Good morning from the other side of Tokyo archipelago. I just woke up from a shitty 5 hours sleep on the overnight Silvia Maru ferry that took us to the Izu Oshima island. I really didn’t sleep much for several reasons: it was really cold, the guy next to me was snoring and the floor was really hard to sleep on. But at least we made it to the other side. It was way more enjoyable than the 15 hour flight from Austria to Japan. But nothing a cup of coffee or an energy drink cannot solve.I checked the weather and it looked like it was going to rain the entire day. Given we wanted to climb Mt. Mihara, we decided it would be wise to start the hike as early as possible. But there was just one obstacle preventing my friend from starting immediately. Heavy luggage. While I managed to pack fairly lightly (~ 6kg and my bag is third empty, and I still have more stuff than I really need), she didn’t achieve the same result with her luggage weighting slightly over 8kg. Thus the mission to find a locker or something similar began.
We went for a short stroll around the village of Okada where our ship had landed. Just a minute or not even a minute later we reached the end of the village… And at the end of the village a couple of cats that demanded petting. An elderly man greeted us and supported our desired to pet the cats. However, we had to leave the cats and head to our accommodation in hopes of it being already open. And luckily it was, so we left our luggage there. Gotten rid of the luggage, we started making a plan on how to get to the top of the mountain.
My initial plan was to take a bus to the top, but there didn’t seem to be many buses. Google maps said there was going to be a bus, but in all honesty, it doesn’t work that well once you go out of the cities. It is better to rely on people and on the original timetables. And this I did. I saw a bus staff walking around the small bus station and asked him for directions. He explained everything enthusiastically and told us that there was no direct bus to the top – and that our option was to first go to Motomachi and continue from there. Given the next bus was only in an hour, I opted to maybe just start the hike from Okada, since the path from here was only an hour longer. And after half an hour we came across the same guy from before that explained the bus schedule to us. And surprisingly, he offered us a ride to the city of Motomatchi with a bus connection to the hotel at the rim of Mt. Mihara. We were both pleasantly surprised by his generosity and accepted the kind offer. The gentlemen was quite talkative as well and we exchanged some words about me – where I live, what language I speak etc. Just like the majority of other people, he did not know where Slovenia is. But to be honest, I don’t blame him or anyone else for not knowing my country – Slovenia is a small and unknown country.
Our chatter made the time pass really quickly and we were soon in Motomachi. We thanked him for the ride and we parted ways. But a while later when we were waiting for the bus, he approached us and explained that unfortunately, there was no bus. Thus we were presented with another option: taxi or renting a bike. I had already planned renting a bike the following day, so this decision was easy. We rented an e-bike (denki jitensha 電気自転車) and headed towards the south of the island via the west coast. The e-bike was realitevly cheap, costing us 3000 JPY (roughly 18,5€) for the entire day. The west coast is where most of the attractions are and there is a nice trail most of the way to the destination. We had to do a bit of cycling on the road but it was not a big deal since the road wasn’t that busy. Cycling was an excellent way of letting our legs rest a little bit, enjoy the nature and observe the many animals that we found on our way. One prominent creature that inhabits every inch of this island is a black and yellow coloured spider that looks like the most poisonous thing ever. I read that luckily they are only venomous (not deadly) and that they are unlikely to bite even when in contact with human skin. However, this did not change the fact that I had cobweb everywhere on my bike. Spiders weren’t the only living thing roaming this land though. We also came across a couple of monkeys that were crossing the road via an electric pole. We stopped and observed their every move and they stared back at us. They didn’t seem to be too interested in having any interaction and neither did we. The Japanese macaque are not known to attack people, but provoking a monkey has never lead to a good result either so we moved on.
Our first destination was a really cool stone wall that had a wavy pattern. This walled was created during the excavation of a ledge for the road built on it. The wavy pattern reminded me of the sediments that usually form such patterns. But this wasn’t the same thing. This wall was created over hundreds if not millions of years though erruptions of Mt. Mihara. Each new erruption formed a new layer as the lava cooled down. The last erruption of Mt. Mihara occured around 40 years ago but it wasn’t nearly strong enough to be the cause of this geological feature.
