Japanese Jellies: Hike to Maeda point

It is a pleasant hour's hike from my house, south along the coast, to Maeda point.

The beach found below my house, is actually one of the prettiest I've seen so far. It's far from any hotel, and mainly used by local fishermen, so although the seafloor is rather destroyed and without much more interesting than a few sea cucumbers, the beach itself is beautiful, with large accumulations of shells and coral rubble along the high tide line.

After a second beach a little to the south, the road curves inland, while a small hiking path winds up along the edge of the cliffs leading to Maeda point.

The path was quite overgrown in parts, but that merely provided even more flowers for the armies of butterflies flitting around.

It is hard to believe we are in mid-october, with flowers the side of your palm along every hedge, and butterflies larger even than that.

After several bends through overgrown hibiscus, the path leads out onto the cliff edge, dried by the wind and sun, and overlooking the white and turquoise of the surf on the reef.

From here, the earth finally loses to the forces of nature, and the whole promontory at Maeda point is nothing but sharp craggy basalt rock, with some tidal pools left over from the last typhoon, and a couple lonely springs of green, peeping out from crannies in the rocks.