Hachijo, Aogashima - August 2015

Photo album

Wednesday 26th August

From Hachijo, Aogashima - 2015

After the short flight (around 40 minutes) we landed at Hachijo island, which had a real tropical feel about it - the airport and town were nestled between two volcanic peaks, there was palm trees and an extra burst of warmth. I grabbed a taxi, again showing the driver a screenshot of the map to the accommodation which required a conference with another driver, despite the destination being just a couple of km away. I unloaded at the holiday house which was deserted, but within a couple of minutes the rest of the group arrived and settled into a mad round of planning, coordination and instructions. My highest priority was a load of washing!

Keiko took us for a quick drive up to the shops; I was juggling a handful of provisions and a can of beer toppled from my grasp and rolled under the fruit and veg racks. I could see it just out of reach but decided that crawling underneath was not au fait. I tried to use a price sign to fish it out but it remained elusive - and I was a bit concerned about the pressure build-up. A couple of staff seemed patient with my efforts and then just ran off and grabbed me a fresh can. (The original can was gone when I checked the next day.)

In the evening we joined the local Hachijo taiko players for a BBQ and jam session - it was a very warm welcome & great to meet them! Later in the evening we headed to the Hachijo Botanic Gardens to see the luminescent mushrooms - it took a bit of effort to work out what was a bit of glowing fungus and what was moonlight filtering through the canopy. It was a cheery ukulele-accompanied karaoke session on the walk there and back with Gayle's performance a highlight.

Thursday

From Hachijo, Aogashima - 2015

We headed across to explore the south-east side of the island in our rental cars. There was a bit of a surf beach next to Borawazawa Port and a number of surfers having a bit of fun, but the shore consisted of pebbles and boulders and swimming would've been a dangerous proposition. Some of the group decided to head up to the hilltop onsen, while the rest of us had a wander along the crumbling path. There were a couple of waterfalls which made for a refreshing shower. We had time to enjoy a dip in a seawater swimming hole that had been formed amongst the breakwater rockwalls, and spotted a few fish enjoying the shallows. One young Japanese boy was very excited by a close encounter with a bright blue fish.

We returned to town and then to the nearby Ohkataura Picnic Area where Yoshio and his team set up a couple of taikos for us to play. We spent most of the afternoon practicing, jamming and exploring the area.

Back at Hachijo Daiko's HQ for a gourmet meal that evening, accompanied by some delicious 25-year-old sake.

Friday

From Hachijo, Aogashima - 2015

Today was a big day - it had been the subject of a great deal of planning and workshopping different scenarios - but early indications were that - despite many potentially problematic factors - our Plan A might actually happen! We dropped a bunch of our group at the port, where the ferry was being loaded. The ferry hadn't run for a couple of weeks due to rough weather (viz, the typhoon that had glanced past us at Wachi) and was heaving up and down quite a bit at its dock - as we drove away there were a couple of us saying "I'm so glad we're not going by sea!" The rest of us headed up to the airport, stowed our big bags in the lockers, and checked in at the TAL counter, having to declare our body weight. Incidentally I had lost quite a lot of weight on the trip so far - around 4kg I think, and had had to add a couple of extra notches to my belt. Some of this might've been due to the nausea and recovery from the Mt Fuji climb; I'd also had a pretty hectic and active time and often had had to grab meals on the run but probably the main factor was just a different diet from what I'm used to.

We headed out to the tarmac to our Sikorsky S-76C helicopter, with 2 pilots and 9 of us excited passengers (for a few, it was their first helicopter flight). I was a little surprised that we taxied out to the main runway and then headed skywards, following a trajectory similar to that of a light plane - rather than just launching vertically from the apron.