Next stop: a nearby sandy beach that was covered with black sand created from volcanic rock. It was my first time seeing such a beach. Quite astounding. Given such an opportunity, we decided to dip our toes in the Pacific ocean – the ocean that is shared with the USA. The water was pleasantly warm and the sand had an interesting texture. It wasn’t as small as the normal sand, but rather the grains were 1 or 2 mm in size. This made walking perhaps a bit unpleasant.
The cycling trip continued with a return via the west road. We thought we had seen everything there was to be seen, but we came across a shrine. A steep staircase lead from the tori gate at the entrance to the shrine at the top. We followed the path and decided we would leaves our wishes at the shrine this time around. There was no one at the shrine so we weren’t worried about screwing something up. After a 5 min walk we conquered the stairs and reached the shrine. Now it was time to leave our wishes. The procedure if I could call it that is the following: 1. Wash your hands with the ladle that is provided next to the water basin (I think it is called chozuya in Japanese). The most important thing is to use the provided ladle and wash each hand separately, 2. Approach the shrine with some coins, 3. Once in front of the shrine, drop the coins in the offerings box, bow twice, clap twice and bow once more. While you do this make a short prayer or wish for something. We did the same and left our respective wishes.
The final destination that day was one of the volcano observation decks. It took us quite a while to get there and we exhausted the remaining of the e-bike’s battery, but getting to the top was truly worth it! It would be the next day that I actually hiked the mountain. And while I talk about bikes, I would recommend you rent a bike at Cafe Miyoshi (this is where I rented a bike the next day). E-bike rental cost me 3000 JPY in total and I was able to use the bike the entire day. There are also other options – less or more time, and the bikes were all new. The owner was also very nice and explained to me where I could hike, cycle etc. He however didn’t speak English, so be aware of that.
And soon came evening, when we decided we would spend the evening watching the fishermen at the pier trying to catch fish. There were at least 10 fishermen, all with cars and lots of equipment but not many of them caught any fish. This really surprised me, since we were able to see many fish just by looking at the see from the pier. Perhaps they were just unlucky? Who knows, what matters is that they were enjoying it!
A new morning, a new start. It was decided that I would hike alone this day, since my cousin needed some rest. I woke up at seven and headed back to Motomatchi to rent a bike. After that I took the same route to the observation deck, where I would begin my hike to the top of the volcano. The weather was perfect that day. It was hot, but it was also cloudy and slightly windy. The breeze made the walk a lot more bearable and I was no more under threat of suffering a heat stroke. On the other hand, my skin got severely sun burnt. Later that day when I stepped into a hot bath it felt almost as if I was stepping into a fryer. Man, it hurt like hell. But today I am almost fine. However, not to get sidetracked too much, while hiking, I came across many old lava flows left from the many erruptions in the past. There were also many sings explaining everything about the volcano and I took my time reading all of them. The explanations were short and concise with lots of photo material, which made the read really interesting. I also read that the last erruption in the 80s was so severe that the entire population of 10000 people had to be evacuated from the island and the lava and debris reached an astonishing height of up to 1500 meters. I would love to witness such an explosion one day, but this volcano isn’t going to be it.
After about 40 min I reached the peak of the volcano. The circular trail around the rim of the volcano allowed me to see all of the volcanic geological features that I came here to see – the black desert, the volcanic crater and the many fissures that were created over the years. There was also an entrance to a cave – completely unprotected – that was created during one of the erruptions by the lava flows. The caves are appearently home to many ceiling plants that started growing there after the lava flows stopped. Another really interesting thing that I saw atop of the mountain was the GPS system used for determining potential future erruptions. The way it works is that there are multiple GPS stations. Each of the stations periodically broadcasts its location to the central station. The central station then compares the locations and looks for any changes. Using this information it can determine potential future erruption, fissure openings etc. It has also been shown that Mt. Mihara – and by extension the whole island of Izu Oshima – is currently expanding. This most likely implies the build-up of lava below the mountain, which will likely lead to an erruption some time in the future.
After a 2 hour hike, I arrived back at the observation deck. By the time I arrived the small resurant there was already open. So I decided I would eat the lunch there. I ordered a bowl of curry, a homemade chocolate cake and my favourite oolong tea. It was all delicious and I was ready to head back and enjoy an hour in one of the local onsens. This was our last evening in Izu Oshima as we would head back to Tokyo the next day.
