If you love Hayao Miyazaki’s anime films and have seen Princess Mononoke, for example, you might be pleased to know that the nature of the Japanese island of Yakushima was one of the inspirations for this famous movie.

Yakushima lies approximately 60 kilometers south of Kyushu and belongs to the Kagoshima prefecture. It’s a place with exceptionally preserved nature, ancient forests, mountain trails, and a unique atmosphere.

Yakushima is also the island of water. Locals jokingly say that it rains 35 days a month here. Thanks to the extraordinary amount of rainfall, the local forests are covered in a thick green carpet of moss and ferns. Perhaps that’s why some places feel so magical, as if we’ve stepped into the world of Princess Mononoke.

At the same time, Yakushima is like Japan in a nutshell. There’s subtropical vegetation on the coast, mountain forests at higher elevations, and even plants typical of colder climates on the mountain peaks. The highest mountain, Miyanoura-dake, stands at 1,936 meters and is among the highest mountains in Kyushu.

Yakushima is home to an endemic subspecies of the Japanese macaque and the sika deer. The Japanese call them yakuzaru and yakushika. There’s even a saying that 20,000 monkeys, 20,000 deer, and 20,000 people live on Yakushima. Green sea turtles come to Yakushima’s Nagata Inakahama beach to lay their eggs. Yakushima is one of the most important nesting sites for these turtles in the North Pacific.

If you love nature and hiking, Yakushima should definitely be on your radar. The island’s greatest natural treasure is the ancient Japanese cedars, called sugi. Yakushima cedars grow in poor granite soil, which is why they grow very slowly. Their wood contains a lot of resin, making them very resistant to rot. Yakushima cedars are known as Yakusugi.

One of the most famous tourist destinations is Jomon-sugi – a massive cedar estimated to be several thousand years old. The trek to reach it is about 20 kilometers long and takes most of the day. It’s therefore necessary to set off very early in the morning. Your reward will be a journey through a mystical forest where time seems to have stood still.

Článek Yakushima – An Island of Ancient Cedars and Wild Nature se nejdříve objevil na Japanese with joy.

The number of people aged 100 and over in Japan has exceeded the 100,000 mark for the first time this year. Interestingly, women make up almost 88% of centenarians. According to current data, the oldest person in Japan is a 114-year-old woman living in Kyoto.

Why is that?

One of the frequently mentioned factors is undoubtedly the Japanese diet—plenty of fish, vegetables, legumes, rice, and fermented foods, smaller portions, and relatively little red meat.

And perhaps it’s no coincidence that the carp—鯉 (koi)—is a symbol of longevity, strength, and perseverance in Japanese culture.

Článek Japanese Longevity se nejdříve objevil na Japanese with joy.

Let’s take a look at the three most common myths that are stopping you from starting.

1. I have to learn thousands of characters right away Wrong. Japanese has three writing systems. We start with Hiragana and Katakana, which are phonetic (one character = one syllable). You can master that in a few weeks! We add Kanji (Chinese characters) gradually and with joy, not by rote learning.

2. The grammar is illogical Quite the opposite! Japanese grammar is pleasant for Czechs in many ways. It has no genders (no he, she, it), no plural, and verb conjugation is very regular. No exceptions like in Czech.

3. I’m “dumb” when it comes to languages Japanese is not about talent, it’s about regularity and the joy of discovery. I have students who started in retirement, and students who are learning because of manga. The important thing is not to be alone in it.

Are you tempted to try it? Don’t be alone with Japanese. In individual lessons, we set the pace exactly according to you.