Have you been to Yakushima?
Yakushima（屋久島 -Yaku-island) was designated as UNESCO World Natural Heritage site in 1993.
This is one of the model locations of “The Princess Mononoke”, has laurel forest and “Yakusugi” -ancient Joomon cedar in this island. Normally the age of cedar is around 500 at oldest, but Yakusugi (Yaku-cedar) lives much longer than that, more than 2000 years. This is because the island is surrounded with granite and less nutritious, thus it slows down the growth of Yaku cedar and takes time the tree to fully grown.
Yakushima coexist two types of climate; subtropics at coast line and subfrigid zone near the top of the mountain.
In the coast line, there is the largest nesting ground for the endangered loggerhead sea turtle.
Enjoy photos: UNESCO photo gallery.
Access to the island:
Hydrofoil ferry: 7 or 8 times a day from Kagoshima
Slow car ferry: Once or twice a day from Kagoshima
Airloplane: 5 times a day from Kagoshima, once a day from Fukuoka and once a day from Osaka
300,000 tourists visit this island every year.