Accuracy of my tablet’s GPS is bad. And app for recording is also too bad. So I decided to buy dedicated GPS Logger. I bought i-gotU GT-900Pro. It is watch type GPS logger.
No way to erase GPS logs? (I don’t know. There is a hard reset but it maybe erases configure.)
Accessory software is for Windows-only. gpsbabel cannot read data from this device. (It means hard to use in Linux)
I hope to contribute OpenStreetMaps. There is not enough data of some isolated islands. Google Maps is not enough too.
(Currently, OpenStreetMap is better than Google Maps in some islands. But not enough for some islands.)
By the way, it cannot used with gpsbabel. There is some software for i-gotU series supporting Linux.
Former is GUI program written in Java. Latter is too old and maybe not working with GT-900Pro which is newer model. (And it could not build in my environment)
Probably there is no CLI program working with GT-900Pro.
So I wrote a small CLI program in Python. It can be downloaded in my Mercurial repository:
Last Sunday, I visited Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park (東京港野鳥公園: Tokyo-kou Yachou Koen).
This park is in Oi Pier area. It’s near from Ota Market.
In this park, there is artificial tideland and a lot of birds in there. Also there are some huts and a visitor center for watching birds.
This park is not famous. So a small number of people is in there.
It is 300 yen for an entrance fee of this park. You can
You can visit here with walking 15 min from Ryutsu Center Station of Tokyo-Monorail. But it is a little far. So visiting with car or taxi is good choice.
There are two areas in this park, West Area (small) and East Area (large). When I visited, there are just few birds in West Area. But there are many birds in large East Area.
Birds in the park
Spot-billed duck standing on one leg and resting.
Duck taking the bait desperately.
Grey heron
Two Japanese cormorans
Japanese cormoran standing on a stake. It has a little creepy colored eyes…
Little ringed plover. It runs very fast. It is difficult to take photos.
Great Egret
A small crab. There is soooo many crabs in the tideland.
By the way, recently, Kingfishers seems to have come back to central Tokyo area.
I could not find it in this park, but there are some in Mizumoto Park in Katsuchika-Ku.
I want to go there next time.
Anyway, Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park is good place for bird lovers.
This island is in complex terrain area at Shima city. There is two road bridges and a railroad bridge between this island and the mainland. So this island do not looks like island. There is a lot of buildings like an aquarium (Shima Marine Land), resort hotels , sea-food restaurants and Pearl shops.
Not only this island, but also this area is famous place for pearls.
A port at Kashiko-shima. There is ships for Masaki-shima, Goza, and so on.
The railway station of Kintetsu.
Maruyama park. There is memorial tower for pearl oysters.
Monument at Maruyama-park. Apparently this is for praising an inventor of cultured pearls.
A memorial tower of pearl oysters.
Masaki-jima (間崎島)
This island is also in cove at Shima city. It looks like connected with the mainland at first sight, but actually it is isolated.
It looks good place for sea bathing. There is facilities like lavatories and showers. The beach is clean and smooth sea because this island placed in a cove.
Also it is good place for walking, but there is only few rest places and promenades. It’s a little disappointing.
Overview of island from the beach. Clean beach. Good place for sea bathing
“Ship for Masaki-jima. There is no passengers other than me.
There is only a hut.
A vending machine.
This building had been used as elementary school. It is not being in use now.
First cat in Masaki-kima
Second cat
A canopy of greenery and a couple
Dead end of main way. There is nothing.
Shiono-misaki (潮岬)
This is not an island. This is a cave. But I visited for looking a lighthouse.
This cape placed at the southern tip of Kii Peninsula.
Shionomisaki lighthouse
A raccoon dog. They say there is a lot of raccoon dogs in Kii Peninsula. But I saw a raccoon dog for the first time.
Tomoga-shima, Okino-shima (友ヶ島・沖ノ島)
This is at west side of Kii Peninsula. There is some island in there. They are called “Tomoga-shima”. I visited “Okino-shima” in “Tomoga-shima” islands.
Basically it is an uninhabited island. But there is campsites and some old hotels (Probably they have not been in business).
A ship for Okino-shima. There is many passengers./caption]
[caption id="attachment_1862" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Overview from north of island.
