Tomogashima Islands

I had a two day gap between my place in Kyoto and Osaka, so I sent out a Couchsurfing request for people to see. Kosuke responded that I could crash at his place for the weekend. I was going to do another capsule hotel, so I headed to his place outside Osaka instead. Kosuke is great guy, even more so to let a complete stranger stay at his place. We decided to go hiking, and when he told me about an island with old WW2 ruins I had to check it out.

Tomogashima is three small islands. The biggest had a military base that had big anti-aircraft cannon to defend Osaka from US bombers. Now there is only brick ruins and the places where the guns were, are now only circles in the ground. When we got there we were surprised at how many people were going to the island. There is only one small ferry, and we missed the first chance because it was full, and even more people were showing up. We got a ticket and went to kill some time at a local shrine. The shrine had a bunch of dolls all over the place. Kosuke tells me people don't want to throw them out because the doll has a kind of spirit or soul so they bring them to the shrine. Then every year they put them on small wooden boats and push them out to sea.

Finally the ferry arrives and we get on the island. There are two campsites and we made camp at the bigger one. We hiked most of the day trying to get see everything, and there is a lot to see. The ruins have rooms and tunnels underground that are pitch black. My camera does not like the dark, and would not take pictures even when the flash is on. Very frustrating, but there are some that went off. All day was a lot of up and downhill hiking and we trekked all over. At the end of the day there was a crazy consistent strong wind at the campsite. The tent was being blasted with wind and was half flattened. We moved the tent to one small area the wind was being blocked to be at least bearable. I never been in wind like that before let alone camp in it. Everyone else seemed to want to tough it out. Surprisingly we both slept well. The next day was all rain when we left, so the trip worked out perfectly.

What's in the window here?

Just a bunch of dicks.

You crawl through and make a wish. I barely fit!

In one of the dark tunnel with the flash on. Very muddy inside.

The pond area.

All the rooms connected inside. The ammunitions area.

Antiaircraft guns would have gone here.

This guy was walking around with his doll, out on a date with it.
I'm not even surprised anymore.