Sumiyoshi (Tinian) Shinto Shrine - February 23, 2008

Again we were off to try to find the latte stones above the Sumiyoshi Shinto Shrine. This shrine is now called the Tinian Shrine. But as was pointed out for the January 5, 2008, hike, the real Tinian Shinto Shrine was near the current Catholic church in San Jose. On this hike there were six of us. This time I was sure we would find the latte stones because I had found them a week and a half ago, and marked their position on my GPS.

We started at the shrine as always. One of the first things you will notice is the large piga, Alocasia indica, going at the base of the shrine. This plant was most likely grown by the ancient Chamorros for food. To find out more about ancient Chamorro agriculture, click this link, but be warned this is a pdf file. This area located at the end of a drainage for the cliff area above, and has fairly deep rich soil. In the picture below, Erica stands next to the large piga plants.

A visit to the shrine is always called for on any hike near it. So the group headed up the path to the top of the shrine. In the picture below are Masa, Stacy, Mitch, Judy and Erica standing under the torii gate that marks the entrance to the Shinto shrine.

At the top of the Sumiyoshi Shinto Shrine is a small house. In the picture below Masa is leaving an offering of rice and salt, which is a traditional Japanese offering. From what I have read, salt is used for purification and rice is offered in prayer to the Shinto deities. Masa did this offerings at other places where Japanese soldiers may have died on this hike.

After visiting the shrine, we set off to find the latte site. The jungle near the shrine is some of the thickest jungle that I know about on Tinian. When I first arrived on Tinian, I visited this Shinto shrine. I wanted to see what the jungle looked like near it. So I set off to do a little exploring. Within ten minutes, I was so turned around that I didn't know where the shrine was any more. It took me another hour to find my way out. The picture below shows how dense the jungle can be in this area.

As we walked upslope toward the latte site, there is an old Japanese road that cuts across the slope. The base of the trees, in the picture below, are growing on the road bed. The slope above this road is very steep.

As you walk up hill, the jungle does open up a little bit, but is still fairly dense. The picture below was taken as we walked up the slope from the road pictured above. You can tell from this picture how steep the slope is.

A short distance above the old overgrown road is the latte site. This site is heavily overgown. Below is one of the larger pillar stones at this site, which has a nunu (banyan) tree growing on it. This stone is about seven feet tall. This is a fairly large latte stone and is part of a group of at least 14 stones, in two parallel rows of seven stones each, at this site.

The next two pictures below show another one of the pillar stones. The second picture shows me standing next to the stone.


Most of the pillar stones in this group were knocked over. Below is a picture of one of the down pillar stones.

The picture below is a capstone for the pillar stones pictured above.

Just to give you an idea of how overgrown this site is, the picture below does have a down pillar stone in it. It is right in the middle of the picture. Because of the overgrown nature of this site, it was very difficult to get a true idea of its size.

Right in front of the latte site pictured above, there is a second set of latte stones. These were shorter stones, maybe four feet high. Below is a picture of one of the pillar stones in this second site. I really did not count the number of stones, but most likely there are eight stones at this site.

The picture below shows how close these two sites are to each other. Below the whitest-gray stone, in the smaller of the two sites, is right in front of one of the downed stones from the larger latte site.

The picture below shows Stacy standing next to one of the smaller pillar stones at the second site.

After visiting the latte site, we continued south below the top of Carolinas Plateau. I can't say we really followed the bottom of the cliff, since in a lot of places there was not a cliff but a very steep slope.

As we walked south we came upon a patch of snake plants, Sansevieria trifasciata. These plants usually indicate a place where the Japanese had a settlement since they were commonly planted around buildings for ground cover. In the picture below Stacy and Erica are walking though the snake plant.
Just past the snake plants, we ended up on the top of plateau. The top of Carolinas Plateau used to be a cattle ranch for MDC (Micronesian Development Corporation). There are still fences running across it, that marked the old pastures. Most of these fences are in disrepair now. Below, in the picture, is a large corner post for one fence lines that used to run right at the edge of the plateau. This post was one of the markers I used for this hike, since I used it to tell me when to head back down the slope to the Shinto shrine on our return.

There are some small cliff areas near the latte site. They are not very high, maybe 10 feet or so, and do not run very far before just becoming a steep slope. In two of these cliff areas, we found Japanese shelters from World War II. Below is a picture of the first shelter with a stone wall that we found. It might have been large enough to hold two or three soldiers.

