Izu Ōshima

Heyho,

last week, in my quest to see as many volcanoes as possible, I went to one of the Izu islands, a group of volcanic islands south of Tokyo. To be more precise, my trip took me to Ōshima, which literally means "Large Island". It is also the closest island to Tokyo. To get there I had to embark on a large passenger ship in Tokyo at 11 pm. From there it would take about 6 hours to ferry over to Ōshima. This sounded pretty good to me since it would maximize the time I would have on the island itself as well as reduce the cost since I wouldn't have to pay extra for accommodation for one night. Well, so much for the theory. I wasn't expecting the ship to be THIS crowded. I ended up spending the night on the outside deck at the stern of the ship right next to all the winches and right above the engine. The space was also open enough for the wind to blow through as well as the rain. I had to lie on a thin plastic tarp on the metal deck. I had put on all the clothes I had as well as my waterproof gear which includes waterproof pants and a poncho. Surprisingly I was able to get around 2 hours of sleep before we reached Ōshima. And then it hit me. The moment I debarked from the ship and the sunlight slowly illuminated the area I didn't recognize the place. The layout was totally different from what I expected from the map. After switching on my GPS I noticed I ended up in a different port from the one I had expected. During my planning I didn't notice that there were two ports on Ōshima, and I was also unlucky enough to chose a day where the ferry actually goes to the smaller of the two ports. Well, shit happens. Before I go on with my story I want to show you some pictures of my journey so far.

Rainbow Bridge, this time at night. Seen from the passenger ship.

Tokyo Skyline at night.

There were one or two people on that ship. 

The little town of Okata and the pier I landed on.

So there I was, in this little town, 5 o'clock in the morning with no idea what to do. Thankfully the ticket counter of the ferry service opens for a brief amount of time for the people who land this early. I was able to get information on the bus service to the caldera rim of the volcano of the island. The next bus would leave at 8:33 am. The hell I am going to wait for 3.5 hours. By the way, that last picture kind of tells you something about the weather. It was raining, the whole time. The clouds were hanging incredible low too. Still in my rain gear, I started walking. I was able to reach the bus stop at the top way before the earliest bus would make it there. However, I was drenched. My rain gear couldn't handle being exposed to the rain for such a long time. Although, I can't really tell if I was wet because of rain water or sweat. But who the hell cares at that point. From here I descended into the caldera towards the newest addition to the volcano, Mihara-yama. The last eruption occurred in 1986 which produced three lava flows and lava fountains that reached heights of 1600 m above the vent, which sits at 764 m above sea level. Since the volcano is known to erupt every 20-30 years, Shinji insisted that I bring a helmet, just in case. I was really excited to see the huge caldera with the new cone sitting in the middle of it. Mihara-yama also has a crater that is almost 200 m deep. I was incredibly excited. But, to continue the trend of all my previous visits to volcanoes, it was foggy. It wasn't just foggy. This was the foggiest fog I have ever witnessed. I mentioned before that the clouds were hanging really low. During my ascend I actually entered the clouds. Below the clouds it was raining, inside the clouds the moisture was floating around and sticking to me. Now, you are probably thinking: "Isn't that just what fog does?", and I would agree. But this was simply too extreme in my opinion. I was definitely inside a cloud. I'll show you some pictures of my way to Mihara-yama. You'll probably notice the increase in density of the fog. The path goes over the lava flows I mentioned. Together with the fog it created a spectacular scene.

Out of this world.

I had cold feet (mostly because they were wet).

At this point I was pretty happy I had a GPS with me.

After crossing the lava flows I began my ascend of Mihara-yama. I am sorry I don't have any pictures of the volcano itself. But to be fair, I was happy if I was able to see the path 20 m in front of me. There is a path around the crater of Miahra-yama from where you are supposedly able to see right into the 200 m deep abyss. Well, not today. Check this out.

Looks like the entrance to the afterlife.

You can't even tell on which side the crater is. It was simply amazing. I came to see the volcano but I stayed for this phenomenon. Nature is stunning. Here is a picture of water sticking to the hair of my hand and the fabric of my sweater.

Surreal.

Water wasn't just sticking to me. Look at this poor fella.

Ganbatte!

On my way back I stopped at a hot spring to cleanse myself. It felt amazing to finally be dry again, well, if only my spare clothes would have stayed dry as well, which they didn't. The worst part though were my boots. Totally drenched, my feet were hurting like hell. For my return to Tokyo I choose the high speed jet ferry, which only takes about 2 hours. Hella expensive though. I met a high school girl from Ōshima on the ferry. She asked me a lot of questions for her summer holiday research project but the conversation often derailed and we ended up talking about all kinds of stuff. After having dinner with her in Tokyo I went back to Tsukuba. This was probably one of the most exhausting trips I have done in my life. Here is the last picture I took before leaving the island.

Impressive coastline.

See you around,

Nils