Uninhabited Japanese Island Offers Survival Adventures

Diaoyu Islands. Photo: AFP
Diaoyu Islands. Photo: AFP
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Uninhabited Japanese Island Offers Survival Adventures

Diaoyu Islands. Photo: AFP
Diaoyu Islands. Photo: AFP

Feeling ground down by the pressures of everyday life? Wish you could get away from it all? The island city of Iki in Nagasaki prefecture has an unusual and appropriate holiday destination, and its name is Tsumagashima Island.

There are many uninhabited islands that dot the coasts of Japan, and Tsumagashima, in particular, lies off the coast of Nagasaki. While humans did live on the island at one point, it was declared uninhabited in 2002, and since then has lain in relative obscurity—although people who fish treat the island as a especially lucky spot, according to the Japan Today website.

You can access the island with relative ease from Nagasaki's Indoji seaport, but it's far removed from civilization and the chance of bumping into strangers is practically zero, reported the German News Agency (dpa).

You can take also a 30-minute airplane ride from Nagasaki Airport. Prospective campers need not worry about the safety of the island—the campsite areas are being tended to and monitored by capable staff, which is currently undergoing a survival adventure of their own.

Camping on the island allows guests to try out a unique camping experience where they stake out their own lodgings, forage for food, fish, and cook their own meals using bamboo and camping tools.

And speaking of camping tools, only the barest minimum is included in the camping plan. Vacationers can also expect a beach reserved for their own use, a jungle expanse to venture through, and a stimulating environment without electricity or running water.

A two-day, one-night stay will cost 19,800 yen, while a three-day, two-night stay will cost 29,800 yen per adult. Elementary school students are expected to pay half of that price, while children younger than that can attend for free. Your party must consist of four people or more.

Don't worry if you aren't a serious camper because the island will also offer camping experiences for beginners where a qualified instructor will assist you on your survival experience.



Crashing Waves in Hilltop Village, a Night of Terror from Spain's Floods

A general view of an area affected by floods in Chiva, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
A general view of an area affected by floods in Chiva, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
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Crashing Waves in Hilltop Village, a Night of Terror from Spain's Floods

A general view of an area affected by floods in Chiva, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
A general view of an area affected by floods in Chiva, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Irene Cuevas will never forget the sound of the waves crashing below her apartment’s balcony.

If only there had been a flash of lightning in the darkness to let her glimpse what sounded like a roaring sea.

“It was a constant fear because we didn’t have light to see by," Cuevas told The Associated Press. "We could hear the roar of the waves, which was unbelievable. The street was completely flooded and we were hoping for some lightning so that we could at least see what situation we were in. It was all waves, currents everywhere, The AP news.

“We have that sound of the waves burned in our memory.”

The devastating flash floods in eastern Spain this week that claimed over 200 lives and destroyed countless homes and livelihoods also seared a scar of terror in many survivors

Cuevas, a 48-year-old embryologist, is a resident of Chiva, a village perched on a hill about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Valencia city, whose southern outskirts were likewise ravaged by the floods on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Chiva got more rain in eight hours than the town had experienced in the preceding 20 months. Cuevas was at home and saw how the gorge dividing her village suddenly overflowed with rushing water.

The tsunami-like wall of water claimed at least seven lives in Chiva, home to some 16,000 people, and the search goes on for more missing, either in collapsed houses or in the gorge.

“It was terrifying because that night it began to rain and the water began to overflow the gorge and started carrying away cars and trees,” Cuevas said. “The underpasses of the bridges started to clog with debris, and the water started to flow through the entire village.”

The gorge, called the “Barranco de Chiva,” is normally dry, but it is fed into by several other runoff gorges and channels water to vineyards below.

The huge storm sent a blast of water that knocked down two of the four bridges crossing the gorge, while a third was left unsafe to cross. The sides of the gorge were eaten out, bringing down a sidewalk and several houses and tearing holes in others.

Cuevas, who moved to Chiva when she got married 18 years ago, lives one street over from the buildings bordering the gorge. She and other people living in her apartment building helped several neighbors from the building in front when they feared it would come down. The neighbors said their building trembled from the force of the water.

Cuevas and her fellow residents helped tie ropes or cords across the street so that the people on the other side could hang on as they waded through the rushing water. They then made it up the stairs and some 20 people spent a sleepless night in her second-floor apartment and the apartment above.

Amparo Cerda, Cuevas' upstairs neighbor, described herself as traumatized by her memories of the fury of the waves and the sound of “doors exploding” from the water’s force.

It was as if their building had become a ship lost in a storm at sea in the pitch black night.

“There were waves in the gorge, waves in the street below where the water came in the other direction and ran into the water coming from the gorge," Cuevas said. "So right here, at this corner, just where the houses fell down, the two currents hit and produced terrifying waves.”

“When the daylight came we could see the damage,” Cuevas said. “We saw all the houses that had disappeared and there was a feeling of impotence because you didn’t know where to start looking for people.”

Five days have passed since that night of terror, and in Chiva and other localities, such as Paiporta, Barrio de la Torre, and Massanassa, citizens and volunteers are pitching in to clean up the mountains of debris and the thick brown layers of mud left by the water.

Five thousand more soldiers are arriving in the area this weekend to help the 2,500 already deployed. Thousands of police officers have also been sent in.

But for now it is the people themselves still leading the way.

“Now we need to clean up and try to get back to normal because there are more rains forecast for the weekend, and that won’t help," Cuevas said. "We are trying to get everything ready for when the rains comes back. Because they will.”