Why visit an island where locals say it rains 35 days per month? YAKUSHIMA

My camera lens steamed over.

I trekked for five hours with an umbrella, but still got soaking wet.

Yet, Yakushima is worth the effort. The small island has one of the oldest forests in the word – some of its enchanted cedar trees are several thousand years old. These pictures show trees aged 3000 – and had I chosen to start my trek at 4 am (which I did not…) I could have reached the tree aged 7200 years. But I bet it looked the same, and settled for more humane timing.

Frederic and Aya spent the day diving. No pictures – but two sea turtles were spotted.

Sleeping on the side of an active volcano? SAKURAJIMA

It caused death and destruction less than a century ago. It is still fuming – but I traced no signs of worry – and we decided to stay in a beautiful Ryokan on the side of the Sakurajima itself. OK – once you have looked at the cone a few times, there is not much more to be said – except gape at the lava landscape, which resulted from the last eruption. And then enjoy the excellent onsen right next to the sea.

A new travel companion – Aya Matsura

As agreed many months ago – Aya flew in from Bangkok and joined us for a week. Aya is Japanese and works as a Development Expert for the ILO and lives in Thailand. She will travel with us – a great opportunity for Frederic in particular to practice his Japanese – and get answers to the many language questions which I cannot help him with.

Aya also introduced us to her brother, Daisuke, who is a helicopter pilot for the Japanese Coast Guard - and he and Frederic spent some time together. The picture shows Daisuke at work - and no - we are not in the picture :-)

Aya came at 10 am to the 90 year old Ryokan where we had spent the night – we immediately went to pick up our rental car and headed south to the active volcano: Sakurajima.

Feasting on the fourth Island - KYUSHU

We are completing our tour of the four main islands with a week in Kyushu. The island is slightly smaller than Denmark – with 2,5 times the population. The figures are 33.000 km2 and 13 mio. Inhabitants.)

First stop: Fukuoka. A modern city on the north tip – sporting among many other things a “Ramen Stadium” with Frederic´s favourite dish – ramen – served in all its regional specialities. I tell you it was difficult to choose which one to eat that night!

Video dump

No wonder they named him "Shika"maru.

"Fu! What does the scouter say about the km/h!?"

"IT'S OVER TWO HUNDREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED"

Wait, that's not even that much.. but hey, the music adds atmosphere, eh? iPod ftw.

Now for something different.

You have _NO_ idea how bad that stuff smells. And I SLEPT with it.