放浪
日本の自然世界遺産：白神山地と屋久島
When I first heard the thunder crashing over me, I was convinced that the US air force had somehow mistook Yakushima for their proving ground in Okinawa and were involuntarily intending to bring "protection" (これは皮肉だぞ）to another corner of Japan. Normally I wouldn't confound a air strike with thunder but then again, normally when one hears thunder the sky is overcast and rain is at least in one's nostrils (雨の匂いがわからない人もいるらしいけど彼等にはこの気持ちを伝えることはちょっと無理だと思う) if not already streaming down one's face. The odd thing about Yakushima is that thunder tends to sound about 30 to 40 minutes before rain falls, if it falls at all.
Yakushima was the second (と言いながら二つしかない）natural world heritage area in Japan I visited over the summer. Earlier, in July, I was in Shirkami for almost a week.
It is easy to understand why UNESCO (国連のなかで世界遺産地域を勧める組織）was willing to designate both sites as world heritage areas. Both have outstanding nature and provide fine representations of "primitive" ecosystems.
In Shirakami, the group I was with saw only one other party the whole time we were there. After having explored a number of mountains in Japan, Shirakami was a breath of fresh air (色々な意味で). Trekking throughout the Japanese Northern Alps and less well known areas, I had come to expect the ubiquitous rubbish that littered the trails and choked the campsites. Shirakami was pristine. The only sign of man limited to a couple abandoned campfires and the occasional イワナ skeleton. One could actually drink the water joyfully gurgling down the 赤石川.
Yakushima definitely gets more use than Shirakami. Tourists come from far and wide （要するに東京か大阪）to meditate in the shadow of 縄文杉. I even met one American who insisted he had communicated with spirits at the base of the venerable tree one evening. Regardless of what one expects or what one experiences 縄文杉 certainly deserves all the hype it receives.
Yakushima is more than just giant cedars. It's mountains, hot-springs, water (fresh and salt), animals, canyons and everything else make anyone want to sound like a travel agent. Even with weather hardly predictable by the hour much less by the day, Yakushima was by far the most magical place I've set foot in.
That brings me to an interesting dilemma (いよいよ本番に入るぞ). How accessible do we want our world heritage areas? Although Shirakami and Yakushima are relatively isolated from any major metropolis, both sport nearby airfields and generally transportation to and from is not a major problem.
The core areas of the world heritage areas themselves should be a different story, i.e. access should be a major problem. In Shirakami, debate has been raging from it's inception as a world heritage area whether access should be increased, limited or curtailed altogether. The 秋田県 side wants to stop outside access whereas the 青森県 faction is for constructing Shirakami disneyland （ちょっと大げさかな).
The world heritage designation is a mixed blessing. The recognition of the sanctity of an area is the very thing which threatens to despoil it. Both Shirakami and Yakushima have seen a substantial increase in tourists and the revenue they create.
Until now the wilderness factor （道がないということ) has kept both areas relatively unscathed from would-be adventurers. Not only would roads lay open Shirakami and Yakushima to any yahoo with an automobile, they would substantially decrease the relative size of both areas.
After spending 5 days thrashing around the mecca (メッカと言っても一週間位で一人も会わなかった）of Shirakami, I climbed a nearby peak and was able to gaze upon not only where I'd been but the whole of the wilderness area Shirakami encompasses. I was doubly amazed at 1) how little I had actually explored and 2) how tiny Shirakami is. With a proper road someone could travel the expanse of the wilderness area in little over a hour, the same time it would take to go about 500 meters by foot.
Roads and their four wheeled henchman (自動車のこと）have done amazing things for mankind; chiefly, make us busier than ever. If that wasn't nefarious enough they have equally sucked the truth from the previously uncontested idiom, "It's not being there, it's getting there."
（日本語にすれば「旅は途中の風景を見るもの」).
Surveying the minuscule area I had explored in Shirakami from the 1000 meter + peak, I realized had the world heritage area contained any "improved" roads I probably would never have experienced the relaxation that the park lavished on me. I would have passed through Shirakami like I pass through the better part of the world, oblivious to it's charm...
