A New Challenger Approaches!! (Day 2) - Kojima Island

Thursday was set to be another travel day, with Kaori playing chauffeur. (Thank you so much for driving, Kaori!) Luckily for us, the weather was amazing, and the drive was nearly as scenic and gorgeous as the destination.

Miyazaki-ken shoreline as seen from Kaori's car. The water is super clear! (I missed the Devil's Washboard again... sorry all!)

The drive took us about an hour and a half or so, and since Jillian was the only one who has actually been to Kojima Island before, we had to be careful about directions. (Jillian, thankfully, has a really good memory, and the map Midori gave us was really handy)

There it is, Kojima Island! You can kind of see the little dock stretching out on the right side of the picture

Something interesting about the island that Jill told us is that it only recently, like within the last fifty years or so, became an island. A big storm washed away the land bridge that used to connect the island to the coast, so the monkeys that live there are now pretty much completely isolated. For a biologist like Jillian, it makes for really interesting study.

For non-biologists like this goofy crew, it's mostly just fun and pretty, but also interesting

Unfortunately for us, we couldn't find a boat, and far too late discovered that in order to get to the island, you're supposed to call ahead and make a reservation. While Charlie and Kaori planned out what to do next, Jill and I explored the beach.

Ooh, pretty sea shells!

A sad little sea star skeleton. Rest in peace, Mr. (Or Ms.) Starfish.

Fortunately for us, Kaori got really lucky and was able to contact the boat guy, who was literally at the parking lot in less than five minutes after the phone call. He said that he could take us to the island, (for the regular price of about $10 per person) but that he couldn't guarantee that we'd see the monkeys. They usually only come out to play in the morning, and since it was about 1:00 or so when we got there, they'd probably gone into hiding or were looking for food.

Still wanting to see the island, we decided to go with him, so he took us on his little boat and we went out to cruise around the island.

Here is the little cove where the monkeys are said to usually play, unfortunately, as he warned, it was deserted.

It would be dishonest to say that we weren't a little disappointed, but we couldn't say he didn't warn us, either. He told us that sometimes, though, you can find the monkeys in other spots, and that he knew of some likely places they might be hiding. So, after making sure it was okay with us, he took us to another spot he thought they might be likely to be.

Wait a minute, what's that on those rocks over there?

Oh my god! They're adorable!

The boat man pulled up to the shore and told us that we could disembark on the rocks, but that we couldn't bring any food with us, and that we should not touch the monkeys. Pictures, obviously, were okay to take. As he tossed the monkeys some nuts, they basically went berserk, and some of them even started fighting! It was a little scary at first, but he assured us that we were safe.

While the bigger monkeys chased each other around, these little guys waited off to the side for it to be safe for scrounge around for nuts.

Jillian was able to identify which monkey was the troop leader, and the boat man, (who I think might also have been a researcher) told us a lot of things about the monkeys and how they live in the island. Unfortunately for me, he had a semi-strong Miyazaki-ben, and also spoke really fast, so I couldn't understand most of what he was saying. He apologized for not knowing English, but thought it was really neat that we'd come all the way from America to see these monkeys. The monkeys, apparently not afraid of humans at all, were pretty comfortable with us being close.

Some of them came up REALLY close

When it came time to return to the shore, we were all sad to go. The boat guy could make the monkey sing, too, which was a really neat way to depart. He made a noise that went kind of like ロロロロ　or "Ro Ro Ro Ro!" and all of the monkeys would respond in a kind of singsong shouting. To be completely honest, the noise they make is kind of like a pig's squeal, at least to my ears, but together they would made a kind of melody. It was really amazing, and cemented the memory remarkably.

さよなら、おさるさん！Goodbye, monkeys! We'll miss you!

On our way back to the shore, the boat man also cruised around a bit more and high speed, taking some really sharp turns to kind of tip the boat around a bit. He told us to hang on and send the boat soaring over the waves. It was scary, but hilariously fun! Jill had to hang onto her hat tightly. After bidding the man farewell and thanking him for such an amazing experience, we headed out to Cape Toi.