Hirauchi Kaichu onsen, the tidal pool in which the man and I were poaching, is on Yakushima, an island whose cedar forest earned a spot on Unesco's World Heritage List (and was the inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki's anime classic "Princess Mononoke").

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And so kerosene, limestone, cedar, deep forest and wet leaves are the aromas of my deep familiar, of a place and a time where I was content and safe, unfettered by the obligations of adulthood, free.

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