The picture shows one of the steep slope we had to cross between the cliffs. In the steep slope areas are a series of fox holes. The picture below does not show any fox holes but it does show how difficult it was to walk on these slopes because of the steepness and thick undergrowth.

Pictured below is the second shelter we found. It was much larger than the first one. Judy is just starting to come around the stone wall that helped to protect the entrance to the shelter in the picture. This shelter may have held between 5 to 8 men during World War II.

We continued south for a short distance past the shelter pictured above. The vines started to get thicker, because fewer trees were blocking the sunlight from reaching the ground. It was getting more and more difficult to travel through the jungle. But, at one point we did get a great view of San Jose Village, as is shown in the picture below. The dock area can clearly be seen in the picture below.

Because the undergrowth was getting thick, I decided it was time to head back to the shrine. I really did not want to follow our trail back, so I headed up the slope to the top of Carolinas Plateau, where I hoped the walking would be easier.

As we climbed to the top of the Carolinas, I almost walked in to the boonie bee nest pictured below. I felt a bee hit me in the chest and backed up real fast. Luckily that bee did not sting me. We carefully walked around this nest and no one got stung.

Below is a close up the the bee nest pictured above, after the bees had settled down once they got over me disturbing them.

Once we got to the top, the walking was a lot easier. We sort of followed an old fence line that ran north-south. I tried to avoid open fields, like the one picture below, because lantana, Lantana camara, grows in these open areas. This plant is poisonous and has small spines that are really irritating. They get under the skin and are hard to get out. Also scratches from this plant can take a long time to heal, and be irritating for three or so days afterwards.

After awhile, we found the fence post, which I mentioned above, and walked back through the snake plants to the latte site. We happened to come out a little below the latte pillar stones, but there were many capstones in this area. Most likely they rolled down the slope from the latte site, which is about 50 feet above the capstones.

It was back down the steep slope to the shrine. The picture below was taken just above the old road that was discussed above. It was really steep as you can see from how how Stacy and Judy are going down it.

Right now, it is the dry season, and for animals water becomes crucial. During the dry season, we may not get rain for 3 or 4 days in a row. If there is no rain for two weeks, it is considered a drought. The reason for this is that Tinian is a raised limestone island. Any water that falls on it drains very quickly through the soil and into the aquifer. Water puddles after a heavy rain (2 or 3 inches) rarely last more then a day.

Because of the dryness, animals have to find ways to get water. In the picture below a hermit crab is getting some moisture from an injury in a coconut tree. I really don't know if coconut crabs caused the injury or are they just taking advantage of it. It would be an interesting research project for some tropical biologist to learn how different animals get water during the dry season.

Finally we made it out of the jungle and back to the shrine. The picture below shows Mitch and Judy as they leave the jungle.

So we finally found the latte site above the Sumiyoshi (Tinian) Shinto Shrine. The problem is that it is not the one that I remember finding last spring. The latte stones had found with Dan, Aruika and John, last spring, were much shorter (may 2 or 3 feet high), with a larger set of stones very close to the top edge of the plateau. I will have to do some more hiking in the next month to see if I can find the other site I think is in this area to see if I can find the other site I remember. Well, at least we finally made it to some latte stones!

As always, I would like to thank Mitch and Judy for the additional pictures in this posting.

The boonie bee count for this hike was zero, none, zip. No one got stung. There were a few close calls, but we got lucky this time.

The next hike will be to the Lake Hagoi area at North Field. I want to look for the old Okinawan village that used to be on its west side. It has been over 10 years and many typhoons since I have been to this site. Once we find the village, we will walk all the way around the lake, most likely not seeing it at all because of the pago and tall reed that grows on its edge. Be prepared for bees since a lot of this hike will be through tangangan forest. Meet at 8 A.M., on Saturday, March 1, at Grace Christian School.

Everyone Is Welcome On These Hikes.

Tachonga Hike - January 12, 2007

On January 12, four of us set off to explore the area south of Tachonga Beach. I had been in this area a lot over the years, but have never gone past the dumping site that can be seen on the cliff line south of the beach. Today, we were going to explore the area to the south of the dumping platform.

In the picture below, you can see Judy, me and Erica as we set off from Tachonga Beach. Tachonga Beach is one of the best beaches on Tinian and where most of the tourists hang out.

At the start of this hike, we walked along the beach toward the south, until the sand ends. At this point, we headed into the jungle to find a great latte site. In the picture are Erica, Mitch and Judy just before we headed into the jungle. You can also see the white sand that makes up Tachonga Beach.