This island is tourist attraction
There is a umino-ie (resting place). I’m not sure it is in bussiness or not.
Beach. A bit too many garbages.
A old-hotel.
Remains of a gun battery
Remains of a gun battery
Tomogashima lighthouse
A wild deer or something
Remains of an observation post of old japanese navy
From inside of the remains
A distant view of Tomogashima lighthouse
A rader for flights or something.
The third remains of gun battery. This is looks like Saru-shima at Yokosuka.
An slanting fault. Probably this is a part of the JMTL
A distant view
That’s all.
In this touring, I visited some islands around Mie Pref. and Wakayama Pref.
Sugashima is also an island in Mie, but I have visited it before, so I had passed it in this trip.
I have visited 89 island. It’s just a bit more till 100 islands!
In Japan, there is a large fault system named “Japan Median Tectonic Line (JMTL)”. A lot of rises in there, also many small islands in there.
So I traveled island around JMTL in Kii Peninsula.
I traveled with my motorcycle. I went to Irago-misaki, and go around Kii Peninsula. The route is (Tokyo) – (Irago-misaki) – Kamishima – (Toba) – Tojishima – Sakatejima – Kashikojima – Masakijima – (Shiono-misaki) – Tomogashima – (Nagoya) – (Tokyo).
As an aside, I ran Meihan-Kokudo on way back (famous road as frequent car accidents). It was scared a little.
Kami-shima (神島)
An island in ahead of Irago-cape. It’s the gateway of Ise-wan.
This island is the setting of a novel “Shiosai” written by MISHIMA Yukio. I don’t know detail about him.
Overview of Kami-shima from an ferry between Irago and Toba.
A ship to go to Kami-shima.
“Sentaku-ba (Washing place)” in the village. There is many houses in this small area. So it’s very narrow. An stairway in this picture is way to lighthouse.
Kami-shima lighthouse. The gold plate says “Holy place for lovers”.
Kami-shima Kanteki-Sho Ruins (神島監的哨). These had been buildings for observing test firing from Irago. They had watched points of impact from here.
The village.
A building looks like monster or something. Probably no person living in this.
Toji-shima (答志島)
The island near from Toba which is famous tourist resort.
Apparently they have doing movement for making bridge from toba (This signboard says “The hope of all of us, Building bridge of Toji-shima”). Surely this is not unrealistic because this island is so close from Toba.
“Kubi-zuka” (means mound of a head) in small mountain near from the port. It is said that there is KUKI Yoshitaka’s head in here, who committed suicide in here.
This is “Dou-zuka” (means mound of a trunk). There is also KUKI Yoshitaka’s trunk in here. Sadly his head and trunk are splitted different mounds. Maybe some reasons there.
“Chiarai-ike” (means pond for washing blood).
Pure water and clean beach.
“Kaniana-kofun” (an ancient tomb). I could not recognize where is the tomb because this is not typical “kofun”. (See also: Kofun at wikipedia)
An island of Yahata shrine. It is connected by footbridge.
The time of departure of group of fishing boats.
Around Wagu fishing port (in Northern part of the island). Kubi-zuka and Dou-zuka are in small mountains in center part of this picture.
This is around Momotori fishing port (Southern part of the island).
A distant view of Shimagasaki lighthouse. I couldn’t go near because no time to go.
JMSDF’s vessel anchored. There is many kinds of ships in Irago-suido (Sea area aroung Irago-misaki).
A ferry with a clane. Looks like useful.
Sakate-jima (坂手島)
This is an island near toba too. Small island.
Overview of Sakate-jima village.
In the village. Almost ways in this village are very narrow like this. Apparently some of them use mopeds. But I thought it is difficult to go with mopeds…
Ayame-ike (irises pond). There was so many flags written “Ayame festival”. They say May is the iris season.
Ayame.
This signboard says “(Do not trash here.) DO NOT TRASH NYLON. I BEG YOU PLEASE.”.
There is many signboards like it in this island. Maybo so many nylons have dumped. Is it used in fishing or something?
A cat in Sakate.
A building for a water service. Undersea pipe for sending drinking water from Toba have connected here. Isolated islands, particularly small islands often faces difficulties of securing drinking water. Many of them have depended on sending pipes like this.
A gray heron aiming something. Later, it flyied away without capturing anything.
