Yesterday I joined a group of volunteers headed off to Nozaki, an uninhabited picturesque and hilly island about one hour away from Ojika by ferry. The town center of Ojika organizes these trips so that members of the community can help clean up Nozaki and keep it looking beautiful.
A regular ferry service is available from Ojika for 500 yen each way, 250 yen for children, and it leaves at 7:25 AM and 2:30 PM from the port. The ferry returns to Ojika at 8:00 AM and at 3:00 PM. This allows you to decide if you'd rather head to Ojika for a day trip, or camp out at the designated camping ground overnight. In addition, there is the option to have a private boat ride, which will cost 15,000 yen each way and can be reserved via the Ojika tourism office or by calling Island Inn Goen, who can arrange a trip with a local fisherman.
Nozaki is a place for many things: hiking, swimming at beautiful beaches, spotting local wildlife, outdoor photography, a religious pilgrimage, a day-trip featuring a picnic, or even camping! This place is also a very interesting spot to experience if you're someone who enjoys learning about the darker sides of history.
Long ago in Japan, Christianity was an illegal religion and those who followed it were persecuted. So, Japanese Christians who wanted to be able to openly practice their faith created hidden villages in order to have the highest chance of not being discovered. Nozaki island is one of these solaces for hidden Christians during this time. At it's peak, Nozaki Island had around 3,000 residents, but the last of them left the island in the late 1970's. This historical background, for me, created a much more deep and interesting experience in my time there. It truly made me think.
The island features striking landscapes, beaches, 400 deer, hiking trails, the stunning Nokubi church that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and many pieces of Christian imagery to be found if you pay attention. As the ferry arrived onto the island we saw the church in the distance as well as a white cross that stood out against the dark green foliage. This is a big contrast to the majority of spiritual sites in Japan, which are shrines and temples of Japan's two main religions; Shintoism and Buddhism. Scattered around the island are shrines and tori gates of these belief systems as well.
After a short introduction in the visitor's center we headed up a steep hill. Nozaki island's terrain is very irregular, allowing quick ascents to take in gorgeous views where the ocean takes up the majority of the panoramic view.
Our job was to help clear a staircase pathway that allows visitors to take a hike up a mountain to a viewpoint from the highest point on Nozaki. We cleared away rocks, plants, and dead leaves to create a better hiking experience for people who come to Nozaki for an adventure.
On the way to this path on top of the mountain we passed the ruins of the homes of the people who used to live here. Some of the wooden houses have completely collapsed, while the more durable homes - while in ruins - still have evidence of life inside, such as ancient futon mattresses still piled up in the cupboards.
We stopped for lunch and ate a very impressive bento box that was prepared by Ume, the chef at Island Inn Goen, in the old school building on Nozaki. The building has been well maintained and is quite large, which created an interesting place to imagine what life was like here long ago - because it's obvious that many, many children lived on Nozaki at one time. Knowing that people came to Nozaki in order to escape persecution for their religion, sitting inside the school truly makes you imagine all the individual stories of couples who came to Nozaki, and had children here.
After lunch we took a short walk to the famous Nokubi church atop a hill - the way it was perched there allowed the bright blue sky to be a perfect backdrop for it, and the colors complimented each-other in a lovely way. On this day we were lucky enough to be able to go inside the church, and experience the colors of the stain glass throwing rays of warm rainbows inside onto the pews. This church was originally built in 1908 but after falling into ruin, it has been renovated in remembrance of the families who used to take solace here.
After exploring the church, we headed back to the staircase and finished clearing the section of path we had been assigned to. Since we had quite a lot of time left before the ferry back to Ojika, we decided to climb the mountain that this path had launched us up onto. We were all quite exhausted after we got to the top, but the view was absolutely spectacular. It was equally breathtaking on the way down, when the landscape seemed to shift into something resembling an African savannah.
Shortly after we made it back to the port, we got back onto our boat and zoomed back to Ojika Island. It's not everyday that you get to take a voyage to an uninhabited island with such beautiful scenery and a rich interesting backstory, and none of us were expecting to end up climbing a mountain as well! We all certainly slept well that night, after a physical adventure that broadened our perspectives.
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