Ogasawara: Chichijima Day Two

This post is the third in a series about a trip to the Ogasawara Islands. See post one here and post two here.

My second day on Chichijima started early, just after the sun rose. With a few hours to go before breakfast I donned my swimsuit, grabbed my snorkeling gear and walked across the street to the Ougiura Beach. Ougiura is a bit on the small side and probably not the island's most beautiful beach, but completely decent. Unfortunately it was a cloudy morning, so my pictures make it look far less attractive than it was (here is what the beach looks like in good weather). It was also cold and after a few minutes in the water I had to come out to warm up. There wasn't much to see underwater, and while the perfectly sandy bottom must make it a lovely beach in good weather, it was no good for snorkeling.

So I walked along the beach to warm up, coming across this relic from WWII. Stuff like this was all over the Ogasawara Islands, and I could never find any signs with explanations or people willing to talk about them. I found it quite different from Guam or Okinawa where anything to do with the war is made into a memorial.

Perhaps one reason that the reminders of the war are ignored here is the sheer number of them. Hunks of rusted machinery are still common, but more numerous are the entrances to the foxholes and tunnels that dot the rocky outcrops near beaches. Most are tiny, either just big enough to crawl into or fit a gun through, and they were hard enough to spot on naked rock. Camouflaged with foliage, the foxholes would have been virtually impossible to see, and thinking about that brought on an uneasy feeling that didn't seem to match the otherwise beautiful island. Unlike its similarly fortified neighbor to the south, Iwo Jima, Chichijima was never subject to a full-scale Allied invasion, but it did play an important role in the war. A role far more horrible than the long abandoned relics suggest, and for a quick description of what happened on Chichijima, read this review of the book Sorties Into Hell. Warning: it involves cannibalism (and that right there might be another reason why the islanders don't seem to embrace their wartime past).

Breakfast was at our hotel, Horizon, and was Japanese style. Clockwise from bottom left: rice; teriyaki grilled local fish; tamagoyaki (thick omelet); buri daikon (braised yellowtail with daikon radish); hiyayakko (cold tofu); stewed eggplant with katsuobushi (bonito flakes); pickled vegetables; miso soup; and a package of nori seaweed to go with the rice. All the food seemed to have been imported except for the grilled fish (and its garnish, munin hama-udo, a variety of angelica found on the islands).

It looks like a lot of food, and it was, but this is typical of Japanese hotels. The nicer the place, the more food they tend to serve, and on Chichijima it doesn't seem to matter if you're about to go on a dolphin swim: you're going to get stuffed. It was very tasty though, if a little heavily seasoned, and obviously made with care. Although dinner and breakfast is usually included at Japanese hotels, you can often arrange to stay without one or both meals, and if I was arranging my own trip to Chichijima I'd save this breakfast for one special day and skip it on the others.

So with full bellies we were driven to the headquarters of Sea-Tac, our tour company for the day, to get our equipment. I was a little taken aback to notice that all the men got super-long scuba diving type flippers and the women got short ones, but had no time to protest as we were herded back into the vans and brought to Futami Harbour to be loaded on to the Dancing Whale, Sea-Tac's boat. That's not it above, sorry (we were corralled so efficiently I didn't have time to get a picture of our boat).

Like all the tours we did on the islands this one was conducted in Japanese (although I later found out that Sea-Tac does English tours as well). It was quite different from the dolphin tours I've done on Mikurajima, in both good ways and bad. Bad in that the large boat held more people, making it a bit crowded when we were out in the water with the dolphins. I also wasn't crazy about the long speeches in the beginning blasted through the boat's speakers (you can't see it in the picture but our guides wore earpieces). But the boat was more comfortable than the tiny ones on Mikurajima, which was nice later on when I got a bit seasick. And after the dolphin sightings stopped we were brought to a coral reef where we snorkeled among tropical fish, which never happens on Mikurajima: there is literally nothing to see there except the dolphins and an occasional sea turtle. Overall I prefer the smaller, more intimate and friendly tours of Mikurajima, but this wasn't bad at all. (And sorry for all the comparisons to Mikurajima, it's the only place I've swum with dolphins before. Here and here are posts from my two most recent trips if you're interested). In fact it was the highlight of the trip, and I only wished that it was a full day tour instead of just the morning (OK, and I wished the weather was nicer too).

