July 23rd, 2005
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“The Hawaii of Japan”
At the end of last weekend I went to a small island off the coast of Shizuoka, Izu Ohshima. Though about a hundred kilometers or so as the crow flies from the capital, it’s still classified as being part of Tokyo, I suppose because no other principality really wanted the burden of managing it. Recommended to me as “The Hawaii of Japan”, I was a little dubious, but told that the water was very clean and some time at the beach sounded good to me.
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For about seventy dollars you can take a “speed” boat that cruises at about seventy-five kilometers per hour, and get there in roughly one hundred minutes. The claims about the water being clean were quite true, it’s significantly far enough away from any kind of industrial development that I had no trouble seeing my feet and the sea floor to at least two meters on a cloudy day. This was pretty nice, but unfortunately as the island is essentially a dormant volcano, the beaches are comprised of nearly peppercorn-size igneous granules, and the seafloor is made up largely of spiky rocks that are not much fun to step on. I really think I need a pair of water socks. Unfortunately, the sky was overcast and the caldera misty the whole time I was there, so I didn’t get to see any sun at all, but at least it didn’t rain.
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Perhaps due to the inhospitable terrain, the island is very sparsely populated, with only a handful of C-grade stores that all close at around seven or eight o’clock. All cars on the island are registered to Tokyo’s Shinagawa-ku (a couple kilometers south of where I live), and the entire island rings of a backwater resort in the America’s deep south: largely poor, most of the buildings incredibly worn down and ill-kept; in general quite a modest community. If you’re looking for quiet and lots of wildlife, however, it may suit your needs to a ‘T’. I had to dodge a number of small lizards drying themselves on the sidewalk while riding my rental bicycle, and the run down minshuku where I was staying (kind of like a bed and breakfast), had its share of mosquitoes and cockroaches.
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The highlight of the trip for me was discovering the odd coincidence that one of my favorite Japanese medieval war heroes, Tametomo no Minamoto, was exiled to Ohshima. As such, I got to visit his old hideout right near the present day harbor, where he had a lookout point, and a secret back entrance through a cave (pictured below). His soul is also enshrined here (above, left). Tametomo was the first of the famous Minamoto family war heroes, fighting in the battle of Shirakawa Palace at a time of rival emperors and their military factions in 1156. Tametomo’s claim to fame mainly centered around his prowess with a bow and to demonstrate it he once shot an arrow through three suits of armor in a row. This amazing feat is mentioned often in the tales that follow it, and his lineage often swore their own bravery by it. He was reported to being more than seven feet tall, and his bow arm was a full six inches longer than the other, using a bow more than eight and a half feet in length. After he was eventually defeated, he was exiled to Ohshima and his arms were dislocated by the opposing forces to prevent him from picking up a bow again. However, he was so talented that it’s said he only got better as a result, and afterwards fought off an entire fleet of warships by himself, sinking one with a single arrow. Some versions of the story even go on to mention Tametomo’s further adventures, which include going to the mythical Island of Devils and conquering all the demons there. Undoubtedly, one majorly cool guy, and my personal hero. When my first son is born, I vow to push for naming him after this medieval superman. Anyway, sorry for the lengthy digression. It was pretty rad visiting the place of exile for a real hero from a thousand years ago.
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The more of Japan that I see, the more appreciative I become of metropolitan life. In general, it’s a nice, quiet country for raising a family or retirement, but outside of Tokyo or Osaka, there’s really not too much to do, even in the “major” cities. America’s economy and population are much more diverse and thriving, such that you can really enjoy a fast-paced lifestyle in a great number of locations. Still, though the atmosphere of this post very closely resembles the bland, narrow range of midtones in its photographs, it was a nice time and I did enjoy myself. It was a place quite unlike any other that I’ve visited so far.
