Okinawa, Japan 9: The Jungles of Yonaha-Dake

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James Knott hikes with his Aunt Tsuneko and Uncle Haru to the top of Okinawa’s highest mountain, Yonaha-Dake.

Okinawa is a sub-tropical island in southern Japan. James Knott explores the geography, history, people and culture of this unique place in a series of podcasts. Tune in, learn, and enjoy!!!

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high above the ocean in the hills and jungles of the young body Mountain region is okey now hon toes highest point Jana hidaka uncle ha do and I’m soon echo decide to escort me on my quest to reach the pinnacle of the island they have never been there and we aren’t really sure what we will find the path starts out wide and easy occasionally there are a few rocks and ruts underfoot but nothing too intense the jungle around us is thick and it’s a good time to check out some of the lush foliage along the route there are a wide variety of ferns tree ferns with unusual spots running down their scaly trunks huge sections of thick bamboo blocking our visibility and these little guys growing on the rocks nothing too intimidating yet but the path changes dramatically with this short roky climb this is the path to the top pretty small tiltable Chiefs I I’m driven to reach the top but after having a five foot snake almost fall on my head earlier this week I’m feeling a little cautious walking up this trail to the op top of Jana Jana hidaka and the trail is pretty small and I gotta say I’m a little freaked out right now but I love it my anxiety is eased by the fact that my fearless guide and her flimsy flip-flops will keep me safe I walked through a few spiderwebs and pray I don’t run into one of the giant wood spiders I’ve seen around the island so waving my little stick here to get all the spider webs because I don’t think anybody’s gone up here today huh we’re a wildlife protection area I think so hopefully we’ll see some wildlife we stumble on several Ryu q Robins playing along the path the Yamato mountain region spans the central part of northern Okinawa and is home to many of Japan’s natural treasures Hutus on is great at finding the animals as he hikes along in the forest he found at least half a dozen lizards clinging to the trees along the trail we soldier on along the claustrophobic path wondering if we are even going the right way I give hotter and to nako several opportunities to turn around but they insist on continuing through the dense jungle it seems like we’ve been hiking way too long in this humid forest finally we find a stone marking the top of yona hidaka we ready to hike to the top of Jana hidaka and this is what we have to show for it this little hole but I gotta tell you the fun was in the adventure the bamboo is so dense that we have to climb a tree to see the view Mia mas ha ha do climbs down and challenges me to climb the tree I can’t pass up this opportunity from the highest point in Okinawa I can see for miles swaying in the treetops 1,600 feet above the ocean very few okey now and see this via due to the tough climb the lack of trail markers and their fear of poisonous hobby snakes look at me I’m the tallest man in Okinawa we take a short rest to appreciate our achievement eat some rice and drink some water before a long walk back we climbed to the top of Mount yo na hidaka and now we are returning down the path so well daijoubu daijoubu come back there we survived the hike back to the car proud that we have gone somewhere that few people get to go Okinawa’s highest peak jana hidaka bloody coming up we’ll be going back to civilization which stops the ocean X to a park in charama aquarium will also be seeing Okinawan bullfighting as well as dozens of stops in southern Okinawa don’t forget to check out my new website stray compass calm a travel video website you can also see my latest work at agile H calm and if you’re watching this on another video sharing website don’t forget to comment rate and subscribe to my videos thanks for watching I’m James not goodbye Anjali calm