Hello, I am Yoshi from NILS Japanese language school. Today’s topic is the World Heritage of Japan: Yakushima 屋久島.
Yakushima Island was one of the first sites chosen to be a World Heritage site in Japan together with Himeji Castle, Horyu-ji Temple and Shirakami mountain range in 1993. Although it is a small island located in the south of Kagoshima prefecture, it has many mountains more than 1,000 meters high, and 4,000 to 10,000 millimeters of rainfall annually, whichi created when the wet air blown from the sea hits the high mountains. The famous Jomon Cedar nutured by this abundant rainfall, is said to be about 4,000 years old.
Though Yakushima is a small island, because of its various types of climate, here one can observe about 70% of the plants that grow in Jpaan in addition to some unique species that only grow on the island. The climate coexisting on this one small island range from semitropical to subfrigid. Therefore, the island is called the “Galapagos of the Orient.”

June 26th News, from NILS Japanese language school.