GlobeTrotter: July 2006

Finally!!!! After 10 months I actually took a real holiday to the beautiful island of Niijima.
The trip started post-work on Friday night, as Saki, Terry, Aki and Myself took the train to Tokyo and waited for the 11pm ferry with about 600 other island-hoppers. The ferry was an experience in itself, with hundreds of people racing to claim prime floor space for the overnight ride. Some sweet-talking from Aki tricked one of the crew into spilling a secret spot - a small corridor that led to the showers - so we blocked off 4 of the 8 showers and set up house. We managed to sneak a few hours of sleep, occasionally interrupted by some crazy guy who was singing and talking to himself!
The Salvia Maru arrived at Niijima at about 7am, with welcoming blue skies and the sun already scorching down. At the port we were given a ride by a local to his home where we could rent bikes, but then a funny thing happened. As the local tried to rip us off with his exorbitant prices, Terry chased down two cyclists who gave him the lowdown on cheaper and better bikes, so we thanked our driver and walked to his neighbours house to strike a deal. The extremely friendly Ojiichan hooked us up with bikes at a third of the price his greedy neighbour was offering them for and we were soon on our merry way to the campsite.
Wadahama Camp is one of the best campsites I've ever seen and best of all - It's Free!! We set up our tents in the blistering sun (little did we know just how blistering) and set off for a day at the beach. Habushi beach was 5 minutes by bike from our camp and here I swam in the ocean for the first time in 17 months! However, the waves were big, nasty shore breakers with a huge undertow so the girls couldn't go swimming, so we biked to the other side of the island to the calmer waters of Yunohama Beach. Here we could swim safely and there was a pier that we could jump off for kicks. It was back to the camp for lunch, then me and T decided to tackle the monster waves at Habushi Beach again. We got absolutely destroyed by the Pacific breakers in our attempts to bodysurf, but it was still great fun. By this time we started to realise that a bit of sunburn was occuring...my hands and feet were getting pink and painful. But we pushed on for an evening dip at the Yunohama Onsen. These hot springs are styled in the fashion of ancient Greece and have an amazing view of the rocky ocean below. But with my sunburn getting the best of me, I couldn't enjoy the hot ocean water in the many pools, instead settling on the cooler kiddies pool. We then went back to camp for the night with the wind picking up enough to shake the tent violently, but not enough to take it down!
Day 2 started in pain for everyone. While I had the headstart in the sunburn stakes, I was overtaken by Saki who looked like she'd been 10 rounds with Tyson....eyes swollen shut. Terry and Aki were not spared either, so it looked like it was gonna be a sunless day....which it mostly was as the clouds and wind picked up. Our only excursions during the day were to get medical supplies for the walking wounded, other than that we just relaxed. In the evening we went into the town to enjoy a meal at an Izakaya. We then went back to camp for a heated game of Dai hin min, an enjoyable Japanese card game.
The pain continued on our last day as we slowly packed up. We stopped for one more swim at Yunohama Beach, which was very soothing. We then caught the fast boat back to Tokyo (only 2 and a bit hours) and pigged out on Wendys before going back to Yokohama.
Overall it was an enjoyable weekend other than the sunburn. The island was beautiful, the locals were very friendly (the bike man and the owner of the souvenir shop gave us free food) and it was just great to escape the crowds of Yokoham/Tokyo for a weekend. I'll definately be keen to do Niijima again, but this time with lots of sunblock!
For more info go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niijima