A shortened version of this post is also available in our 14 Day Japan Itinerary 2019

Yakushima is a very special place. I first heard about this island, full of Ancient Cedar trees more than 10 years ago. I never thought I’d have the unique opportunity of checking out this wonderful place. There isn’t anywhere else in the world like it. It is natural beauty, adventure, and mysterious all at once.

Before You Go

• Be sure to take out enough cash before departing, ATMs are not easy to find on the island.
• Renting a car is highly useful – the island only has one main road so it isn’t stressful to figure out where you are going. There were many times I was glad I wasn’t one of the people waiting in long lines for buses. We rented a car from Times Car Rental.
• If you plan to see Jomon Sugi, buy a ticket before the day you want to hike. (Don’t be like us!)
• Equipment packed from home: Waterproof hiking boots, light waterproof jacket and pants, long, cushiony hiking socks, moisture wicking layerable shirts, small waterproof bag
• To Buy locally: Pocket Tissues, Toilet Bags, Bottled water, snacks. Our hotel packed breakfast and lunch bentos.
• If you plan to take the ferry to and/or from Kagoshima, it is useful to pre-buy Toppy Jetfoil tickets (the website however, is in Japanese)

Day 1: Yakushima (Home of the Ancient Cedar Trees)

Location: Yakushima (Yakusugiland)

We had to wake up at 4:05am (…3 hours of sleep!) in order to catch our 6:25am flight to Kagoshima, which then connects to Yakushima. Unfortunately, no trains were running during that hour. Also, it was raining hard. We managed to grab a taxi outside. We took the highway (extra ¥2000) and the short cab ride from Shibuya to Haneda came out to be a whopping ¥10,000!

One thing to note about Yakushima is to take out enough cash before coming here. We did not do this beforehand and on our last day when we were getting low on cash, there were no ATMs around and doing a search indicated that the only place that had one was the Japan Post. Most places aside from the local supermarket we found, do not take credit card (even at the gas station, our U.S. credit cards did not work).

We did get to the airport at around 5, when the check in desks were just opening. While waiting at the gate, Dave did 10 minutes at a massage chair for ¥200. We ate a katsusando from maisen and an onigiri each. The barely filled flight to Kagoshima via JAL was nice. Then, in Kagoshima there was only a short wait to get on our next flight. The flight from Kagoshima to Yakushima was on a small turboprop commuter plane taking off at 8:50am.

Before we got to Yakushima, the prediction was 100% rain. I also read on a lot of websites that Yakushima is a very rainy island. So we were convinced that our first day would include a rainy hike. When we arrived it was sunny and 70F. The car rental (Times) was a breeze, and our hotel, Jomon no Yado manten was a minute drive away from the airport. We arrived at around 10:40am (felt like it was the afternoon though because we had been up at 4) so our room wasn’t ready. We got changed into our waterproof gear and headed for our first hike.

Before going to Yakushima, we read about renting equipment from sport stores on the island. Since Dave and I were planning to pack very light (we had a carry-on suitcase for a two week trip), we decided to bring the minimum needed and if we needed anything extra we would rent it. I think that if we were to start a hike very early in the morning when it was still dark, a hat with a light on it might prove useful but we always hiked when there was daylight. We also did not use hiking poles (they would be pretty useful though if you want to move quickly), and we didn’t buy a guidebook. We also didn’t use any guide services. 

We set out to find a shop to get some snacks and water. On the main road to Yakusugiland, we couldn’t see any convenience stores- so we stopped at an omiyage shop. As we purchased some water, we asked the shopkeeper where the nearest supermarket was. She drew us a map of the nearest one which was towards Anbo port and we stocked up on onigiri and snacks. The shop looked really rundown from the outside though and I didn’t believe it was a supermarket until we stepped in.

Yakusugiland was a 38 minute winding drive along small roads up hill. Upon arrival there were some awesome toilets before the hike (during the hike you will need to do your business in these toilet bags inside toilet stands and then carry it back with you to civilization). The cedar (sugi) trees were amazing.

There are a variety of hikes which one can embark on from 30-210 minutes. We ended up doing the 150 minute route. No rain! We lucked out on great weather. The hike wasn’t easy though. There were a lot of steep climbs and declines, getting down on hands to steady myself at certain points. Our knees and legs felt heavy. It was worth it to see the mossy cedars. One of the trees on this trail was 2600 years old. We finished the 150 minute course in 140 minutes.

Our hotel room was nice- it was huge, and included a tatami room. The downside was that there was no shower in the room. The shared bath (separate for men and women) had an outdoor bath 露天風呂which is always delightful but it’s a little bit of a pain not having the option to shower in your own room.

