{"id":680,"date":"2008-01-06T01:03:22","date_gmt":"2008-01-05T16:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-01-06\/680"},"modified":"2008-01-06T01:03:22","modified_gmt":"2008-01-05T16:03:22","slug":"amami-islands-southern-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-01-06\/680","title":{"rendered":"Amami Islands, Southern Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 17mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f\/6.3, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nThis Pretty Much Sums it Up<\/span>\n(ninety seconds later, powerful wind and rain slammed into us)\n<\/div>\n\n

We took a short trip over the New Year holiday to the Amami Islands<\/a>\nof southern Japan, in the East China Sea about halfway between Okinawa and\nthe Japanese mainland.<\/p>\n\n

The map below shows our flight back, from the northern part of the main\nAmami island (circled in green) to Osaka (circled in blue). Mentally, Amami\nfeels much further away than Hokkaido (circled in Red) where we visited last\nMay<\/a>, even though the latter is indeed farther away.<\/p>\n\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n

When we went to Hokkaido, we took an 18-hour ferry trip<\/a>, but\nwere almost always within sight of land. The flight<\/span> back from Amami was\njust an hour and fifteen minutes (about 575 miles), but it felt further\naway. Perhaps it's that great expanse of water in between.<\/p>\n\n

Arriving on the afternoon of December 30th set the tone for the entire\ntrip: landing at Amami airport, already over the runway and just inches\nfrom touching down, the pilot decided that it was too windy to risk a\nlanding<\/span> and jammed the throttle to maximum power. I've probably been on\nabout 350 flights, but it was my first go around<\/a> (aborted\nlanding).<\/p>\n\n

Once we got our rental car and started driving around, we found out how\nstupendously windy it really was (a subject<\/span> I post<\/span> about here<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 26mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>160 sec, f\/5, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nSo Much For The Tropical-Island Sunset<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The map below shows the main Amami Island (Amami Ooshima – “Amami\nBig Island”) outlined in red, and the other island we visited on the trip,\nKakeroma-jima, outlined in purple. We spent<\/span> the first two days in the\nnorth-east of the main island, exploring where Fumie's grandmother was born\nand lived until about the start of WWII. We then spent<\/span> two days on the\nother island.<\/p>\n\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n

The two islands are virtually completely covered in mountains, and due\nto their cragily shape seem to be nothing more than mountains and endless\nfractaled coastline. The main one<\/span> has an area of 275 square miles, but its\nshape and the lack of straight roads makes it feel much larger. There are\nabout 80,000 people living on it, the vast majority living in Naze\n(pronounced nah-zeh<\/i>).<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 55mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>750 sec, f\/8, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nChilly, Windy, Dynamic<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

The theme of the trip was “if you don't like the weather, wait a\nminute<\/span><\/i>.” It might be brilliantly sunny one moment, with driving wind\nand rain the next. This made for perfect rainbow conditions, and we saw\nmore rainbows during this trip than perhaps I'd seen in my entire life up\nto that point.<\/p>\n\n

We had a wonderful time.<\/p>\n\n

The innumerable beaches<\/a> that ring the islands all seem to have their own\ncharacter, with wildly different water colors and sand. One in particular<\/span>,\nHonohoshi Beach, has smooth round rocks instead of sand, which for some\nreason makes for a very<\/span> interesting and highly relaxing sound when the\nwater of a wave<\/span> recedes...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 44mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>350 sec, f\/4, ISO 160 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nSoaking Up The Sounds At Honohoshi Beach<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

The 20-minute ferry ride between islands was at a gloomy,<\/span> windy, rainy\ntime...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 17mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f\/5.6, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nBetween Islands<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

The first full day on the second island had marginally better weather,\nbut everything seemed more sunny because of Hirozou Yasuda<\/a>, a\nwonderful<\/span> guide that Fumie had arranged for. He drove<\/span> us around all day and\ntreated us to all kinds of wonderful sites\/sights we'd have never found on\nour own...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 17mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>750 sec, f\/7.1, ISO 640 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nGuide Hirozou Yasuda and Fumie<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 55mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f\/9, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nTaking Advantage of Some Sun<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 17mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f\/10, ISO 160 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nView While Having Lunch On Day 4<\/span>\nminutes before heavy wind and rain slammed into us\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1250 sec, f\/4, ISO 160 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nEerily Emerald<\/span>\n(and although it's hard to tell in the picture, there's a touch<\/span> of rainbow left of center)\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 17mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>160 sec, f\/13, ISO 160 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nThe Calm Before the Storm<\/span>\nTwo minutes later – you guessed it – heavy wind and rain slammed into us.\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 22mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>5000 sec, f\/3.5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nSort of a Sunset<\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 48mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f\/5.6, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nLater, From Our Lodge<\/a><\/span>on the other side of the island\n<\/div>\n\n

Weather was a central theme because most of our time was outdoors, but\nthere's so much more to our trip that I want<\/span> to share that I've yet to even\ntouch on, so I hope<\/span> to be able to post more in the future.<\/p>\n\n

Just before leaving on this trip, we had a traditional<\/span> New-Year's lunch\nwith Fumie's brother, Fumie's mom, and her mom's mom (Fumie's Dad was in Malaysia<\/a>\non business). Her mom's mom – her grandma – was born in Amami\nand lived there until her mid teens. At that lunch<\/span> before we left, we spent\na pleasant<\/span> afternoon looking at maps and satellite photos, coaxing as much\nfrom Grandma's memory as 65 years of absence would allow. She's had slight\nAlzheimer's for the past few years, but the topic of Amami seemed to bring\nsomewhat of a spark.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Sadly, upon our return on the 3rd<\/sup> we found out that she\nsuffered a stroke<\/span> while we were away, and that her prognosis isn't\nparticularly good. Fumie brought some of the photos from our trip to the\nhospital today to show her. It's unclear<\/span> whether she recognized anything\nthat was happening, but Fumie's mom said that she seemed a bit<\/span> better than\nyesterday, so that's hopeful.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We took a short trip over the New Year holiday to the Amami Islands of southern Japan, in the East China Sea about halfway between Okinawa and the Japanese mainland.<\/p>

The map below shows our flight back, from the northern part of the main Amami island (circled in green) to Osaka (circled in blue). Mentally, Amami feels much further away than Hokkaido (circled in Red) where we visited last May, even though the latter is indeed farther away.<\/p>

When we went to Hokkaido, we took an 18-hour ferry trip, but were almost always within sight of land. The flight back [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}