Yakushima article – Audience with an Elder

YAKUSHIMA 2016 NOW IN BOTH PAPERBACK & EBOOK EDITIONS! No Japanese? No problem.  Everything you need to enjoy your visit to Yakushima in 2016 is right here! Be free, be independent and find your own adventure! The experience that I gained from living on Yakushima as a fisherman and craftsman

‘Princess Mononoke’, the Studio Ghibli animation, was inspired by the thick forests of Yakushima.  Hayao Miyazaki stayed in Anbo and roamed the forests with his crew before drawing the storyboard. There are many parts in the film that match Yakushima’s distinct scenery exactly. Just as art imitates life, so life imitates art

If it is raining up in the mountains and you have little time to wait a day or two for the weather to clear, this trail is the closest thing there is to the big mountain trails. It begins at Onoaida onsen and gently meanders through the forest for an

The road to Yakusugiland (which is also the road to the Arakawa and Yodogawa trailheads) is closed at its Anbo end between 8 pm and 4 am until 5th March 2010. This is to make necessary repairs to the road. If you’re planning to head up the mountain between these

There are 6 mountain huts on Yakushima’s mountain ranges. All of them offer a dry place to sleep and a toilet but little else. Water can be found in the streams that run near to them and like all the rivers and streams in the higher mountains is crystal clear

Mochomu trail entrance, Yakushima A tough hike is to scale the lump of rock that hangs over Onoaida called Mt.Mochomu. The trail entrance is at Senpiro-no-taki waterfall and it snakes its way through the forest and up steep slopes. Mochomu trail entrance, Yakushima The trail is usually very quiet and