Takanabe Marsh Land

At Takanabe Marsh Land (高鍋湿原 Takanabe Shitsugen), you can experience one of the area’s unique natural habitats. The marshlands here are only found in a few places in Miyazaki.

There are several areas of marshland, interspersed with small ponds.

A raised walk way winds around the plain, allowing a good view of the habitat without anyone having to get their feet wet.

In the middle of the plain is a suspension bridge which goes over an area of Takanabe’s dam.

Over 300 species of plants and many rare insects can be seen at the plain, in particular dragon flies. Pictured is a male scarlet skimmer dragonfly.

If you’re lucky you may catch a glimpse of a scarlet dwarf, the smallest species of dragonfly in Japan. It’s a symbol of Takanabe and the main attraction at the damp plain. Images and models of the scarlet dwarf can be found all over the park even if you don’t get the chance to see a real one.

Information about the plants and insects can be found in the building near the entrance.　

Takanabe Marsh Land is open March to October from 8:30AM to 5:00PM and is completely free to enter. It is also very close to Shikisai no Mura and Meirin no Yu onsen spa.

Isle of Wight - Yaverland, Sandown and Shanklin

A few weeks ago I went to the Isle of Wight with some old friends. I've lived near the Isle of Wight for over a year but this was the first time I'd actually been. We stayed in a B&B called Sandown Manor near Yaverland. The beach nearby is a good place for finding fossils although I didn't have much luck.


The B&B had a lot of animals in the garden including a shetland pony.

A donkey

and some ducks which chased us all over the place as you can see in this video.


On the first night we walked from Yaverland, through Sandown and on to Shanklin on a promenade that ran by the beach. The moon rising over the Yaverland cliffs was very beautiful.


The place we were trying to go to was the Fishermans Cottage pub at the edge of the cliffs in Shanklin. Unfortunately they stopped serving food just before we got there but we went back during the day and were impressed by its dramatic location.