the *birth* of Mt Heisei-Shinzan

In background, the prohibited area, due to gaz and unstable rocks.

In left background, the new summit, still smoking…

Vegetation regenerating slowly but surely

Same here… where we had our **onigiri** picnic

Vegetation does grow on volcanoes, even just after it was active… but it takes a long long time to get a full forest cover.

**Yama-guruma,** Wheel-tree (*Trochodendraceae*)
A tree that clings vigorously on cliffs, even windy northen slopes…

We then continued our walk around different summits of Mt Unzen’s calderas.

In beige the golf… and further back one might distinguish Unzen city… Nice **onsen**, of course!!

View down on Shimabara, in red what can still be seen of the 1991-1995 scar…

We had to review definitions of pyroclastic flow & lahar, the two phenomena that caused destruction during the 1991-1995 eruption.

lahar: a moving fluid mass composed of volcanic debris and water
pyroclastic flow: in a volcanic eruption, a fluidized mixture of hot rock fragments, hot gasses, and entrapped air, that moves at high speed in thick, gray-to-black, turbulent clouds that hug the ground. The temperature of the volcanic gases can reach about 600 to 700 °C. The velocity of a flow often exceeds 100 km (60 miles) per hour.

5.d 17 Feb to 2 Mar – Other experiences during our stay at 5-Mairu

Sugar cane factory

We went back to see that sugar factory in action… seems to be the same recipe and tools for generations.

Heated from a massive furnace, using wood, sugar cane chips and gazoline torche

Paste is finally moved to a huge mixer, similar to those used to lake bread (from what we could tell)

The mixer helps cooling the paste, before it sets’ it is moved to neaby room whee a groups of ladies spread it in a flat coat ~1.5 cm thick

After so much evaporation, they got to the right thickness…

No official visit, this was all kindly explained to us (Hélène) by the lady in charge…

Then chop, chop … it is quickly turned into rough sugar cubes!

And that was the family size sugar factory – delicious sugar by the way!!

Yoga sessions

Although tiny island with even tinier village, a lot of activities seemed to be organized to make it all a bit more lively…

We joined two session of the yoga classes ( once every second week).

Second session was even held by **Mocchi**

Some of the exercise were too advance for us, or us to stiff for them!

Many other art&crafts seem to take place in this ex-school

Live music evening

At another guest house we got invited to an evening of live music performance …

Waiting for main artist, many took turns and played and sang

Some traditional Okinawa songs have a kind of Hawaii tone.

In the end the main artist never got to perform… too drunk!

But we still had fun during that evening amongst *original* people.

Miscellaneous

We joined another atelier… how to make a broom from weeds.

Collect some reed like fluffy dried weeds… you need ~100 for a broom!

Some sorting and pondering, where to start…

(**Mocchi**)
We were all fighting with the element

As you may imagine, bang on Hélène’s cup of tea!

Friend of **Rie**, she also works at the sugar factory…

Helped prepare O’bento, kind of picnic box

Help Ōto shoveling trucks of sugar cane bi-product, used as compost.

We did 4 truck loads, wouldn’t have imagined doing anymore….

Cooking lessons …

Not many of those recipes can easily be reproduced back home…

Getting drinking water from a spring… behind a deserted school.

We attended the school open day – Nagie 8 and Mashio 13

I assume the village is too small to get a full time policeman apointed to circulation…, so they have a statue watching the cross-over opposite to school entrance, 😉

My reading of Japanese is laybe just at same level as Shin’s… except what I can read hae may understand, not *vice-versa*

Weeding session at school, even with teachers!

Other…

**Shin** always on grandma’s back! Strong as an ox, she used to be a nurse.

Cleaning beach of dead **Fugu.**
School in the background

Always conforte and fun in the kitchen…

But when not in the kitchen we spent most of our time in the vegetable garden, weeding, planting, adding compost….

Relaxing at the beach between 1pm and 4:30

That is all from Kakeromajima and Go-Mairu… moving north to real winter!

5.c 17 Feb to 2 Mar – Around half of Kakeromajima

On our second day, a day off, they even lent us their car for us to look around!!

We went around half the island, from tiny village to tiny villages. The roads got up a hill, then down, all that in the forest, and each bay had a tiny village spreading along the coast and river valley.

Legend:
^ steep hill covered with forest
**|^|** houses, village
T peer, port
~ the sea

From the “original” local people, it seems only the elder generation are still hear, all younger ones have moved to main island and their big cities. The young generation are mostly new comers that decided to escape the frenzy life of big cities…

Here and there we saw some interesting things, but from our stay at Kakeromajima we will mainly remember the time spent at 5-mairu and exchanges with Rie and Mocchi.

Just like in Iriomote impressive schools for such tiny villages. Here at walking distance from 5-Mairu, regrouping several villages.

Strategical places along the coast still have remains from the war.

Although the villages seem deserted, houses look well looked after.

In each village there seems to be a *Remarkable* tree

Leaves go to the cows, I wonder if they also taste sweet to the cows….?

Other impressive vegetation, a bit less luxuriant than Iriomote, but still….

See the coast line… how each village is then isolated.