The speeches were given as we pulled out of the bay, and although it wasn't as pretty as it looked in the previous morning's sunny weather, we were soon treated to impressive sights. 

We followed Chichijima's coastline, cruising around rocky outcrops and between tiny volcanic islands while keeping our eyes peeled for dolphins. These pictures, as usual, completely fail at capturing the beauty of the place, from the amazing blue of the water to the lush green of the hills. It would take better weather, a better camera and a much better photographer to really get it right.

This is John Beach, one of the island's secluded beaches that can only be reached by a ninety minute hike.

And this is the neighboring Jinny Beach, which takes two hours to get to. Here's how it looks in good weather.

In other seasons several varieties of seabirds nest on the little rocky islands, but we saw surprisingly few birds of any type.

This is the entrance to Minami Jima, one of the most beautiful spots in the Ogasawaras. It is just south of Chichijima and can only be reached by swimming with a guide from a boat through the hole the rocky wall seen above. The number of visitors is strictly controlled and unfortunately the island is completely off-limits from November to early February, so all we could do was cruise slowly by. Here's how it looks from the inside.

Soon after passing Minami Jima we spotted a couple of dolphins, so we geared up and slipped into the water. It was a mother and adolescent and they stuck around for a short time to check us out and then took off again. We came across them a few more times but were never able to see any other dolphins. It was hard to be disappointed at not seeing more, as even two dolphins are an amazing sight, and we did get to spend a decent amount of time with them. I had decided not to use my underwater camera, as it broke the last time I took it snorkeling, so no pictures, but here's a random blog post from someone who bothered to use his camera.

But once we'd given up on the dolphins and anchored at a coral reef I changed my mind about the camera. This may not have a been world-class snorkeling spot, but I'd never seen such a variety of fish and was amazed. I think I even liked this better than the dolphins, and I soon lost track of all the kinds of fish I saw. As for the quality of the following pictures, the usual excuses apply, but believe me: it was beautiful.

I actually saw way more fish than shown here, but those suckers move fast and many stick the the deeper parts of the reef, which were inaccessible to me, not being able to dive like the dude above, and to my camera, which can only be used close to the surface. And damn it, despite being extra careful my camera still conked out after ten minutes in the water. Luckily I had a backup, though it wasn't an underwater camera so that was it for the fish pics.

After the tour ended we were brought to our new hotels. I lucked out again and got to stay at Tetsuya with Helen and the two Tokyo government ladies. Tetsuya bills itself as a "healing house" (their translation of kutsurogi no yado) and is what would be called in English an eco hotel. Tetsuya's website and printed materials frequently use the word "lohas", a term that I despise (it is used somewhat differently, and usually meaninglessly, in Japanese than the English acronym LOHAS). So I was skeptical and prepared to be disappointed but Tetsuya impressed the hell out of me. I liked it better than Horizon, which is supposed to be the island's best hotel, and when I make it back to Chichijima this is where I'll be staying. If I can afford it.

I am actually rather spoiled to be comparing Horizon to Tetsuya, as I am the only tour member to stay at both. The others had at least one night at a minshuku (family run inn), and although minshuku can be nice and homey apparently one of them was, to put it nicely, on the rustic side.

Tetsuya has a few rooms in the main building, and two more rooms in small detached buildings. Helen got to stay in one of the detached rooms, above, which had an open-air bathroom on the ground floor and the sleeping quarters, accessed by a neat trap door, on the second floor.

My room was in the main building and just lovely, filled with wood and natural materials and with three walls of windows that let in plenty of light and air.  

Maybe the only downside to the place is that all rooms have twin beds only, which would be a major bummer for a foreign couple wanting a romantic vacation (Japanese couples actually seem to prefer twin beds though, which I find hilarious). But all by myself my little bed was more than comfortable enough.

 

I loved the open bathroom. It had the toilet in the same room as the tub and washing area, which is a little unusual for a nice hotel in Japan and made me wonder what a Japanese couple would do if one had to bathe or wash up at the same time as the other had to use the can. I mean, two people who are not intimate enough to share a bed probably don't want to pee in front of each other. Thankfully the windows and door to the bathroom can be covered with blinds, so at least a person in the room wouldn't have to witness the goings-on of the bathroom.  

Having a bath outdoors is quite a luxury, and although I've experienced rotemburo (open-air hot spring) in Japan and an outdoor shower in Bali, this was my first outdoor bathing experience that involved a visit from a gecko (all I got in Bali was roach).

