Uninhabited Japanese Island Offers Survival Adventures

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

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.



Tintin, Popeye, Hemingway Among US Copyrights Expiring in 2025

File photo: Thousands of artistic works will enter the public domain in the United States on Wednesday as copyrights expire, including Tintin. AFP
File photo: Thousands of artistic works will enter the public domain in the United States on Wednesday as copyrights expire, including Tintin. AFP
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Tintin, Popeye, Hemingway Among US Copyrights Expiring in 2025

File photo: Thousands of artistic works will enter the public domain in the United States on Wednesday as copyrights expire, including Tintin. AFP
File photo: Thousands of artistic works will enter the public domain in the United States on Wednesday as copyrights expire, including Tintin. AFP

From "A Farewell to Arms" to the cartoon character Popeye the Sailor, thousands of artistic works will enter the public domain in the United States on Wednesday.

US copyright law expires after 95 years for books, films and other works of art, while sound recordings from 1924 will also be copyright-free.

By entering the public domain, the pieces can be copied, shared, reproduced or adapted by anyone without paying the rights owner, AFP reported.

This year's crop includes internationally recognized figures such as the comic character Tintin, who made his debut in a Belgian newspaper in 1929, and Popeye the Sailor, created by cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar.

Every December, the Center for the Study of the Public Domain publishes a list of the cultural works that lose their copyright in the new year.

The center, part of the Duke University School of Law in the southeastern US state of North Carolina, makes the list available on its website for anyone to peruse.

"In past years we have celebrated an exciting cast of public domain characters: the original Mickey Mouse and Winnie-the-Pooh, and the final iterations of Sherlock Holmes from Arthur Conan Doyle's stories," center director Jennifer Jenkins wrote on its website.

"In 2025 copyright expires over more aspects of Mickey from his 1929 incarnations, along with the initial versions of Popeye and Tintin."

Among the literary works entering the US public domain on January 1 are the novels "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner, "A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway, "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf and the first English translation of "All Quiet on the Western Front" by the German author Erich Maria Remarque.

Films that will be in the public domain include "Blackmail," directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and "The Black Watch," the first sound film by Oscar-winning director John Ford.

Musical compositions published in 1929, such as "Bolero" by French composer Maurice Ravel and "An American in Paris" by George Gershwin, will lose their copyrights, though only recordings from 1924 or earlier will be in the public domain.