Here's a random picture to start us off with...star trails over a lighthouse in Izuhara, Tsushima Island, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan:
Back to the story...two weekends ago, on a whim, I reserved my ferry tickets, packed my backpack and headed to Busan at the crack o' dawn (getting up at 5:30 on a Saturday sucks). In Busan, after thinking for some minutes about abandoning the trip since the weather looked gloomy and ready to start pouring any minute, I paid for my ticket, got my precious passport stamp and boarded the hydrofoil boat that was to take me to Japan.
The trip itself is pretty cool, the boat rises mostly out of the water (except for a couple of rudder-like winglets) and bounces across the sea on top of the waves! And before you know it (or a can of Mountain Dew and some Paris Baguette pastries later), you're in Japan.
Japan was kind enough to let me get my only negative experience of the whole weekend out of the way as soon as I set foot on its soil. When I got up to immigration - I was the only white guy on the boat -, the immigration officers singled me out while everyone else was allowed to continue on without being bothered. They let loose with a game of 100 Sinister Questions while requesting that I dump the entire contents: food, drinks, camera equipment, clothes, etc. of my backpack on the counter. They asked me about everything, including - I'm not making this up - about 3 or 4 follow up questions upon the discovery of my $1 emergency rain poncho. My strawberry strudels also got about as much scrutiny from the young fellow as would be befitting a semi-automatic rifle. At one point, the officer found my map (on which I had hotels highlighted) and acted as if he had just discovered a plot to destroy the world by some sort of James Bond movie villain. After an intimate spread-your-arms-and-legs-and-let-me-rub-you-all-over, I was once again on my way to discover this great land of the Far East!
But wait...what's this? "Excuse me, sir...Japanese Police," said the cute little man with the neato little arm-band declaring that he is, indeed, a badass cop. I looked back. I had made it exactly 3 steps out of the customs building. Of course none of the Koreans and Japanese who had come before and after me got this special treatment. Another quick game of 20 questions and I was - finally - free to roam around.
I had decided to explore the little town of Hitakatsu first and immediately discovered two things. 1: you'd think that getting used to traffic going the opposite way would be easy, right? You just look the other way...NO! It's not. The entire two days I was there I kept freaking out that "OH MY GOD, THAT CAR'S COMING RIGHT AT US!!!" and then realizing that we were indeed in a different lane. It was very trippy. 2: The cars are...AWESOME!!! The Japanese have a serious fondness for small, boxy, often odd-looking wagon-type cars. Those of you who know me, know that for me that's like waving a steroids-filled needle in front of Lance Armstrong...I go crazy over the stuff!! (Sorry...too soon?) I was in car heaven.
Still, I left the pavement playground and started up a 1 km long hike where they had nearly 100 little Buddhist statues/shrines and some cool views of Hitakatsu itself. Also, this gave me the chance of crossing my first ever authentic Torii - traditional gate - in Japan.
Typical shrine/statue...leaving coins and drinks (often soft drinks, such as the popular Pocari Sweat) seemed to be the prevailing theme:
The hike revealed a few things: the little statues are neat...and the island is infested with MASSIVE yellow/black spiders. Seriously...these things are huge and they're everywhere. I ended up doing most of the hike by waving a long stick in front of me to get the spiderwebs which criss-crossed the path. If the spiders won't freak you out, the massive bugs will. A few times I saw something take flight from the bushes beside me and thought "cool...a sparrow!" only to be shocked when I realized it was a bug. Praying mantises are the size of dogs. I could go on for hours, but you get the idea.
After that, I boarded a bus for the 2.5 hour journey through beautiful mountains and farmlands to the island's main city: Izuhara.
There's not much to Izuhara, but it's a friendly little town built around an inlet that reminded me a lot of the small towns on Vancouver Island - where I am from -, so I was very happy. I bummed around and found a few cool places, left behind from the time some greedy lords ruled the land as far as the eye could see. Most notable were the castle ruins/gardens and the graveyard, both of which are roughly 400 years old. The graveyard is behind a Buddhist Temple which, as luck would have it, was holding a once-a-year lantern festival that night. The festival was modest, but still cool to be part of in a historically significant - if only on a local level - place.
The steps leading up to 400-year-old burial places...each lit up with a candle (part of the once-a-year festival):
One of the shrines (built circa 1630):
I spent the rest of the day wandering around, exploring the town and realized that the people were incredibly polite and friendly. In Korea, I've sadly grown used to people not saying hello when I say hello to them (if I get a half-hearted grunt, I bask in the sweet glow of triumph and brotherhood), they rarely say thank you and never say you're welcome at stores, for example, etc. In Japan, however, it was the opposite...complete strangers said hello and smiled when they walked by me. Upon buying stuff from stores, the people were always very cordial and polite, lots of smiling, thanking and bowing...it was a breath of fresh air. However, the crowning moment that showed the niceness of the people on the island came when I was standing in front of one of the many, many pop vending machines, trying to figure out what to buy. A gentleman to my left was buying his drink, then he bought another one, smiled, gave it to me, got in his car, waved and left.
After a day's wandering, I anchored down at a lighthouse at the end of a breakwater where I took a few pictures (including the one at the start of this entry) and spent about half the night (sleeping against the lighthouse)...at about 2-3 a.m., the wind got pretty dang cold, so I moved camp over to a park bench, because I'm classy like that. I figured it's one of the last nice, warm weekends of the year, I might as well spend it out in the fresh air, and this allowed me to save a few bucks (accommodation - like food - is much more expensive in Japan than in Korea).
The next day, I boarded an early bus back to Hitakatsu, and decided to get off about halfway through and wander around a little seaside town (whose name I'm still not sure of). It had everything I've been missing: a quiet, peaceful atmosphere, fresh air, warm breeze, plenty of sunshine. I wandered up the highway to a little cove that I had all to myself...where I sat down and read my book.
Some of the scenery in and near that little town...The local school (on the left), about half the village (across the water) and a sports dome (on the far right):
The view from the harbour...absolutely loved it!!!:
Random...one of the many places (about a 30 min walk out of the town above along a beautiful, winding highway) I settled down to read for an hour or so:
A good place to chill for a little bit:
In all honesty, Tsushima Island has very little in the way of tourist attractions or anything that I could really point to and say "You must go there."
However, it was the perfect place to see beautiful mountains, clear water, friendly people and a quiet place - or half a dozen - where I could sit down and read my book. Korea is a very loud country, where it's rather difficult to just get away from it all, especially if you don't have your own means of transportation.
Tsushima, on the other hand, was the perfect place to just wander around aimlessly, find a quiet spot, enjoy a snack, read a book and watch the blue ocean, green mountains and blue sky. It felt like a small town in all the right ways. I'd say it's a perfect little weekend getaway from the hustle, bustle and noise of Korea!
Sayonara!
T