And here is the view from the throne. This is probably way too much information, but my travel-induced bempi (I'll let you figure out what that means) ended here and I'm sure it was the view and general relaxing vibe of the hotel that did it. Healing hotel indeed. I think Tetsuya earned its "eco" status as well with touches like nice-smelling soap and shampoo in refillable dispensers, real cups and glasses instead of disposable plastic, a small potto (electric kettle) for tea that was unplugged on arrival (most hotels have larger kettles that are constantly plugged in), lots of well-spaced windows that let in so much light and air that I didn't touch the AC and only needed the lights (compact fluorescent of course) at night, and meals that included more local fare than anywhere else.

Lunch was a bento and bottled tea (given to us after the tour) eaten alone in our rooms. A little lonely, and again the only thing part of the meal that seemed not to be imported was the shikaku mame (wing bean) at bottom right. After the morning's giant breakfast this large, greasy bento was not what I wanted at all, so I ended up throwing most of it away and feeling really guilty about it. Why the Japanese equate vacations with massive meals is beyond me (but now that I think about it, it may help explain the ubiquitous twin beds, because there's no better romance killer than an over-stuffed belly).

After lunch came four precious hours of free time, which Helen and I used to walk to the beach. Tetsuya is nicely located, far from town and near a park and Kominato Kaigan, the beach we'd visited on yesterday's tour (see Tetsuya on this map, it's the green-roofed building to the right).

The beach was a short walk, either by road or by river-side path (I took the pretty path home but it rained a bit so didn't get any pictures). The road there was nice enough though, lined with pretty and exotic flowers and eventually meeting up with the river.

This is the same place we went the day before, where the island's southernmost road ends. I checked out the rocky cliff side we'd seen on the previous days tour again, since I hadn't been able to get a picture of the gun hole. That's it below, can you spot it? I couldn't find the tunnel entrance, but apparently parts of the island have a labyrinth of tunnels underground so the entrance could be quite some distance away.

The beach had looked prettier yesterday when the sun was out, but it was more than nice enough for us. After a quick dip Helen left to visit the agricultural center and I had the whole beach to myself, expect for a family that came just as I was leaving. There wasn't much to see underwater so I left my mask and snorkel on the beach and just swam for a while, until I got curious about the rocky edges of the beach. So I geared back up and swam over to the right side, and was rewarded with a rocky bottom that had a decent amount of fish, although not quite the variety I'd seen in the morning and not really any coral. Still, for a sandy beach this was very nice snorkeling and I especially liked swimming through the two little tunnels seen above.

Far to the right Kopepe Beach was visible. I'd heard it's possible to swim over and was tempted to do so, but since I was all alone in iffy weather and not a very strong swimmer to begin with I decided not to. Besides, we had to be back for an early dinner.

So I swam over to the left side of the beach, collecting shells as I went. There wasn't as much to see on this side so I decided to have one last swim before heading back. As I was swimming I happened to lift my head up and look back, and just then a little fish jumped straight out of the water a little ways behind me. As I wondered what would cause a fish to jump like that, I saw another fish do the same thing off to my left. Now why would two fish need to get out of the water in such a hurry like that? It suddenly dawned on me: SHARK! I frantically swam back to shore and crawled onto land, where I sat for a few minutes waiting for my heart to stop thumping. When I finally calmed down I felt really stupid and was glad there was no one around to see me. After all, although sharks are often sighted around the islands they surely wouldn't come it so close to shore. Or would they? I had been swimming in fairly deep water, about three metres perhaps, which seems to me would be more than enough room to fit a man-eating shark. So just for the fun of it, until someone can tell my why those fish were jumping like that, I'm going to just assume that I narrowly missed a horrible death in the jaws of a blood thirsty shark.

Dinner was at the uncivilized hour of 5:30. Most hotels in Japan have set times for meals, which can be a huge annoyance, but in this case the early time was decided our handlers rather than the hotel, as we had a big meeting in the evening. Helen and I each ordered a passion fruit cocktail to begin with, and it was delicious.

