Homely Planet

 May 2003

  This was a day trip from Hiroshima city, where we were visiting up from Kagoshima for the week. The island is known for it's torii (shrine gate) in the bay in front of the Itsukujima Shrine, which is in water during high tide, but lies completely exposed at other times. The island is also known for the deer that like to eat everything you own if you aren't careful. They range from careful, friendly, to Middle-Aged Korean woman in the subway. The temple in behind the shrine is the base for the cable car that lets you get to the top of the island to see the strait between Honshu and Shikoku, though you can't actually see Shikoku (other islands are in the way.) Here, avoiding the monkeys is key, as they will steal everything the deer didn't get off of you at the bottom. 

  When we were there we learned that no one really lives on the island, or rather you can only live there if you are of a certain age and are reasonably healthy. No one is allowed to be born or die on the island, in fact, pregnant women and the elderly are supposedly shipped off to the mainland. 

Various trips during 2001 and 2002.

  Amami-Oshima is the second largest island in the Ryukyu island chain that stretches from Kyushu to Taiwan. I made various trips here to see a friend, but the only notable pictures were from the Habu Museum. The habu is a venomous snake that scares everyone shitless in southern Japan. You are almost certain to die if you get bitten. People always talk about how the habu has a 360 degree attack radius (compared to that of the cobra which is only about 120 degrees total) and how they know someone who died (usually a 30-40 year old story). Luckily destruction of their habitat has reduced their numbers to a point where they are rarely seen outside the museum.

  The museum itself is pretty boring, but their side business is what really brings them in. Several times daily they have habu/mongoose fights (unlike Gyokusendo in Okinawa, which due to legal reasons only has a swimming race between the two - note: always bet mongoose, they hate water), these guys go full out for 4-5 minutes. The mongoose is a mean bastard too let me tell you (note: always bet mongoose, they're right bastards). They kick the ass(?) out of any snake that comes. Aside from the ethics issue of it all, it's a good time.

April 2004

  Yufuin is small spa town in the mountains of Oita Prefecture. I spent a few hours here wandering around taking pictures. Not much to say really except that it was a nice area, and I inadvertently crashed a funeral while I was there... That's a story for another time. 

August 2003

Lots of beach!