Golden Week was coming up and I had to decide what I wanted to do. I looked at my list of things I wanted to do in Japan and saw “Hiking in Yakushima” was next. Even in March, it turned out to be difficult to find a hotel. I was planning on hiking, so I just decided to camp while I was there. I went alone, with a backpack, a sleeping bag, and no place to stay.

My first day on the island, I found a nice campground called Kusukusu. The next two days I spent hiking in the forest. I started in Shirantani Unsuikyo because I wanted to see the forest that inspired the studio Ghibli film “Princess Mononoke.”

I spent two days hiking in the forests before returning to town. It was an amazing place with giant trees. Some of the trees were so big, I was able to walk through gaps between the roots. There were also several stumps I could walk into. They were like little houses! I saw lots of interesting things including a mountain cherry blossom tree that was in full bloom. I also saw something another hiker told me was called a kodama.

The streams were very clean and I was able to get water from natural springs along the trails. Between the two days, I think I hiked for about twenty hours! The first day was beautiful and sunny, so I took lots of photos. I took so many that I almost didn’t make it to the shelter house before nightfall! The second day was very rainy and wet, but I still explored a few side trails on my way back and took a few more pictures.

After all that hiking, I went back to the campground I started at to rest before coming back to Tsuyama. I met a lot of people and made some new friends too!