We then met people collecting sugar cane. Seems one of the main *crops* on this island , that and maybe also a bit of mango culture under greenhouse.

For lunch we had a hard time to find a place to eat… either none to be found, or they were closed … not really the tourist season and not many locals to keep a restaurant running off season.

Finally we found what seems to be an open place… and it was like in a farwest!

Not much of a choice, we had some wild boar. Turned out to be tender and tasty.

The owner was sipping his shochu ( kind of strong sake), while watching an American western

Further along our tour, a factory to transform those sugar canes into sugar… details of that process in later post

Later we learn they were harvesting too, and only run the sugar process once every 4 days.

And that was our tour on Kakeromajima….

5.b 17 Feb to 2 Mar – 5 Mairu

The kitchen! Where we spent most of our days, *when not in the vegetable garden!*

Between Rie and Mocchi, it is almost as if there was a cooking competition. Not that they competed, but both are excellent cooks, with slightly different methods maybe but same spirit of using fresh / natural products.

Most veggies came from the garden (so well weeded!!)

Rie was astonishing in how she always seem to be improvising on last minute and at same time precooking and saving for later use…

Mocchi seems to prefer following recepies, but was also able to improvise.

But even though we never saw them planning together, they both got busy in the kitchen and produced marvellous meals for both the guests and all of us ( we were 8 non-guests ).

But this was not a vegetarian guest house… even though we hardly saw any of Ōto throughout the day (he never joined us for meals), he was providing all the fish!

Most often he went skin diving and fished with harpoon, but also sometimes with rods from the boat… either way he was selecting special spots for the fishing, some 20’ by boat from the guesthouse.

Patrick joined him one day during the skin diving ( just watching and carrying some of the catch) => no photos of that! And also joined him once for rod fishing…. ( with the boat ride and staying on the boat for hours, this was not really for Hélène…)

First we caught some small fishes along the coast, which were then used as bait…
we were then fishing at depths of 80m, takes time and work to wind all that line in – the fish are then immediately dead due to pressure variation, I suppose…

Only time we really saw Ōto was when he was preparing those fish, as he was the sashimi master!

Daikon cut in thin slice, unrolled using sharp knife. Later these thin slices are cut again to very thin “noodle” shape.

Used for sashimi presentation, but also very good to eat.

All this combined, made top meals for both guests and us…

And when a customer cancels, we also get the best pieces!

5.a 17 Feb to 2 Mar – Kakeromajima, Amami-Oshima

Yann flew back to Switzerland from Kagoshima, we went back south for another WWOOFing experience.

Further south than Yakushima, but not quite as far as Iriomote, not even Okinawa.

To get there we took a plane from Kagoshima to Amami airport, then a bus from there to Setouchi, via Naze – basically across the Amami-Oshima island from north to south.

Not quite there yet, then a ferry across a fairly narrow straight to Seso on Kakeromajima island, from here we were picked up by car by our new host Rie (a lady) – their place is on the other side of the island, a little village by the name of Ikomo. (that last part did not take long, crossing this island is much easier than trying to go from one village on the coast to the other!)

Those parts in the south are all separate islands… **Kakeromajima** is the first one south of **Amami-Oshima**

So our new WWOOF place is totally different than the first one, from a farm to a guesthouse: Gomairu Guesthouse

Gomairu => Go + mairu or ５マイル => 5 miles

As you will see our work there is mainly to help with the guesthouse, and mostly with their vegetable garden, but also as little hands in the kitchen. On busy days also with cleaning the guest rooms ( only once) and other odd jobs.

They Guesthouse is on water front in a small sheltered bay, walking distance to a very small village ( aren’t they all small villages on this island??).

The main building, living room and kitchen.

The guest houses, 3 large rooms, a furo (Japanese hot bath). Location is just behind the main building ( so picture taken from other direction.

Large house, with huge room for groups, 2 bedrooms and a kitchen for groups… ( this is where we stayed)

Frontside of the guest houses, when we said it is on the water front!!!

The hosts: Rie (in her 39) and her husband which we will call Ōto-san (meaning father, but we never got another name for him. 65). Kazuyo – Rie’s mother, but we only heard her been called Obasan (grandmother, 67). Their 3 kids, Mashio (a girl 13), Nagie (a girl 8) and Shin (a boy, 4).

+ Mocchi a helper (young lady ~30-35 maybe…) who will be looking to settle somewhere in Kyushu and open her own guesthouse…

Left to right: Shin, Rie, Ōto-san, Mashio,
Nagie

**Mocchi**, employed as cook and helper with guest-house

But before we dig in with our Gomairu odyssey, let’s just rewind for a bit with our crossing of Amami-Oshima …

On recommendation from Mimiko we stopped by the island museum, … not so much for the information on the island, but this museum also has a part about a Japanese painter Tanaka Isson (1908-1977). Maybe nothing new to some of you… we were really impressed, even more maybe by his early paintings, at age 13! He seemed like a promising painter and had been noticed as such at a young age… but then something must have gone wrong and he isolated himself and went to live on Amami-Oshima. He seems to have developed his own style… some of those paintings had an echo of Gaugin’s colourful works, maybe… Check him out on the net, or if his paintings are exposed nearby where ever you may be. (Simply search Isson Tanaka, e.g. https://pin.it/i5vgawbw5cwucn )

His paintings only became appreciated and himself famous after he had died…

4.c 11 to 15th Feb – More from Yakushima

That was not all, there were still some other wonderful aspects of this island.

