Tsushima: the facts, rumors, and pirate stories... VS. the Real Thing

Hello, all, and welcome to my blog.

I meant to post before beginning my journey to Japan, but I got caught up in packing, etc., so the following original post, detailing what I knew of Tsushima pre-departure, never got beyond draft phase. Because I never like to waste writing, though, here it is, along with an update.

Pre-Departure thoughts:

In four days, I will be switching planes somewhere in the Midwest on my way to Tokyo for JET orientation and, from there, on to a mysteriously blip of land between Japan and Korea called Tsushima, where I will be residing for the next 1-3 years.

For some reason, most people seem to think that I've been to Tsushima before, or that it's not that far from Tokyo, or that there will be crowds of English-speaking McDonalds addicts.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

While I've spent some time this summer researching Tsushima, information about it has been vague at best. Just for kicks, I'd like to list exactly what I know about that place that will soon be home. (Note: much of this information is taken from http://www9.ocn.ne.jp/~joujou/es-00-index.htm, with tidbits from elsewhere).

--The island is approx. 50 miles long and 12 miles wide, which is broken up into northern (Kamijima) and southern (Shimojima) parts of the island. The island's name comes from the Japanese for "two horses" because the two islands supposedly look like two horses, side-by-side.

--Daytime temperatures range from ~85 degrees in the summer to 40 degrees in winter.

--Like any respectable tropical island, Tsushima boasts an impressive list of endemic species, including the island's designated touristy mascot, the Tsushima leopard cat.

--There are some rumors in Tsushima's distant past that the island was used by groups of pirates who preyed upon both ancient Korea and Japan. They'd steal from one, regroup on Tsushima, and go off to steal from someone else. There are tons of little coves and inlets in Tsushima to hide; perfect for storing pirate booty, etc.

The End.


... so I've been on Tsushima now for nearly a week, and already the expectations are much different from the reality. The geography isn't any different from what the phamphlets, etc, said, but they failed to capture Tsushima's real image. Take, for example, the view one gets flying into the island (on a teeny, tiny plane that barely fits 24 people-- I counted): ocean. Endless stretches of ocean, with sunlight glancing off mini-waves; the airplane is low enough that each rippling crest can be discerned but also forms a squiggling mosaic pattern with the other waves. Then a vague hint of mountains rising-- obscured, unfortunately, by the over-large propellers-- and then slamming, in-your-face cliffs rising up from the ocean, maybe 60 feet but who can tell, capped immediately by trees as soon as the drop-off is less than a sheer plummet and rising up into the first wave of mountains. Many, many waves of mountains, crowding each other out in some places, finger-like in others, but all smoothed over-- from a bird's eye view-- by mossy green trees.

Of course, the airstrip is just after the cliff, so it looks like the airplane is either going to crash into the cliff and then drop into the ocean or slam into the first mountain. But even driving along the twisting Tsushima roads, crawling up and over and around steeper climes and sometimes through timestakingly-carved tunnels, it's hard to forget the mountains. "90% mountainous forest" doesn't do it justice.

The temperature, I suppose, must be around 85 degrees F. (It's 30-35 degrees celsius, anyway). 80-degree weather in Maine or even the rest of New England, though, needs to bow in honor to the weather here. The intense humidity makes the brief moments of dashing from air-conditioned car to air-conditioned office truly remarkable. One could reach a dripping sweat just by standing around. [As a side-note, the humidity has another unfortunate product, mold/mildew everywhere, but this has become such a day-to-day part of my life that it deserves its own post later. Hopefully it will be a victory post, after I find a better way to combat it. Mold, my new enemy. Didn't see that one coming].

So, endemic species. I was hoping that I'd read the phamphlets wrong, but no, there are only ~80 Tsushima leopard cats (yama-neko, or "mountain cats") left on Tsushima. It kind of sounds like they're doomed. Apparently they've contracted kitty AIDS from the normal house cat/feral cat populations. Very few people I've spoken with have actually seen one, but I'm still going to keep my eyes peeled, especially while driving. Like Maine's watch-out-for-moose-you-silly-out-of-state-drivers signs, Tsushima has "watch-out-for-yama-neko" signs, and I'm definetely not going to run over an endangered species if I can help it. While I haven't seen a yama-neko yet, I did see ~8 inoshishi (wild boar) on the way back from an all-island JET ALT (assistant language teacher) get-together. Actually, I'd fallen asleep, and my considerate and lovely driver Oliver woke me up and reversed the vehicle so we could get a better look. They looked like baby or adolescent boars, fairly small and herding in a pack up the steep hill on the side of the road. Very cute and, as I learned later, rare.

Okay. If you've made it this far, you're probably wondering: what about the pirates? Don't tell me there weren't pirates. ... ... ... well, according to my supervisor, there weren't any pirates. At least, no pirates that he knows about. [I'm pointedly not going to tell my little cousins this sad fact, as I've already promised them pictures of myself with "friendly pirates" and pirate booty in the mail... maybe I can get some willing volunteers to don a pirate eye patch around Halloween]. However, my supervisor did admit that the Japanese court, back in the day, did send hardened criminals/misunderstood poets/people who couldn't properly color-coordinate the requisite 15 layers of robes, etc., into exile, sometimes on islands. To his knowledge, though, Tsushima wasn't one of those islands.

On the bright side, though-- while there's no McDonald's on the island, there is, apparently, a MosBurger (a Japanese spin-off of hamburger fast-food and as close as one can get to McD's, really, outside of the big cities) on the southern part of Tsushima. I will have to travel there for a keitai (absolutely necessity, aka cell phone) later on, so maybe I could check it out while I'm there.

There's much more to write about-- mold, the schools I'll be visiting, my apartment and what's nearby, my ridiculous attempts at cooking for myself and trying to identify items in a grocery store-- but all that will have to wait for later. It's getting late, the cicadias are starting up (and, by the way, they aren't nearly as delicate or mood-inducing as pre-modern Japanese poetry would have you believe. In fact, they can be down-right eardrum-ringing), and it's time to go lay down in the one room with air conditioning-- not complaining, just stating-- and get some zzz's.