JOURNEY ACROSS JAPAN: Day One - The Scariest Flight Of My Life So Far | DIARY

Oh good god. I never knew you could do so much in one week.

Or destroy yourself physically in such a short space of time.

To call the shoot for Journey Across Japan 3 action-packed would be a complete and utter understatement, as you’ll bear witness in the coming days, a I share photos and the diary of the trip.

AND so it begins on Day one.

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Joey and I arrived in Kagoshima this morning; he by plane, myself by train.

I’m not a fan of flying and if there’s a way around it, I’ll take it. In this case, I hopped on the bullet train which goes all the way from Tokyo to Kagoshima. Roughly 1,400km!

Sadly our time in Kagoshima was short lived, as we had a ferry to catch to the mystical island of Yakushima, which is a further 4 hour ferry ride south of the city.

However, given Joey had never visited Kagoshima (or Kyushu in general), he insisted that we attempt see all of Kagoshima and Sakurajima volcano out in the bay in the shortest space of time possible.

His solution? To rent a Cessna.

A single engine plane ride, flying over the city and through the volcanic fumes of an active volcano.

Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t overly enthusiastic. Eventually I caved in, thinking it was time I faced my growing fear of flying head on. Suffice to say, the plane was exceedingly bumpy; more akin to a fucking rollercoaster than a relaxing joy ride.

But we were rewarded with astonishing views of Sakurajima - Japan’s most active volcano which towers over Kagoshima.

The plane flew quite literally through the smoke and ash spewing from the summit until the inside of the cabin smelled strongly of sulphur.

In a ridiculous twist, I had the daunting task of opening the bloody window mid flight and letting in fresh air.

As the inside of the plane gets hot (it’s essentially a flying sauna), I had to hoist open the back window mid flight to cool us down. The end result was I got blasted with cold air, sulphur and ash from the volcano, and as we dangled in the air with my head out of the window, I realised how high we were and how vulnerable I suddenly felt, hovering in such a small plane.

AFTER our nerve-racking flight - a flight that even Joey found terrifying - we boarded the ferry and sailed across the sea to Yakushima.

It was here that Joey became the tour guide he was born to be, and given he’d visited the island 5 years ago, for ten minutes, I foolishly let him oversee the itinerary.

His first master stroke was to pick the accommodation, which turned out to be little more than a barn in a jungle, packed full of mosquitos and an imaginary shower. In fact, the bath turned out to be little more than a bucket with a fire underneath (as you’ll discover in tomorrow’s post featuring Natsuki).

But for all its shortcomings, the barn did come with its very own goat. It might have been the scariest goat I’ve ever seen, but it certainly added charm to the place. (Even if it nearly ripped off Joey’s arms).

We also grabbed our new mode of transport for JAJ, which was effectively somewhere between a people carrier, a bus and an aircraft carrier.

Capable of seating up to 12 people, I figured given Natsuki, Joey and I would be in it all week, along with a ton of equipment (and Ian and Norm hidden at the back), it made sense to rent something that’d make the journey a lot easier (even if you need to prayer to god before you attempt to park the damn thing).

The day ended with Joey and I enjoying some local craft beer and sashimi. A fairly eventful first day and a relief to make it out of the plane alive. Surprisingly, I walked away from the plane ride wanting to fly a Cessna myself. Who knows one day it may happen - on JAJ 4!

In the meantime, bring on tomorrow when Captain Natsuki arrives!

Chris