Feeling the jet lag combined with a grueling hike, we had an early dinner at Kagoshima horumon yakiniku. We tried some deer meat, and also  the black pork kalbi which was delicious.

We had bought some yakushima shochu (which is what it’s supposed to be famous for) from the little supermarket we found but it really didn’t taste that great.

Yakusugi Land, Japan, 〒891-4311 Kagoshima-ken, Kumage-gun, Yakushima-chō, Anbo
Hike Difficulty: Easy/Intermediate, for the 150-minute course. We are city slickers who don’t do a lot of hiking

Hotel: Jomon no Yado Manten, ８１２−３３ Koseda, Yakushima, Kumage District, Kagoshima 891-4207, Japan
The public onsen at the hotel is perfect after a tough hike, and they will pack breakfast and lunch for you for your trek if you request them to

Restaurant: Kagoshima Horumon Yakiniku, 鹿児島県 熊毛郡屋久島町 宮之浦 378 

Day 2: Yakushima (Full Hiking Day)

Locations: Yakushima (Shiratani Unsuikyo)Hike Difficulty: Difficult (for the Bugyousugi course & Takoiwa)

We originally intended to go on the famed and well-worn trail to see Jomon Sugi (the oldest and largest ancient Yakusugi/Japanese cedar, possibly in the world). Jomon Sugi is supposedly 2170-7200 years old (the tree is hollow, making it difficult to carbon date). From research, this isn’t supposed to be a difficult hike and people of all ages can do this hike. When we arrived, we had asked the hotel to prepare a breakfast onigiri bento and a lunch bento thinking we will do this 10-12hr hike starting from 5:30am.

Once we got into the car at 5:30am we disappointingly realized that you had to have gotten a ticket to get on the bus to the Arakawa Trail leading to Jomon Sugi. This procedure was enacted to control the congestion of visitors going on this trail, and you cannot just decide to drive up there without a ticket. Since it was already 6am by the time we discovered this information, we couldn’t even take any more buses on this trail since the schedule we found online only seemed to say buses ran until 6:30am. So this would be a good piece of information to note if you want to see Jomon Sugi!

We headed to Shiratani Unsuikyo instead (we were supposed to do this hike on our last day). We arrived at the parking area and scarfed down the delicious breakfast onigiri bento prepared by our hotel. We were able to start hiking at 6:47am.

Shiratani Unsuikyo is famous for the kogemusu no mori (Moss covered forest), which was inspiration for the movie Princess Mononoke. This was exciting, considering that Princess Mononoke was the first Ghibli film I watched, and in my environmental science class in High School.

This hike was the most memorable of my trip here in Yakushima. Since we had all day, we opted to take the longest route (Taiko-iwa) and we did ALL of the possible detours to see the many ancient sugi trees including Yayoi Sugi which is 3000years old. Every step of the way was beautiful- mossy stones and tree stumps give the forest a mystical feel. No picture I took was able to convey the “alive” feeling I got when looking at the scenery. My imagination kept turning the inanimate objects into live creatures. It’s really stunning.

To our luck, there were barely any people on the trail going there despite this being the second most popular trail. Plus, there was no rain. We had the moss covered forest to ourselves for a while. In terms of difficulty this was fairly difficult for non-experienced hikers like Dave and myself. I’m glad we brought our own waterproof hiking boots. We didn’t use hiking sticks which slowed us down a bit but it was nice not to have to rent them.

From the start of the entrance we opted for the challenging bugyousugi course which contained many ancient sugi trees. This was actually by accident as we thought it would be the easier way to get to taikoiwa. This route was the most un-tamed and we only ran into one other hiker along the way. There was a lot of up and down and climbing over slippery rocks as well as crossing four streams (one of which Dave fell into and got his boots fully submerged under water and caught between rocks) but was so peaceful and we had the forest completely to ourselves.

Luckily Dave was carrying the wet bag because part of it went into the stream too. He was thankfully not hurt when slipping off the slippery rock). It was rewarding course overall. Taikoiwa was more rewarding. You hike up to a huge rock at the top of the mountain 1070m, revealing the most beautiful and breathtaking overview of Yakushima.

Combined with the beauty of the moss forest, you see everything and feel challenged by the hike. The waterfall close to the entrance is pretty as well. We did every course which we finished up at 1:23pm (inclusive of eating a leisurely lunch at 11:17am) 

There was also a trail (called tsuji toge path) at the path to Taikoiwa which leads out of the Shiratani Unsuikyo to the arakawa trail to see Jomon Sugi which is supposed to be difficult. It takes 12hours round trip which we weren’t sure we would make in a timely manner so we opted out. Glad we did.