Nature that inspires imagination

It is said that Miazaki was inspired by the sugi forest of Yakushima when he made “*Princess Monoke*”

There is even a tree in one of the trails that symbolises this movie…
(as I haven’t seen the movie yet, I wasn’t sure what to aim for)

Food

Did we not mention food yet!?!!

Best sashimi we had at a little restaurant in Miyanoura

Also a speciality of this island, a flying fish (***Tobiuo***)(*).
No joke a record was 400m!

Those we had in our miso soup, they are called turtle fins (**kamenote**).

Cookies filled with sweet red beans purée

We already mentioned this, but here we present to you the **Tankan** , kind of orange.

(*) in 1783 they encouraged fishing the Tobiuo as a substitute to logging, which does not mean it was yet to be the end of giant sugi killing!

Onsen – hot water springs

Of course most often you cannot take pictures in those public baths, only from the outside – this one was pretty good by the way!

But there are also some outdoor **onsen**

What is special with this one, is that it is on the edge of the ocean, so only accessible as onsen during low tides!

This particular one was by far our favourite, maybe the best of the trip ( so far)

Trekking in Yakushima

A part from our visit of Shiratani Unsuikyo ravine with Steve, we did another hike – just the 3 of us. That was our second day on island, starting form Anbo, up to Yakusugi Land by rented car.

We went up to Tachudake peak , so Patrick decided to re-baptise this Mont Tacul (as in Mont Blanc du Tacul).

Driving up to Yakusugi Land was our first encounter with the local macaques.

Remind a bit of *les tours St-Jacques,* near Gruffy

Before paths were for tourists, before they were for forestry… they were made by locals for annual pilgrimages to worship mountain divinity and pray for good crops

Sign posts

City area map, lots of little shops / workshops

Maybe they should be informed of the dry toilets method!

It was also not clear at all where we should have taken the disposal bag from, there were none at the toilets. Maybe you had to ask at entrance, but you then need to be aware of this type of facilities.

On the trails there were usually very good informative sign posts, must not be easy to keep them moss free…

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This section is a melting pot of other scenes, experiments we had during our 5 days in Yakushima.

Tree branches don’t just rub against each other, they can even be absorbed by one of the trees here!

From cities on the coast to mountains covered with forests

Boulders on the sea front (under the lighthouse, where we met the fishermen)

Sadly this brings us to the end of Yann’s holidays with us in Japan, we will be missing the carrot pictures…

4.b 11 to 15th Feb – More wonders from Yakushima

Yakushima has many more wonders on top of the giant thousands of years old Yakusugi, here are a few that we appreciated:

Other types of trees…

Likely my personal favourite, likely just because of the colour contrasts it creates ….

Not so sure anymore but this could well be a **Momi fir** (*Abies firma* )

Banyan trees, well probably just **one** here as you only see the roots!!

Himeshara (*stewartia monadelpha*), a camellia relative

Here Yann is holding a “new” root from that Banyan, which will eventually reach the ground and start to look more like a trunk…. ( those were not on the mountain, but coastal area)

Other fauna & flora

Not a mushroom, apparently a sticky plant, mainly rhizome

You cannot miss them, Yakushima Macaques

The road bordering the west coast has so little traffic, even deer are not afraid. That side of island is so steep right to the see that it never got exploited.

This time it was safe, i.e. we did not eat that one!

Different species of evergreen (sempervirens) gives shades of green and different “*texture*”

Rivers and waterfalls

With so much water pouring everyday (almost) on these granitic mountains, we were bound to find great rivers and impressive waterfalls. Japanese love these spectacular scenery – we do too!

Torohki-no-taki close to Hara (south), on our third day.

Senpiro-no-taki, same as last one above, further upstream on Tainoko river. Worth a panoramic photo!

Ohko-no-taki, west coast, few km north of Kurio. 88m drop!

Upstream on Kuriogawa, after overnighting in Kurio.

Local activity / trade

Here and there we were able to observe some traditional trades and engage small conversations- thanks to Hélène’s Japanese, people are always amazed and delighted to find a foreigner that speaks Japanese, it opens doors.

Tatami workshop, unfortunately nobody was in… (later on our trip you will see we were able to see artisans in action)

Grocery shop, local products for sure! Again no one in (*), but you can help yourself and pay in the little box.

Potter, shop and atelier in same place – no one but still open

Family size tofu makers and direct sales – we had a sample.

Check what is used to hold the buckets in the tree…
deer antlers

Knife and tool sharpener… again no one at the workshop ( although not locked!)

*Mos Burger,* local fast food. ( we did not test it )

Most of the times we find beauty and elegance in the tools they use.

They start from whole fish, so need to start by making fillets

They were down to 5 workers, but used to be up to 30 employees, when there was enough fish coming from the sea … 🙁