The meal started with three courses served together (I think if our schedule hadn't rushed the dinner they'd be served separately). From left: sode-ika no kimi-ae (diamondback squid dressed in egg yolk), garnished with vegetables, shiso (perilla) salmon roe and dried uni (sea urchin); akamutsu no kombujime (rosy seabass sashimi cured with kombu kelp) topped with wasabi and tobiko (flying fish roe) and served in a light broth with local seaweed; and jizakana to kaki no mizore-ni (local fish and oysters poached with grated daikon) garnished with shimeji mushrooms and vegetables. This local fish turned out to be called ogo (himedai in mainland Japanese and lavender jobfish in English). The squid in the first dish was local and is apparently a favourite of the local sperm whales, and although the seabass and tobiko weren't specified as local they are often caught off of Chichijima so I'm inclined to think they were.

All three of these were great, and we were especially blown away with the first one with the squid. I suspect the second dish, with the sashimi, would have been even more impressive if we'd eaten fist, but it was very subtly flavoured and the richly dressed squid just overwhelmed it. Unfortunately we had to eat very quickly because of the meeting, and sadly this amazing meal suffered by not being slowly savoured.

Shimajaga to unagi no isobe-age (locally grown potatoes and eel, wrapped in nori seaweed and deep-fried), garnished with shishito peppers, thinly sliced daikon, strands of chili pepper and matcha salt. This was an ambitious dish and I liked the chewiness of the potato (enhanced by some kind of starch) contrasted with the crisp nori, but found the unagi to be too mild.

This dish, excuse the bad focus, is black sesame stew with Japanese beef shank. The meat was tender and delicious and the sauce definitely interesting, and while this is one of Tetsuya's signature dishes it wasn't my favourite of the meal (that would be a tie between the first two courses, which are also signature dishes).

The last savoury course was shikaku mame no surinagashi (pureed wing bean soup with soy milk). I'm not normally a soy milk fan but this soup was fresh, creamy and lovely. 

We finished with a tiny scoop of papaya ice cream, and were sorry to see the meal end. This was easily the best food of the trip and it sucks that we had to rush through it. Unusually it was just the right amount of food: we were full but not overly stuffed, and I wish all hotel meals could get this right.

So on to the meeting. We were packed into an impatiently waiting van (despite our rushed dinner we still managed to be late) and brought to the ferry terminal, which had been set up especially for us. The first part of the evening was fairly painless and involved us watching a few nanyo odori dances. Nanyo odori is the island's traditional dance, but it's not a particularly long tradition. It is heavily influenced by Pacific Island dances and was apparently introduced to the Ogasawaras in the 1930's by a westerner who had learned traditional dances on Saipan. It was originally called dojin odori (native dance or aboriginal dance) and performed in grass skirts, leis and blackface, but thankfully that last tradition has died out and the word dojin is now considered offensive. The modern name nanyo odori, coined in the 80's, simply means "South Seas dance", and the grass skirts and leis are still worn (I was dying to ask the man above if there was any special significance to his hemp lei, but sadly there was no time for questions).

The dances were performed to singing and we were given song sheets, in Japanese, and encouraged to sing along. The only musical instrument accompaniment was the simple kaka drum shown above.

After the dance performance came what we'd been dreading: we were given grass skirts and leis of our very own and made to get up do a dance in front of an audience. Yup, as we'd been watching the dances the terminal behind us had been quietly filling up with onlookers, and I could tell my fellow foreigners wanted to escape as badly I did. But no, it was time to earn our keep. I imagine we looked about as awesome as foreigners on the mainland do when made to dress up in yukata and kimono and do bon odori dances for their delighted Japanese hosts. But it was over quickly, and I was soon looking back on the dance with nostalgia. Because the worst was yet to come.

We were seated in a panel formation in front of the onlookers, who turned out to be mostly people in the tourism industry. And then we were given microphones and each made to give a speech about our impressions of the island from our special foreign points of view, and what could be done to encourage more foreigners to visit. I found it funny that our opinions as outsiders were so sought after despite the fact the tour was only available to fluent Japanese speakers (they made a special exception for me), and most of us had been living in Japan for well over a decade, had a Japanese spouse and were well-immersed in our adopted country.

The others had some great ideas that were expressed in fluent Japanese, and a few of them were fantastic public speakers to boot. The audience was really impressed, and to my great surprise (as good as everyone's points were, they mostly seemed common-sense to me) they seemed to be hearing most of these ideas for the first time. And then it was my turn. I had known we'd have to be giving our ideas, but was totally unprepared for doing so in this format, especially after less than two days on Chichijima. I did actually have some ideas of my own but not the Japanese skills to communicate them, so ended up with a really dumb point, chosen only because it was a simple one that I actually had the ability to express. And even then I was barely able to choke the words out. It turns out that poor Japanese ability, a poor idea and poor public speaking skills, even coming from the unique and exotic viewpoint of a foreigner, do not go over well at this type of meeting. I haven't felt so lame since high school.

