Rainy day on Sakushima

Hello!  I decided to forego the continual catching-up of the "update" series of posts.  I've skipped the past two weeks and went straight on to today, which is Sunday.  We don't always make it to church, as it is quite far away.  The journey to the church in Nagoya requires quite a lot of time, energy, and money, and so, the odd weekend, we try to go somewhere local that we haven't seen yet.  Today we visited a small island off the coast of Nishio, called Sakushima.  Shima is the Japanese word for island ('Jima' is a variant of the same word, as in 'Iwo Jima').  

Anyway, i've gone and dumped a bunch of photos onto this post, and i have no idea how it will appear when i post it, so sorry about the mess!  

We somehow got in touch with a couple of good-hearted, Japanese ladies who speak good English, and who were willing to show us around the island.  The ferry ride cost around 8 bucks and took 20 minutes.  It was a rainy day, so we were bundled up and carrying umbrellas.  (The island is the shape of a bean, sort of, with pointy claws making a nice little bay.)  







The ladies know this couple who live on the island (Shin and Kyoko), and we walked up to their house first.  We took some time at first to look around the house, which looked a bit junky from the outside, but turned out to be a beautiful artists' lodge.  It is full of homemade items, from doors and drawers and interiors, to paintings on the wall.  Kyoko loves cats, and she gave Mandy a few prints of her cat paintings.  They cook over fire in their kitchen and grow their own food.  Shin (shown playing guitar), writes music and performed a couple of songs for us.  They had really interesting furniture, mostly homemade, like the ultra low table, which had a fire pit underneath that is meant to keep the people warm.  Under the middle of the table is a separate fire pit that is meant to keep the food warm, like an element.  It's very smart and aesthetically pleasing.  They were very nice people, and as they spoke very little English, we had a chance to practise our smattering of Japanese.  

We walked down to the beach (which took about 4 minutes), and there was this cube thing that is actually a rest house.  It's a simple cube, like on that "celebrity squares" game show, but you can sleep in them or just take a rest.  It seems like a landmark too, a kind of symbol for the island (they even put it on the cover of the island map).  We found some nice rocks and shells and took a few as souvenirs.

Their house looked pretty old and run-down on the outside, but inside it was very cozy and comfortable.  There was a big spider hanging above our heads as we came in the door, but they said that the spiders are harmless and actually are handy at keeping the bug population down.  They also told us about huge centipedes the length of a butter knife and as thick as a thumb, that sometimes get into the house, and they bite really hard and cause terrible pain and a lot of swelling.  Kyoko has been bitten a few times and said that usually the pain lasts for a week.  

We saw a part of Japan that few foreigners get to see, and it was a great time, despite the rain.  I think that the more we look around this area, the more amazing things we'll see.  

There were ostriches wandering around outside a restaurant, a very strange goat tied under some trees, and many large, yellow and black spiders everywhere, webbing up every opening in the trees.  We found some sugarcane too, and Shin said that he is planning to grow sugarcane to make his own sugar.  He already boils sea water and collects the salt for their food.  The two ladies we were with told us that 'naturalist' people are quite rare in Japan.   They were kind, relaxed, and generous, and we plan to visit them again.  

Walking around the island reminded me a little of Thetis Island, where my parents went to Capernwray.  It's quiet, with few cars, and there is an island atmosphere that you don't feel on the mainland, and even though Japan is an island (so is every land mass, i suppose), there is an entirely different feel to little ones.  The buildings are mostly black because of the weather coating they put on, to protect against salty rain and winds.  

There's a nice quiet road around the north side of the island, and next time we'll rent a couple of bikes and tour around, hopefully on a sunny day.