Dubbo

Today I started my epic adventure. I went to Dubbo, which I’ve been to a number of times before although I haven’t seen any of its well known attractions, and I’m not going to this time either. I’ve also been to most of the places I passes on the way.

I went to Cowra, which has incredible Japanese connections since it had a POW camp that included a Japanese section. One night the Japanese rioted and escaped, overwhelming the Australians manning the gun emplacements, and killing several with baseball bats and knives. Over 200 Japanese died, over 100 were wounded and over 300 escaped. A war cemetery was built for them, and every Japanese soldier who died in Australia (including those shot down in Darwin) is buried there. Cowra is the site of the first Australian peace bell and they have the best Japanese garden in Australia. 

I’ve visited all these on previous occasions, but I’ve never been to the visitors centre before. It has a hologram of the POW camp which was very interesting. It mentioned that there was also a contingent of Indonesian POWs who the Dutch had convinced Australia to intern. At some stage (before the riot) Australia decided that they weren’t POWs but were political prisoners, so they were released. There were also Germans and Italians at the POW camp.

As I arrived in Boorowa I noticed that the sign said they were home to the best merinos in Australia. Since Australian merinos are the best in the world, I don’t know why they didn’t say that they were the best anywhere. Anyway, I thought that was a pretty tall order, so I stopped at the visitors centre and asked why they were the best. I was told that the family that started merinos in Boorowa started them in Australia (wasn’t that the McArthurs I said - well they took over from the McArthurs) and still, to this day they win prizes every year for their fine merinos. Which probably means that they ARE the best in the world.

Okinoerabujima

Today we reached Okinoerabu Island, the second most southerly of the Amami Islands, famous for its limestone caves. 

This is a tropical coral island. I went to the Shoryudo Cave. 

I was one of the last to walk down to the cave, and at the entrance, the sight of the people ahead of me gave me a good impression of the size of the cave - it’s enormous! 

It has lots of stalactites and stalagmites, and features that are sacred to the local people. 

There’s even a Tori gate in the cave to indicate a significant part of it. 

Most of the lights were plain white, but several areas of the cave had been lit in saturated colours that changed as you looked. 

Eventually we came out of the cave.

We then visited the town, 

where they were having the Okinoerabu Agricultural Festival.

In the afternoon, we visited the limestone coast at the Fucha Blowhole, which reminded me of Christmas Island. 

There were several blowholes, but we weren’t there at the right time for them to blow. 

We then visited Japan’s most majestic banyan tree at the local school.

As we prepared to leave, the islanders danced for us.

Amami Ōshima

Today we’re at Amami Oshima which has the second largest mangrove forest in Japan. We docked this morning, and went to Oshima Tsumugimura to see traditional Tsumugi silk being made. This is a very long, labour intensive precision dying and weaving process. Firstly, silk thread is wound into bundles the width of the weft of a loom (the thread is very long, as it will be used in either the warp or weft of the final cloth). These bundles are woven into a cotton fabric. 

Starch is precisely applied to this cotton and silk fabric to act as a resist in the dying process so that exact parts of the silk thread will be undyed. 

Before the cotton and silk fabric is dyed, it is washed in a mineral rich mud for between five and twenty minutes. I think the mud acts as a mordant, and, like many mordants, it changes the colour produced by the dye. 

The dye is made from pieces of wood from this tree, 

which are then chipped and boiled for two hours 

to create a vat full of dye. 

The cotton and silk fabric is dipped repeatedly into the dye vat (between one and five times), and then dried. The dye will give it colours ranging from brown to black. The silk bundles in the pictures show how the colour varies depending on the amount of dipping.

If other colours are wanted, once the starch has been removed, areas of the silk are coloured. 

The cotton and silk fabric is then cut and the cotton is discarded, while the silk is wrapped on spools. The silk that is to be the warp is used to dress the loom. 

Then the weavers weave the weft threads which have also come from a cotton and silk fabric that’s been through the process. 

The weavers check every thread they weave to ensure its placement is correct.

The resulting pure silk fabric would have to be some of the most expensive, given the process. I was really happy that I’d been able to visit.

After we finished there, we visited the Tanaka Isson Art Museum, dedicated to the vibrant work of this renowned artist. The building was very interesting, and, although we weren’t allowed to take photos, they allowed me to take a photo of the building from inside.

I visited a museum that depicted life on the island in the afternoon. 

At night, the local people gave us a dance display wearing traditional costumes as we prepared to depart. Like most of the islands, before the Japanese took over, it was a matrilineal society, with female priestesses at the top echelon of society.

Suwanosejima

Today we visited another active volcano. Japan has over 100 of them, more than just about every other country, and accounts for more than 10% of all active volcanoes in the world. Today we sailed around one, on our way south to see more of the Japanese island chain. Suwanosejima is one of the most active, and the island has been in a near continuous state of eruption since 1949. It emits a lot of ash, so the ground isn’t very stable, and landslides occur frequently. It was interesting seeing how verdant it was, and the amount of erosion.

Yakushima

Today we visited Yakushima island, home of an extensive old cedar forest. The cedars that are over 1000 years old change their composition, and the wood becomes much sought after. We docked at the port of Miyanoura, and travelled by bus to the Shiratani Unsuikyo ravine,

 where we crossed the river, 

and wandered through the forest, 

seeing moss 

and waterfalls 

and monkeys. 

There were plenty of stairs, and some areas had been rerouted due to landslides.

We then went back to the ship and were taught how to make chopsticks from 1000 year old cedar.