Audience with an elder

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This was published 11 years ago

Audience with an elder

A loggerhead on the beach.

A loggerhead on the beach.Credit: Alamy

After a week in hyperactive Tokyo, Sam Vincent craves solitude and wilderness. He finds it, and more, in Japan's ancient cedar landscapes.

I'm sitting under a tree that predates Christianity and Islam. When this tree, known as Jomon Sugi, anchored its roots, poked through the leaf litter and reached skywards, Greece was the beacon of Western civilisation. That was more than 2500 years ago and since its ''rediscovery'' in 1968, Jomon Sugi has become Japan's most revered tree. It is the oldest of the ''yakusugi'': millenniums-old cedars found deep within the dripping rainforests of Yakushima, a subtropical island 60 kilometres off Kyushu's southern tip and, since 1993, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

There's a prehistoric feel to Yakushima. As my plane banks, I catch my first glimpse of the hexagonal island, its size (24 kilometres by 28 kilometres) entirely visible from the air.

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Frothy breakers pound golden beaches that give way to an intense-green interior of sheer mountains and waterfalls punctuated by forests and the occasional albino-white cedar.

Yakushima gained World Heritage status because of the island's peculiar and diverse botany: more than 1900 plant species are found within the mountainous interior, which, despite its northerly latitude, is surprisingly mild. As well as ancient cedars, there are hundreds of varieties of rhododendrons, camellias, lilies, ferns and mosses.

It doesn't take long for the environment to assert itself; 10 minutes after leaving the Arakawa trail head that leads to Jomon Sugi, banyan roots spill over the track like tentacles, vines slap my face and ferns race up tree trunks like fire on curtains.

Talking a hike ... walking trails criss-cross Yakushima.

Talking a hike ... walking trails criss-cross Yakushima.Credit: Getty Images

Yakushima's interior receives 10,000 millimetres of rainfall annually and is so green I form the impression that if I sit still long enough, moss might appear on my boots. Today it's sunny and the light squeezing through the canopy casts dappled shade across my path.

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Water, though, is everywhere: the sound of unseen streams is a constant and after an hour of walking, I have crossed three suspension bridges spanning torrents. It will take three hours to reach Jomon Sugi and I'm soon in a rhythm, my boots slapping the sleepers of a railway track that forms the first half of the trail.

With a population of just 13,000, parts of Yakushima appear to have remained unaltered despite human occupation and the railway track, used to transport lumber during a failed attempt at forestry in the 1970s, is one of few indicators of primary industry here. Increasingly, however, the island is becoming a centre of ecotourism.

Yakushima is the northernmost nesting site of Pacific loggerhead turtles, and has an abundance of deer, monkeys, natural hot springs and perfumed orchards of mulberries, oranges, strawberries and loquats.

Jomon Sugi, however, is my goal. After 2 hours of walking, the trail begins to climb in a series of stone paths and wooden ladders built with such care they seem as organic as the surrounds.

As arbitrary as it may seem to revere one tree based on its age, this one is impressive: as wide as a silo and nearly as tall, Jomon Sugi dominates a small clearing. And though its bark is as wrinkled as a walnut shell, there are enough leaves to prove it is alive.

But as I sit in its shade I feel low; I've underestimated the volume of hikers ahead of me and what I'd hoped would be a moment of silence is instead accompanied by the sound of 20 or so clicking cameras. I decide my own photography skills can't do the tree justice and am about to leave when a friendly, older Japanese woman asks if she can take my photo ''for your memory''.

I oblige to be polite, and the resulting poker-faced shot is a reflection of my mood. I want to go deeper into this ancient land and am hoping I'll find the elusive silence I seek somewhere on the return to the trailhead.

Ten minutes later I'm drinking from a stream when the woman who had taken my photo approaches. Her brow is furrowed; something is troubling her. ''I am sorry,'' she says. ''I was rude to you earlier.'' Rude? How? ''I asked, 'Can I take your photograph?' when I should have said, 'May I take your photograph?'''

I'm touched, my mood lifts and I smile. I may not have had time alone with Jomon Sugi, but I've been enlightened by another venerable being and I'm a little more respectful of my elders.

FAST FACTS

Getting there

Singapore Airlines has a fare to Tokyo (Narita) from Sydney and Melbourne for about $1050, low-season return including tax. Fly to Singapore (about 8hr) then to Narita (7hr 5min); see singaporeair.com. JAL flies from Haneda, Tokyo's domestic airport, to Yakushima.

Staying there

Yakushima Youth Hostel is akin to a ryokan, is frequented by visitors of all ages and has a massive bath for aching limbs after a day spent hiking. Private rooms, including breakfast, dinner and sleeping mat, cost ¥4620 ($58) a night.

See yakushima-yh.net.

- Yaedake Sanso lodge, built in a cedar forest, has rooms from ¥8000 a person a night, which includes dinner and breakfast. See jnto.go.jp/eng.

Hiking there The Arakawa trail is the most popular of several hikes in the island's Kirishima-Yaku National Park. The hike to Jomon Sugi is a five-hour round trip but involves little climbing.

See kagoshima-kankou.com/for.

This article produced with support from Japan National Tourism Organisation.

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