We got on the fishing boat that was ferrying us out to the island. These guys have skills. When we were coming up to the dock so was another boat. The other boat was just slightly faster. I looked like it was going to ram into the rocky shore and at the last 2nd came to an amazing full stop slightly brushing the concrete dock structure. Within 2 shakes the people/supplies were off that boat and it was pulling away. Keep in mind our boat hadn't slowed down. The other boat pulled out and wheeled about missing our boat by less than 1 meter! At full speed too. It was cool.
We landed and after playing pack animal for a bit the supplies were hauled to the beach area. The island was composed of 2 large rocky "mountains" with a beach-y low area in the middle. The dock was on the far end of the island so you would need to go over/around one of the peaks inorder to get to the beach. This was a pain considering the 'gear' we were hauling..but, we made it.
After that I set about exploring and ran up to the top of the adjacent peak to find a nice view and a small shrine. Every shrine I'm lead to believe here in Japan has a god associated with it, this will be important later if you believe in such things. I looked around for a small trail to get down to the cool looking rocks that I could see some fisherman fishing off of.. but no luck. By this time I had to pee. So I water'd the grasses off the back side of the shrine then went back down to the coastline to see about just climbing over the rocks to get around to the otherside.
Me and another guy (Rhett) started out and were rewarded with cool sights, sounds, some cold water, scraps and the best were the sea caves. They made some sweet gurgling thundering sounds as the water rushed into them and out again.
About 1/2 way around the island now it started to rain, then it started to rain HARD. I started to worry that perhaps peeing so close to the shrine before might have irritated the kami of the island. If you believe in those things, it was raining hard then it started to HAIL golfball sized chunks fell from the sky, perhaps it was a good time to start believing..
Rhett and I took shelter in a sea cave where we played host to a thriving mosquito metropolis; counting over 10 bugs sucking on me at a time I started to worry about how long we'd have to wait and what we'd need to do. Thankfully the storm abated and we continued on until we could go no further. We turned around but I swore quietly I would be back, next time with better shoes (I was more or less barefoot by the end and volcanic rock sucks when you're barefoot) and a small disposable underwater camera.
Sorry no pictures this time, but I'll be back. Now 24 hrs later and unfortunately the million or so mosquito bites are starting now to itch.
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hey friend! :) long time no see!!! i just wanted to drop a note and say hello, and see how things are going! well, i see!!!! :) are you staying another year? what's going on? are you alive? :) talk to you soon!