Hiking mysterious Yakushima Island for Street View (pictures)
Home to giant cedar trees and massive annual rainfall, this island in southern Japan inspired Hayao Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke."
Tim Hornyak
Crave freelancer Tim Hornyak is the author of "Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots." He has been writing about Japanese culture and technology for a decade. E-mail Tim.
Google Street View hikers recently climbed into the interior of Yakushima Island off southern Japan to photograph its famed cedar trees.
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Into the interior
The hiking trail leading into the heart of Yakushima Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, features an abandoned logging railroad track. It's a flat, easygoing walk until the path heads up the mountainside.
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Wilson's Stump
A Google Street View hiker pauses by Wilson's Stump, a cedar that was felled in the 1500s and named for English plant collector E.H. Wilson in the 1900s. It is believed to have been some 3,000 years old and had a base circumference of over 100 feet. The wood was apparently used in the construction of Hoko-ji temple in Kyoto.
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Yakusugi
Yakushima's interior is known for its yakusugi, a type of cryptomeria (Japanese cedar) that is more than a thousand years old. The high rainfall on the island allows these cedars to live longer than others in Japan.
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The granddaddy of them all
In the background is Yakushima's Jomon Sugi, an 83-foot-tall cedar with a trunk measuring 53 feet around.
Estimated to be anywhere from 2,000 to 7,000 years old, Jomon Sugi is the oldest tree on Yakushima, the oldest conifer in Japan, and a destination for thousands of hikers who visit Yakushima every year.
