A small island off the south coast of Japan, Yakushima is a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its lush forests, grand mountains and ancient cedar trees, some of which are thousands of years old. For the UK filmmaker Steve Atkins, Yakushima had long been a distant dream – a mythical forest painted in his imagination by the celebrated Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s animated classic Princess Mononoke (1997), which had enchanted him since his youth. When he later learned that Yakushima had inspired the mystical forests of Miyazaki’s film, he resolved to travel to the island in a quest driven by passion, spiritual curiosity and artistic instinct.
The Spirits of Yakushima
See if you can spot the Jōmon Sugi; an ancient tree estimated to be between 2,000 to 7,000 years old. A world within a world, where strange mosses cover the forest floor. In times past i'd hike the hills in the Peak District and along the Pennines but even the recent trip to Borrowdale's temperate rainforest was nothing like this. It's a unique ecosystem and this six minute video gives you a glimpse into why the Japanese revere nature so much, they made a religion out of it.
A travellers perspective@blog.gaijinpot.com
The Spirits of Yakushima
See if you can spot the Jōmon Sugi; an ancient tree estimated to be between 2,000 to 7,000 years old. A world within a world, where strange mosses cover the forest floor. In times past i'd hike the hills in the Peak District and along the Pennines but even the recent trip to Borrowdale's temperate rainforest was nothing like this. It's a unique ecosystem and this six minute video gives you a glimpse into why the Japanese revere nature so much, they made a religion out of it.
A travellers perspective@blog.gaijinpot.com