Aka Jima

The 'scattered showers' that were forecasted in the weather report for this week have coincided with my trip to the island of Aka Jima. This meant that when I embarked on my journey to Tomari Port this morning, it was drizzling and when my ferry left the port it was in rougher than expected seas. Not that either of these things concerned me in the slightest, I've never been one for getting seasick, and I'm definitely not adverse to walking in the rain.

I arrived on the island without mishap, to find an unexpected shuttle from my hotel waiting for me, which whisked me away to check in. Having dumped the bulk of my gear, I set out to explore the island, and find out if it is even possible to get lost on an isle that has a diameter of only 2km.

As it turns out, it is not. The island has clear roads headed to each destination, and any thought of bush bashing is quickly silenced by the absolutely impassable dense tropical foliage. Now when I say 'impassable' this is not entirely true, if you had a machete and a couple of hours you might make a few feet of progress, but for all intents and purposes it is practically impassable. Not to mention the snakes in jars that I saw whilst souvenir shopping the other day were more than enough to deter me from any kind of 'placing feet where you can't see' behaviour. This generally comes under the same heading as 'poking things that aught not be poked' a desire which growing up in Australia completely cures you of.

I hiked up to a couple of Aka's lookouts, to admire the view which remains gorgeous even in this grey and ominous weather, then trotted down to the deserted public beaches, stumbling across some of the island's fauna on the way. Gecko-like lizards, deer and hermit crabs the size of my fist, one of which was bright purple, all inhabit Aka.

Not wishing to miss my hotel's barbecue dinner, I turned and strolled back, greatly anticipating the 'hot' rather than 'scattered' shower that awaited me there.