1998 Shikinejima Trip (Reprise)

So I was clicking away on my keyboard at work in the morning of Sept. 4, 1998. All I could think of was how I would relax in the upcoming weekend. The weekend before my 3 brothers had flown in from the US and Hong Kong for a bros-only get together in Tokyo, and the weekend before that my uncle and aunt from San Francisco had come to visit. My brothers had managed to wear me down that weekend after some fun and frantic sightseeing around town that ended as an all-night affair in Roppongi - which I will report to you in another time - and I had promised myself that no matter what I would stay home and not go out the following weekend. I needed a BIG break, and my dirty laundry also needed some dire attention!

So, when Jens' email popped into my mailbox inviting us to Shikinejima - an island five or so hours by ferry from Tokyo - I told myself, yeah right, I can't go this time.

This is what is going on:I didn't hear a whole lot from anyone except you, Edson, Maria, and Yoko. So I decided to go with some other people who, by coincidence wanted to go. I told Yoko, and she wanted to join, so Yoko and I are going to go tonight with some people we don't know. Sounds like a lot of fun doesn't it. I hope the weather will be fine, because I want to get some mre sun and feel that it actually has been summer.

Have a good farewel party, and say hello to every one from me.....

Jens

The day went on uneventfully. I did not give much thought about Jens or Shikinejima. I had even met Yoko for lunch that day - she worked in the next buliding - and I had joked to her that maybe I will change my mind about going, but we both knew I was just kidding around. Yoko told me the boat would depart Tokyo at 10pm sharp, and would get to Shikinejima around 8 or 9am the next day. I even shook my head and said, "I prefer my bed at home..."

But something strange had happened.

I was emailing Junko, joking to her too about going to Shikinejima. But, gradually, I thought - hey, it wouldn't be a bad idea - maybe I could relax on the island. And besides, maybe the reason that I am so tired is because I have been staying in Tokyo for too long lately. Traveling has always been exciting to me, even if it is just a weekend trip to somewhere not so far away. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense to me.

I emailed Junko again, this time serious about going to Shikinejima. She thought I was nuts. She too, was devoid of energy from the events in the previous weeks and wanted no more of that. Besides, she was having the woman's "thing" during that time.

But then, it seems the travel bug had gotten to her too...and finally, at 7:30pm, with me in the office and Junko at home, we decided over the phone that we would go afterall!

Thus it began another frantic race for us to make the boat at 10pm. I had to go home first to pack and there was less than two hours for me to go back home to Shimokita from Shinagawa, then head across town to the pier close to Hammamatsu-cho. On the way we called Jens and Yoko and told them we were going. At first they thought we were joking.

the boat

We got to the boat and met up with Jens and Yoko and their friends Henry, Patty and Morley with time to spare. We even had enough time to stop by Yoshinoya Beef Bowl and got two normal-sized beef bowls for takeout (unfortunately I could not purchase the raw egg for take out because it is summer.) We boarded the boat, sat around on the deck and Junko and I started eating. Somehow Junko could only take two bites out of her beef bowl so I ended up eating most of hers after I had finished mine. By the way, the Tokyo night from the boat was spectacular, and so were watching from the boat the jumbo jets landing at Haneda. Anyways, the boat went under the Bay Bridge, made another stop at Yokohama, picked up some more passengers and sailed out of Tokyo Bay into a vast ocean of darkness.

We sat around and made some Titanic jokes and I started to get really sleepy. Since all the rooms inside the cabin were filled with people and the air was stuffy, we decided to spend the night outside on some benches. Now I was probably one of the first ones to sleep - even though Jens, Yoko and Junko were joking and making a lot of noise, I fell soundly asleep by 11:30pm.

Sleeping on the benches was really uncomfortable even with a sleeping bag, and I woke up around 2:30am because my back was aching. I looked around and I thought I was surrounded by corpses in body bags that you see on police movies. Everyone was sleeping under the blanket or inside the sleeping bags entirely and there was almost no noise except for the soft murmurs of the ship breaking the waves. Not exactly for the faint of heart. Being the alert photographer, I snapped a couple pictures, taking care not to wake the dead with my noisy Nikon shutter.

Everyone else on the deck had gotten up, leaving only me and Junko - the only ones that were still sleeping. I manage to beat Junko by half an hour, and snapped a picture of her poking her head out of the sleeping bag like a groundhog after her long Winter hibernation.

During the trip, I would discover that Yoko and Jens are habitual early risers. Even when Junko is still groggy from her sleep, Yoko and Jens are already sitting on the back bench at 5:30am discussing Russian politics, nuclear physics and sneering at Junko's laziness.

After we got to Shinkinejima, we dropped off our heavy packs at the camp, got into our swimming trunks and went off to Jinata onsen, an onsen by a cove that one must traverse down some steep stairs.

After the movie "Le Grand Blue" by a French director named Luc Besson was shown in Japan, all the Japanese girls who watched it got crazy and decided to try scuba diving, snorkeling or purchase the video tape of the movie. Yoko did the last two. And she even brought extra snorkeling gear for everyone to try.

I have always been afraid of the ocean because of unknown, scary underwater monsters. Notice that Yoko, smiling, was the only one ready to dive in while Jens and I are surveying the waters, checking for suspicious creatures.

In any case, Yoko, Jens and Morley were the first souls to brave the unknown waters. Afterwards I decided to give it a try; and with pointers from Yoko and Patty, I was able to see some really exotic - or so to my eyes - fish! I was getting hooked, and promised myself next time I would bring a video camera with an underwater housing to film the whole thing.

...

But it turned out my fears about ocean monsters were true after all when I saw one undentified species with pink snorkeling gear climbing out of the water. Ever the alert photographer, I even managed to snap a picture before getting attacked by the Denmark FROGZILLA!

But getting back to the original goal of going to Shikinejima is that I wanted to relax. And what better to relax than sleeping on the beach after some snorkeling and a big meal? It seems like everyone else (except for Henry and Patty) agreed, and we all started to doze off on the beach.

Notice the bottom left corner of the picture on the left.

...

After we had all taken a good nap, we decided it was time for the onsen. So we went over to Mastugashita Onsen, or better known as Miyabi-yu. Since our skin had gotten relatively cool during our afternoon nap, entering the onsen proved to be a painful chore as it was hot hot hot! After five minutes we could all enter safely however.

Aside from the ugly harbor breakwater in the background ruining the view, Miyabi-yu is really a nice onsen. The best thing is it's free! I would like to go there again in late Fall.

By the way, I have always wondered how Jens knows all these onsen places and why he likes them so much that he has a homepage. Then I realized: his last name is Olsen!

the rest of the trip

After the onsen we had another big meal, did some fireworks on the beach, and set up our tent there as well. Next time, I will be sure to wear some long pants and long sleeve t-shirts as I counted over 30 itchy mosquito bites on my body the next day.

Anyways, Shikinejima turned out to be a very relaxing trip, much more than I had expected. Henry and Yoko thought so too (with Shikinejima island in the back); this picture was taken on the boat back to Tokyo.

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