Luis Lan visits Yakushima Island, where ancient cedar forests inspired Princess Mononoke. He drives the single main road, eats ramen and bacon and egg rice bowls, and stops at the Yakusugi Museum to see dense wood samples from trees so old their harvest is now illegal.
We had to get up early this morning to make the hour and a half drive back to the airport. And from there we were gonna have to fly back to Fukuoka. And from Fukuoka, we had to take another plane to Yakushima Island. We could also take a ferry, but that would definitely take a lot longer. So we opted in to flying, but definitely had to make this flight as not too many flights were going from Fukuoka to Yakushima. Fun fact. Yakushima island was an inspiration for the animated Princess Mononoke because of all the lush greenery and super old cedar trees called Yakusugi's.
Yeah, I like how this. I'm not stressed. We're driving here because it's not super traffic.
Oh, perfect.
So.
We'Re in Japan. We're driving in Japan. We're in Japan in a little bus. We're in Japan.
Driving on the wrong side of the road.
Driving on the wrong side of the road. Try to pass the ramen. Try to pass the ramen. Can pass the ramen. Everywhere is closed. I don't know why. It's only 2 o'.
Clock.
Look at that temple. It looks kind of.
It's not a temple.
Just kidding.
That's a hospital. So if you ever have the chance to make it out to Yakushima island, definitely recommend. So. And they had a lot of scenic hikes. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to do any of them. And transportation is kind of hard on the island, so we opted out to get a rental car. Traffic? Honestly, there was none. It was just one road around the island. And this was the first time we actually got to drive in Japan. So it was kind of nice to drive here before having to do it anywhere else where it was super hectic.
Mmm, yummy. Oh, Lord. It's all in China in Japanese.
Soup.
Miso soup. That looks delicious.
It was really tasty.
Delicious.
Delicious.
That place. That place is good.
Two thumbs up. But I can only give one because I'm holding everything. Yakushika, Thai ramen, dinner, beer. This place across from Happy shopping.
We gotta go.
And there's a hoto moto right across the street. And I don't know what that is. All right, I gotta let you go because I gotta drive now.
I think that was like my safest. I was just telling my husband, that's me.
Yeah, boy.
That I think this is my best meal yet, because it was safe. I had bacon and egg rice bowl with some miso soup, and then I got some potato wedges, after which, you know your girl loves potatoes. There's two Kind of dessert people. There's the people who get sweets and then people who get potatoes. I chose potatoes. He chose ice cream.
I chose ice cream. Ice cream is good.
Filled me up too much.
All right, now let's go to the hotel.
While staying on Yakushima island, we ended up staying at the Sankara Hotel. Definitely an amazing experience. And having a whole video on that later.
We made it to Yakushima Wood. We'll see how it goes.
Oh, I can't forget the keys in the car. Can't do that now.
Now we can go inside.
Cars over here. Don't make.
Don't make me beep sounds.
We ended up going to the Yakusugi Museum. One regret that I had was not paying. I think it was the 25 bucks to get the guided audio tour. I thought it was enough just reading everything, but definitely feel like we would have gotten a lot more information through the guided audio tour. If you definitely go to it, I definitely recommend doing the audio tour and checking it out. A lot of old tools that you got to see on how they chop down these almost 7,000-year-old trees, as well as how dense this wood really is compared to other ones. We tried lifting some of the blocks, and holy cow, they were really heavy.
Yakutsugi Museum World Heritage Some big pieces of wood.
That's a big tree. No street shoes, so it shows how dense these are. I can easily pick this one up with my hands, and then they get harder and harder to pick up. This one's like a freaking rock. I can't even lift it. Oh, my gosh.
No, no.
Clean your hands and then start with that one. Yep. And now pick up the first one.
Have you? All right.
It's pretty crazy. 15. Wow, that's heavy.
How much do you think?
A lot. 15. It's heavy. It's freaking heavy compared to the first one. Have it compared to the first one. AI. All right, all right. Native cryptarian of Yakushima Island, Yakuz. Wow, that's a lot of rain, Sam.
We ended the day by checking out a couple of wood shop. Ended up going to Murakami's wood shop. It was definitely getting late, but luckily we were able to make it before he closed. His shop was right next to his house. He had a lot of cool, intricate pieces that were made for cookware that we definitely ended up buying one of his wooden spoons. And the whole time, I honestly wanted to find some Yakusugi wood, but apparently it's illegal to cut those trees after a certain age, and they're protected, so it was definitely not able to find any. But the last store that we went to definitely had the most amount of stuff and I would definitely recommend if you go to Yakushima, check this store out. It was literally right next to next to the airport and where we ended up getting a bunch of cool knickknacks.
Made it to our third wood stop.
They have some croak here too.
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