Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
From Mariyudo Falls the trail continues and in less than three-quarters of a mile (1 kilo-
meter), another 5-10 minutes, you'll come to a second waterfall, Kanpire Falls (
カ ンビレ
ーの滝
; Kanpirē-no-taki). Kanpire in local dialect translates as “Seat for the God,” or more
lyrically as “God's Throne.” Once again, you'll find lots of tourists by the water, swimming,
relaxing in the sun, having lunch or taking photographs.
At this point most people will turn around and head back the roughly 1.25miles (2 kilo-
meters) to the Gunkan-iwa dock. A few hikers, however, will continue on the cross- island
hiking trail about 12.5 miles (20 kilometers) to its opposite terminus near the mouth of
the Nakama River at Ohara Port. Although it is marked, there are some pretty rough trails,
with a lot of ups and downs. For most people the hike will take anywhere from six to eight
hours—and don't forget that you are supposed to register with the police (or at least let
someone know) before embarking on the hike.
For those returning to the dock, the boats generally wait until they have a sufficient group
of people, so if you miss one you'll catch the next. They then make the return cruise down
the Urauchi. The captain will usually have a few more comments and will again point out
any sights of interest. Including the cruise up and cruise down and the hike to both the falls,
count on at least three to four hours or half a day to make the Urauchi River trip.
After returning to the main dock near the Urauchi Bridge and the mouth of the river, you
can visit a little museum they have on the second floor of the ticket building. It has a collec-
tion of mounted insects, some so large you might not want to walk in the jungle again. It may
be best to check out this museum after your hike to the falls.
The 123456789 Meridian Monument (
子午線モニュメント
; Shigosen mony-
umento)
From man's earliest imes, cartographers, mathemaicians and mariners have been ploing the
Earth's distances, reckoning that geographic laitude starts at 0 ° on the Equator and runs horizontally
in circles of laitude to the North and South Poles at 90 °N and 90 °S, respecively. It wasn't unil
the 1884 Internaional Meridian Conference in Washington, DC, however, that most countries agreed
that the staring point for longitude—0 ° or the Prime Meridian—would be the Greenwich Royal Ob-
servatory near London. From there, geographic coordinates extend verically around the world unil
they end at 180 ° East and West. Both laitude and longitude are expressed in degrees, minutes and
seconds. Thus, any point on Earth can be expressed in a pair of degrees that uniquely ideniies its loc-
aion. The unique place where the Longitudinal Meridian of 123°45'6,789” E happens to pass through
is the western side of Iriomote near the villages of Sonai and Shirahama. The same meridian line con-
inues south through the Philippines, Indonesia and western Australia, and north through China, then