We made it back to the hotel and got cleaned up. To spend the next hours of daylight we decided to get in the car and go to the Seibu rindo pass, which is a driving path on the west part of the island through UNESCO protected forest. It’s famous for spotting monkeys and deer. We set out at around 4:30pm knowing sundown would be 6:42pm. Driving to the west part of the island took about 58 minutes along narrow roads but it was worth it. We spotted about 8 monkeys and 4 deer despite the rainy weather. We actually weren’t supposed to be in the pass between 5pm-7am but did not realize it until we got out of the path. This meant though, that we couldn’t turn back to return to Anbo port, we had to circle the entire island to get back to our area. So that’s what we did!

For dinner we intended to go to iso no Kaori which was closed until the 12th randomly. Then we went to an izakaya 若大将 wakadaisho which was too full. The other two restaurants on the same street were also full. (Wow where were all these people on the trails?) we opted for another restaurant closeby called Kakureka隠れ家. Not bad, very simple. They had a dish called ninja yakisoba which was pork, japanese mayo, and roasted nori strips on top. The yakisoba noodles were bouncy in texture. We also tried kuruma ebi (caught fresh from their tank in the restaurant) which was like ¥800 for one shrimp. That wasn’t really worth the price. The karaage was good.

We headed back to the hotel and bought a mixer of grape juice from the vending machine to mix with the shochu we bought the prior day.

Hike : Shiratani Unsuikyo , Miyanoura, Yakushima, Kumage District, Kagoshima 891-4200, Japan
Hike Difficulty: Difficult (for the Bugyousugi course & Takoiwa) 

Scenic Drive: Seibu Rindo Pass (UNESCO), 469-45 Koseda, Yakushima-chō, Kumage-gun, Kagoshima-ken 891-4207, Japan
Drive slowly and monkey-watch (do not feed them!)
Note that the driving path is closed between 5pm-7am daily

Restaurant:Kakureka隠れ家, 鹿児島県熊毛郡屋久島町宮之浦６６

Day 3: Yakushima to Kagoshima

Locations: Yakushima (Ohko no taki waterfall, Banyan Tree Park, Nagata Inakahama Beach, Yoggo Valley), Kagoshima

Our plan today was to spend another day in Yakushima, and head to Kagoshima by ferry at 16:30 (we bought these toppy jetfoil tickets online before we came to Japan for vacation). Two days of hiking resulted in some pretty sore muscles.

We had ordered an onigiri bento and lunch bento again from the hotel (even though we weren’t planning to go on anymore hikes we figured their ¥650 bento was cheaper than a regular lunch). After we had our breakfast, we checked out before 10am. We knew we wanted to go to the Ohko no taki waterfall on the west side of the island (Yakushima only has one road encircling the entire island- with two routes going in different directions).

On the way we saw a cookies shop called Mam’s Kitchen. The Shio butter cookie shaped like a turtle was freshly baked and had some macadamia nuts in it. We also tried a tiny chocolate chip cookie. They both cost ¥160. We continued down the rows and came across the Banyan tree park. Right next door was a coffee shop named Kiina. We needed some caffeine so we hopped into Kiina first for black coffee. The Banyan tree park (志戸子のガジュマル園）was nice in the sense where it felt like we had it to ourselves but aside from banyan trees, nothing special.

Coasting along to the west coast we came across the Nagata inakahama beach, which we walked along on the sand. Little did I know, this is where the most sea turtles lay their eggs in the world. July-August are good times to spot sea turtles!

It was almost time for lunch. We came across signs for Yoggo Valley (横河渓谷). Sometimes one can swim in here like a pool (not today, though). We sat here on the rocks and had our lunch bentos, like a picnic.

The seibu rindo came up again. This time not raining, we were still able to spot more wild monkeys and deer.

After that, we finally got to the Ohko no Taki waterfall. It was well worth it, a majestic waterfall it was.

Dave sped through the “monkey safari” as much as possible to get to the Times rental Miyanoura branch by 3:30pm. We also needed to fill the tank. On top of that we only had ¥7000 worth of cash left as we did not take out additional cash before Yakushima. We asked two gas stations if they accepted credit cards and they did not. The third one we encountered close to the rental car shop said they took credit card. But none of our cards worked in their reader. We ended up only needing ¥3900 to fill up the take thankfully! The gas station gave us a ticket/receipt certifying that we filled up the tank.

We got a lift from the rental car area to the Ferry terminal. Then it was time to depart to Kagoshima, Kyushu.