Arakawa Trail blocked
A recent landslide has blocked the Arakawa trail 2 km from the trailhead. It occured on the morning of Saturday 24/01/10 and has covered the railtrack trail making it impassable.
It is around 20 m wide and 7 m high and will obviously take some time to remove. In the meantime, a temporary path is being created and should be in place mid-February.
The Arakawa trail is the most used route to get to Jomon Sugi but other alternatives are the Kusugawa trail or the Yodogawa trail.
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Is the Arakawa trail passable yet? I have plans to visit Yakushima February 18th and want to go to the Jomonsugi. Is it possible to complete the roundtrip Kusugawa trail to Jomonsugi in these short winter days?
No, it's still closed and will be for a while longer. The only solution is to go up the Kusugawa Trail. Around Jomon Sugi there is 5-10 cm of snow on the path at the moment (10-15 off path). You would need to take crampons to be prepared although in current conditions only rubber ones would be fine. This week is warm so it's highly probable much of the snow has melted but next week (around the 18th) it will be colder – so be prepared.
Thanks for the update and the advice. The book is a great help in preparing for my long-awaited trip to Yakushima. I could not however prepare for the landslide.