Just outside Tokyo, a weekend trip away, is the island of Miyakejima (三宅島) where we swam with dolphins. The experience was pretty great except for a hard evening on the ferry. We left Tokyo at 10pm, and arrived at 4:30 am. We did catch up on more sleep when we arrived, so it was still pretty good.
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The departure on the ferry had us floating under the Rainbow bridge.
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The ferry arrived at sunrise.
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To see the dolphins, we took another boat (40 min ride) to another island Mikurajima. The island looks like the Napali coast in Kauai
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The dolphins have white noses. They play by circling around each other. The dolphin guides were great. There’s no feeding or touching which is very eco-friendly. The diving was simply just follow where the dolphins are and then jump in. There were about 20 dive drops. Pretty good for a 3.5 ~ 4 hour cruise.
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This dolphin looked right at me. I could see the whites of it’s eyes. I was aiming the camera at it for the shot before it got bored. I could almost touch him.
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All boat names in Japan end with 丸 (maru).
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We had this katsuo (かつお) sashimi, slipjack tuna, for dinner. It was katsuo fishing season, so this just came off the boat! Definitely the best katsuo that we’ve had yet in Japan.
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Miyakejima has an active volcano on the island. There was an eruption in 1980′s and the 2000′s. In the 80′s the island had to be evacuated because of the lava flows. We saw a few of these lava flows still on the island. One flow was covering a school. The other flows made some awesome rock formations on the coast.
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There’s sulfur gas from the active volcano. So, it’s a little weird that it kills the trees that grow too tall. It was a little eerie, but still very different.
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We ran into the local joke on the way back home. We planned to take the plane back home, but due to the gas and wind direction, the plane usually only takes off 30% of the time. So, we ended up taking ferry back to Tokyo.
Posted by
henry in
notebook |
08.04.2010 7am | tags:
dolphins,
ferry,
Mikurajima,
Miyakejima,
三宅島
We spent a long weekend in Hong Kong, staying in TST on Kowloon with Henry’s points for free! We met a friend of mine for dim sum at Maxim’s (check out the dim sum cart with TVs) before checking out more of Hong Kong island (including the Mid-Level escalators), getting dessert and then the Peak.
After watching the sun set, we had some spicy crab (with lots of garlic) as well as some other seafood dishes in Causeway Bay.
The next day we went to Shek O beach to relax, had some roast pig and goose and then watched the Symphony of Lights in Hong Kong Harbor.
We went to the Temple Street Night Market to look around and get dinner. Of course, we also took the Star Ferry once for the experience on our last day before catching a red eye flight back to Tokyo. We had a great time in Hong Kong.
Posted by
diana in
foodie, notebook |
08.02.2010 5am | tags:
Causeway Bay,
dim sum,
Honeymoon Dessert,
Hong Kong,
Kowloon,
Maxim's,
Shek O,
spicy crab,
Star Ferry,
Symphony of Lights,
TST
Our friend organized a summertime trip to Hokkaido. We flew into Asahikawa airport which seemed to see quite a bit of international traffic. We stayed at the Asahidake Youth Hostel which had its own onsen. The next day we hiked around Asahidake Mountain in Daizetsusan National Park. The weather mostly cooperated, no big downpours and fairly clear so we could see Asahidake Mountain while we hiked. We hiked through the blooming flowers of the mountain, over snow, saw foxes and the fumes from the mountain.
After our hike we sopped by the onsen and a waterfall before heading to Furano.
We had fresh corn for breakfast in Furano before heading to the Cheese Factory and then the flower fields.
We passed rolling hills of farmland as we traveled to the flower fields.
So much of the yummy food in Japan comes from Hokkaido. Lavender scented the air as we walked through the flower fields. Lots of colorful flowers and butterflies and bees.
We even saw them harvesting lavender.
Before we headed back to Tokyo we had some ramen at the airport. All in all, a great summertime trip.
Diana works for a company that originated from Osaka. So, at work, she has to learn a little Kansai-ben (Osaka dialect), and she definitely has to be a Hanshin Tigers fan (Osaka baseball team).
