We are off to Yakushima via a 4 hour ferry…the adventure begins
Well, we are excited. Today we are finally on our way to Yakushima Island, an opportunity that we have been looking forward to for some time. We have read about Yakushima and chatted with locals and fellow travellers about their incredible experiences on this island. Ancient trees, the oldest up to 7,000 years old, beautiful mountains covering most of the island with homes and villages dotted around the coast are a few of the features that make Yakushima special. The island has been recognized as a unique treasure and has the distinction of being designated as a World Heritage Site. Wildlife indigenous to the island, include the Yakushima Macaques, a unique variety of the Sika Deer, Japanese weasels and the Japanese raccoon dog (not native) as well as being the spawning ground for the migratory loggerhead turtle. Local residents are very protective of their island and have found a way to welcome visitors yet maintain the integrity of this special place.
We bought our ferry tickets some days ago as there is a limit on the number of bikes and people allowed on the ferry. As well, we have booked our return. We have to be at the ferry early because of our trikes, as the loading process takes time, so we are up and ready to head to the terminal for 7 AM.
Once again, we have had a great time in Kagoshima and we will return.
We had a 3 night stay here. Our room was on the 12th floor, just down the hall from the hot spring Onsen, both offer a great view of the volcano on Sakurajima. We continue to be surprised at the affordability of these older hotels….our room was about $80 incl tax.
A beautiful morning. The big job is loading the ferry with trucks and containers bringing supplies to the island. Due to the design of this very old ferry, all trucks and vehicles must back on. Interesting to watch this frenetic activity. We think the cars and our trikes are the smallest part of the load. We will be last to load.
Good job guys. The vehicle traffic is neatly lined up, having backed up for loading, and are ready for an easy disembarkation at Yakushima. It is amazing how quickly the crew load the ferry considering the time it takes to load one vehicle at a time. The crew are always running, never walking. Impressive.
Our journey will be 4 hours on this ferry. There are few amenities on board…no cafe, but there are vending machines and a sparsely stocked shop. We brought our own food.
This floor of the ferry offers only tatami mat rooms where you sit on the ground or have a nap. Our joints are too old for this…we’ll seek out a room with chairs….we hope. We marvel at how comfortable and at ease Japanese are in this type of room on such a hard surface.
Vending machine are available and well stocked wherever you are in Japan. We have been in remote areas and have never encountered a situation where the machine was not functioning or fully stocked. These machines offer food, instant soups, snacks, candy and beverages
Barry found this lounge on the top (3rd) floor where we could sit on chairs and enjoy a panoramic view. The majority of Japanese passengers seem to be in the tatami mat rooms.
Our ferry. This ferry does 2 runs a day…the morning run to Yakushima and after a 1 hour layover load the traffic, there is a return trip to Kagoshima. We had to take the longest, 4 hour route as we need to travel with our trikes on a vessel which takes cars. A passenger only hydrofoil ferry takes 2 hours.
