Imagine a roughly circular granite island 12 kilometres in diameter which rises to a series of peaks approaching 2 kilometres above sea level, the highlands of which receive, on average, 8,000 milimetres of rain a year (yes, that's 8 metres of rain annually). You'd expect the water and the rock to come to some pretty interesting arrangements over the millennia. On Yakushima they most certainly have, and negotiations are vigourously ongoing.

[Posted to: The Good]