20 minutes and around 70km later we started our descent and gradually, Aogashima materialised out of the haze - unfortunately the murky atmosphere precluded any of the glorious photography that you can find online, but it was apparent that it was pretty spectacular place. We settled in to the helipad and I noticed a welcome committee - they had a big banner out and were playing a taiko! Kota and Satoshi and their friends and family took us back to their general store to get our bearings, before driving us a little uphill. (Meantime we'd received messages from our ferry buddies describing how they'd had to be craned onto the boat in a container due to the waves, but from there they were having a pleasant crossing.) From there we headed off on a hike up the slope through the tropical foliage, which topped out at the Otombu lookout at the crest of the crater wall - stunning! We could see back across the outside of the volcano, and the whole caldera was laid out before us - a couple of kilometres in diameter with a cone, Maruyama ("Round Mountain"), poking up in the middle. The caldera contains a few homes, farms and factories, and we could occasionally hear the sounds of industry. I decided that if I should ever become a supervillain, this would make a perfect base.

We then drove back down around around the rim, then down into the floor of the caldera and around to the other side, through a tunnel back to the outside of the crater to the main port. Before long the ferry sailed into view, and the rest of the tour group disembarked, none the worse for wear. We had expected that we'd be unlikely to get everyone to the island at the same time, so it was a real bonus the way things worked out - and in the process we'd increased the island's population by 10%!

We headed to Kota's family's party house just inside the caldera wall. We collected some eggs that they'd been cooking in a fumarole oven and settled in for a delicious lunch (and for many, a nap). During the afternoon, the locals showed us around their neighboring forest and market gardens, before leading a hike up Maruyama, where the venting fumaroles added slightly to the steamy conditions. We recovered with a visit to the volcanicly-fuelled onsen, with the best part being the air-conditioned lounge - and the expressions on the faces when people entered. After a quick visit back to the port for a quick look at the sunset, we headed back to the house for a fabulous dinner, lots of drumming and some Aogashima Odori. I had left my uke behind in Hachijo because of weight & size restrictions but was delighted that Arisa had hers handy and enthralled us with some of her beautiful songs, and delightful singing and playing. I may have managed to belt out a song or two as well and there was a bit of late night impromptu karaoke. Junko played some pretty cool solos on her nose-ocarina - a couple of us attempted to get a tune out of it but will need a bit more practice! Ayako ("Fabulous") and the local guys closed the evening around 1am with their rendition of "Shome Shome" - which seemed to be a bit of an improvised bluesy refrain - the chorus means something along the lines of "mixing waters" or "the boundary between seas".

Saturday

From Hachijo, Aogashima - 2015

Our hosts had done a great job accommodating us, the sleeping arrangements were a little makeshift but effective enough. The first task of the morning was to locate Arisa's necklace which she'd dropped the previous evening - not helped by it being the same colour as the ground! Thankfully it was retrieved. With sun creeping into the caldera we loaded into the minibuses and headed back to the general store for a yummy breakfast. Before long it was time to head back to the heliport, declare our weight again, and head skywards.

Back at Hachijo, some of us managed to change our flight to the next one due, which still gave us a couple of hours spare. Yoshio appeared again and took us for a quick visit to Hachijo museum. Most of the information was in Japanese and was a bit hard to follow on little sleep, but it was still great to have a bit more of an insight into the island.

We headed back to Haneda on ANA (plenty of room on board again). It was a very long walk back to baggage collection, but it included an extremely short travellator of just a couple of metres. I farewelled the others and took the monorail and a couple of trains to my accommodation in Minami-Senju - a tiny bit out of the way & it required lugging my bedraggled suitcase for 15 minutes up the road, but it was quite a comfortable stay. I was super tired but took the train to Ikebukuro for dinner and to check out the planetarium film, "Island Healing", which was all about Aogashima and showed lots of spectacular footage of the island, as well as music that Kota had contributed to. I'm not quite sure what the film was about but it seemed quite popular amongst the large audience; I managed to resist yelling out "I was right there this morning!!!"

Hachijo and Aogashima summary

These islands were simply spectacular and it was a rare privilege to go to them - thanks everyone who helped make it happen! The language barrier again was a slight obstacle to fully joining in with all the socialising, but that is of course the situation for so many of my friends that travel to Australia from non-Anglophone places & as much as I try to pick up a few words of the local language wherever I am, it's mostly practical rather than social. Music helps break the barriers, but there's the occasional cultural divide there as well!

It'd be great to go back and spend a bit longer on both islands - in fact I'm now intrigued about the rest of the Tokyo islands as well! It would be nice to find a sandy beach though, they seemed to be lacking from Hachijo and Aogashima.