The highlight of the meeting was near the end when one of the audience members, who could have been a fisherman or a grandpa or a retired pirate, stood up and spoke. He had long hair in a pony tail and seemed like he might be an old Japanese man, but had one of those faces that gives few clues about its owners age or race. He smiled and told us in English (the only English we got that night) that to really get the full Ogasawara experience we should try the ferry on the cheapest 2nd class ticket, with an open sleeping berth. Then he turned around and walked out. I guess with his English and unusual appearance he was a descendant of one of the original western settlers, and it would have been cool if he'd stayed and talked more. As for his advice, he's right that it probably would have been much more fun and authentic if we'd made our journey together in the 2nd class open area. But far less comfortable. I've done the cheap ferry thing before, on a 24-hour journey to Okinawa, and after the first several hours the fun is directly proportionate to how drunk and male you are. It's less amusing once you actually get tired and want to sleep. But he had a good point: with the entire trip involving us traveling the fancy way, staying in private and semi-private rooms, and having every single thing arranged for us, we weren't getting the full experience and thus were not really qualified to give our opinions on tourism to the islands.

After a brief question and answer time the meeting mercifully ended, and we were invited out to a local bar with some of the meeting's organizers and attendees. The bar was a cute place called Green Pepe (no website) and I'm pretty sure that the well-lubricated communication that went on between us foreign tour participants and the local folks was far more valuable than what went on at the meeting earlier. It was definitely more fun.

Part four in the series coming soon. Meanwhile, see more pictures from the trip here.

Comments

[Tamara]

What a cute hotel! I would feel a little strange in that bathroom with the window wide open, but it looks like the hedge keeps it private.

My condolences on the sort-of-traditional dance in grass skirts, on tile, in front of a Coca Cola machine.

[Gwto]

What a fantastic post and a great blog. I just wrote my first blog post about 12 things you may not know about Sushi. Check it out: http://bit.ly/b21hwI

[YSC]

I loved this post! You were born to be a travel writer -- I actually burst out laughing when I saw the pictures of the native dance that you were forced to participate in, especially juxtaposed after the elegant dinner. Keep writing! I love your blog.

[Amy]

Tamara, the hotel backs onto a thickly foliaged hill, so unless someone was actually hiding in the bushes you're pretty safe.
I actually wanted to comment on the atmosphere, especially the magical glow of the vending machine, but the dancers were very earnest and I didn't want to be too mean.

Thank you Gwto. Nice list, and I didn't know #12 (you didn't slip that one in there for April Fool's Day, did you?).

Thanks a lot YSC! That's really nice of you.

[Lauren Dunn]

i loved the pictures! and wow did that seem like a lot of food, i didn't know a lot of the facts you pointed out about the hotel. it was very informative as well as entertaining. as always you have blessed me with a trip to a world i would not have been able to see. i cant wait for more!

[amy]

love the posts and pictures - thank you for sharing! i randomly found your blog while reminiscing with friends about a visit to the islands and when i read about your jumping fish/shark experience i remembered that we saw several sharks swimming very near the shore at one beach. i looked at a map (i only remembered that it was just before the long hiking trail to a gorgeous, remote beach) and sure enough, it was the kominato beach! just wanted to let you know that you should feel lucky to be alive after that experience ;-) really looking forward to the next installments...

[Masaya Rider]

I can't believe this is Japan! I've lived here all my life and I've never seen such beautiful beaches and ocean life.

Please keep up the good work blogging! It's great to find others here in the same country you're living in.

[Amy]

Thanks Lauren!

Amy, seriously? Big ones? Yikes! I guess I really did narrowly escape death! I so envy you for getting to that remote beach. I really wanted to go there on my free afternoon but would have had to turn around and head back as soon as I got there.

Thanks Masaya. And I didn't even get near the beautiful beaches.

[Maggie]

Wow, what a wonderful trip. Thanks for sharing. Best wishes from Liverpool

[thesoulofjapan]

Nice pics. I ate soba at that same restaurant in your pic. Did you try the trout tempura?