We kinda pre-mediated this this fact. So, last year, we bought some Tigers jerseys in anticipation of going to a few Hanshin Tiger games. Well, we just went, and it was awesome.
The game was against the Yakult Swallows of Tokyo. Like Go Go Swallows! (I’ll omit any bad jokes here…)
Having watched the Houston Astros as a kid, this was a completely different experience. With JP baseball, every player has a song. This fact alone was amazing. There was a guy behind us that knew every song and was singing loud and proud. There’s cheer songs for everything too. Then, just like a high school football game, there’s a band for each team.
The Swallow’s fight songs are in english too!
The beer service in the park was excellent. Not only were there hot girls, they had mini-kegs on their backs and filled beer for you. Japanese baseball games, unlike the US, allow you to bring your own food and 1 beer. Obviously you can heavily abuse the rules. Otherwise, beer is 500 to 700 yen.
We took a trip with a friend to Yakushima (one of the southern islands of Japan ) known as the inspiration for the Princess Mononoke animated film and famous for its many old growth cedar trees (thousands of years old). The island was amazingly green and beautiful. We went during rainy season though so it rained and/or poured every day but it only added to the lushness of the island. The hydrangeas (ajisai in Japanese) were blooming. After spending the night in Kagoshima, we took the fast ferry to Yakushima. It was a 2 hour jet-foil ferry ride (the slow ferry takes 4 hours) and a little bumpy but luckily we were all tired so we slept most of the way. We actually rode the Toppy ferry, but the Rocket Ferry had the much cooler looking paint job.
We went to the nicknamed Mononoke forest to do a hike but found that the rain had so swollen the rivers that the forest area was closed.
After shopping for some rain gear and grabbing lunch at a local spot with yummy black pork (黒豚) and flying fish飛び魚.
The next day we woke up before dawn to hit the 10 hour trail to see the oldest known cedar on the island (Jomonsugi) but were turned away as they decided to close the trail that day. Instead, we headed to the Mononoke forest again and this time we were allowed to hike through the forest – all mossy covered rocks and trees and wild rivers.
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It was quite a scenic drive up the mountain as there were so many small waterfalls on the side of the road. The forest was amazing! We tried to check out a waterfall after the hike but the mountains were covered in mist and fog and while we could hear the raging water, we could not see it. We had better luck at the next waterfall that feeds into the sea. A short hike through the cliffside woods led us to a viewpoint of the falls and the coast.
We also tried a seaside onsen with a small bamboo screen separating the men and women. It was quite pretty and definitely a unique experience. That day lightning knocked out the power to the island until about 9pm. The next day we went to one of the largest waterfalls on the island – Okawa no taki – and got drenched from the spray of the powerful falls as we took pictures. Okawa no taki (滝 means waterfall)
Then we went to Yakusugi Land and despite the amusement park name found another green, mossy, cedar filled forest wonderland. This hike was particularly atmospheric as we had to hike over tree roots and cedar plank bridges. I think we crossed at least 3 suspension bridges over the river.
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Another cool fact about Yakushima nature, is the regrowth of trees inside the old stumps of trees. It’s only something that can happen with the amount of moisture, and moss which helps germinate the seeds in the tree stump. This picture is of 2 trees growing from 1 chopped trunk!
We also saw many cedar trees (yakusugi 屋久杉) some over a thousand years old and deer and monkeys. Apparently the nature films are correct and the monkeys really do like to groom each other and eat what they find in each others fur!
Finally, it was time to make our way back to Tokyo by taking a commuter plane to Kagoshima and another plane back to Tokyo . Before that the rental car company told us to just leave the car keys in the car and leave it in the parking lot of the small airport! Must be nice to live on a small island – I don’t think that would ever be the rental car return procedures in the US . This trip was definitely one of the highlights of our Japan exploration. The pictures cannot do justice to the lush scenery and even though I’m not a big fan of hiking in the rain, it was well worth it to experience the rain drops hang glittering from the moss-covered trees and witness the many small streams and waterfalls flowing over rocks and trees all heading to the ocean.
