Essay - Travels
- No.3
2002 Summer - Yakushima No.3 -
play in the water todayWe slept until late next morning. The tempo was slow in strong contrast to the busyness of the last day. We had a breakfast on the balcony (if it was sunny, we had a meal here) with seeing clear sea and Inaka beach. "What do you want to do?" "According to the weather forecast, It is likely to start raining tomorrow. How about play in the water?" Unanimous.
We went to Nagata Yokogou ravine local people called fondly "Yokko". We all swam like a water imp for a while in the clear stream flowed from the Mt. Nagata. The water was perfectly clear and fitted to drink. It's so sweet. When we got ready to go back after we played until afternoon, local people of neighborhood association came to enjoy the cool breeze and they had thin wheat noodles in the stream. slurp.
We felt hungry rapidly and jumped into the box lunch shop (Incidentally, there were no restaurant around Nagata area). We bought the very last three box and cooked rice. A mackerel hot from the grill, handmade simmered vegetables, sauteed ones, dreesed ones and pickled ume. Five hundred yen per person. It was also Island price. We also bought fruit at the general store opposite and had a lunch on the balcony of the inn. Beer was nice.
Do you live under the water?After we took a rest for a while, we went to the secret shore which was called "Yotsuse" beach. The landload who checked the tide table for us said the tide ebbed at 2 p.m. and it was suitable to swim for two hours before and after the ebb tide. We put on the fin and water goggles and looked the water world. Then there were fish and coral of various colors. A man dived to catch the shellfish, and did fishing on the rock next time. Its unworldly sea man told me where giant clam and snail were. As I could not pick up the giant clam, I caught the two snow-white snail. We wanted to swim forever, but tide was rising little by little.
We returned to the inn and took a bath with washing clothes or swimming suit, then took a happy nap... In the evening I swam at the Inaka beach, too. Although here was not as beautiful as Yotsuse beach, that's a good enough. The waves were quiet and only a few figures could be seen. I heard that a lobster was in a crevice in the rock. I'll practice to dive and try to catch the lobster sometime. In this way, we were satisfied with full-course swimming in our second day in Yakushima.
I watched the setting sun till it set behind the Kuchino-erabu Island in the open-air bath on the shore. There were one more open-air bath which the bathtub was built of Japanese cypress. It was good sashimi and simmered vegetables for dinner. At last we had miso soup of big lobster. Sweet & Snack and thick soup was just out of this world. I, with feeling of fullness, lie down on the beach this night, too. The sand was cool and so pleasant...