In the picture below is Mitch sitting on an ancient Chamorro grinding stone. The Chamorros were one of the few cultures to grow rice in Micronesia. These stones could have been used to grind rice or other plant material. Most of these stones are basalt and had to be imported from the Northern Islands, since basalt is not found naturally on Tinian.

As always, everyone was taking pictures. If you look carefully in the background, on the left side of the picture, in front of Mitch's head, you will see a latte pillar stone standing in the jungle.

After visiting the grinding stone, we walked to the latte site that you can barely see in the picture of the grinding stone above. In the picture below, you can see Erica standing next to one of the pillar stones. Latte pillar stones are always found in two parallel rows. Each of the pillar stones had a capstone, which can been seen on the ground near the pillar stone on the left side of the picture below.

One of the pillar stones from the latte site in the picture above had been moved about 30 or 40 feet to the east of the site. The stone can still be found, but currently a large umumu tree is growing on it, as you can see in the picture below.

From the latte site, we headed back the way we came, for a little ways, before heading south through the jungle. As we followed an old trail, which I had cut through this area about three weeks ago, we came out upon an old Japanese property marker. It also had been flagged by a more recent survey of the area as shown in the picture below.

The first Japanese bunker was just past the flagged Japanese property marker. This bunker is made up of old railroad rails, thick sheets of metal, cement bags, and limestone rocks on top for camouflage. All of the hikers on this trip, Judy, Mitch, me and Erica, are sitting in front of this bunker in the picture below.

After this first bunker we headed toward the shoreline. The shore here is made up of eroded limestone, which we call moon rock here on Tinian. It is fairly difficult to walk on and you have to watch your footing carefully. In the picture below, Judy and Mitch are walking carefully over the moon rock.

The reason why I like to go toward the shoreline after the first bunker is that it makes it easier to find the next bunker. A notch has been carved in the cliff that leads to the bunker. This notch was carved by the Japanese to give a clear field of fire towards Tinian Town (now called San Jose Village). In the picture below, we are in the notch that leads to the bunker. I am right in front of the bunker, and just behind Erica's head you can see the gun port opening for the bunker.

Below is a picture of the gun port opening for the bunker in the picture above. In the picture below, you can see that it is partly covered by rocks.

In the picture below, Mitch is looking at the gun port in the bunker. The bunker is a vertical line on the left side of the picture, just to the right of the tree trunk.

In the picture below are Erica and my backpack on the top of the bunker, which is covered in a thin layer of leaves. The top of the opening to the bunker is at the bottom center of the picture below, but it is covered by large rocks and really hard to see.

After the large well preserved bunker, we continued through the jungle until we came to a sort of a clearing with sparse tangantangan trees growing in it. This was an old road way that led to an old dump platform. This platform was most likely used by either the Japanese or Americans to dump trash into the ocean, to be carried away by the current that flows off the reef in this area. In the picture below, you can see me standing on the platform while Mitch and Erica look into the gully that is on the north side of it.

One of the reasons why I like going to this platform is because of the great view of Tachonga Beach, San Jose Village and Goat Island that you can get from here. Also you can look safely over the edge into a really nice reef area, as Judy is doing in the picture below.

From the platform, we continued south along the coastline. This was a new area for me. As we walked along, we spent a lot of time walking through limestone forest and coastal strand communities. It would seem that Mitch and Erica had a swinging time of it, as shown in the picture below.

In reality, Mitch had found some great vines that were growing in a large umumu tree. We had a lot of fun posing for pictures with the vines.

There really was not much to see except some nice limeston forest, that varied with coastal strand and secondary forest of tangantangan. I kept on trying to get near the shore to try to tell exactly where we where. On one try to get to the shore, I happened to rip the seam out of one of the legs of my pants. This happened next to where we found some old truck tires in the jungle, which are in the picture below.

As we hiked in the jungle, we would spy butterflies every now and then. Below is a picture of one of the butterflies on a tree trunk. According to the Butterflies of Micronesia, by Schreiner and Nafus, this is male Hypolimnas bolina, the blue moon or common eggfly. According to Schreiner and Nafus, it is one of the most widely distributed butterflies in the Pacific.

Below is the same butterfly but with its wings closed.

After the tires and jungle, it was time to head back. As we walked back, I happened to notice a clearing in the jungle. It was an old roadway that used to go from the Dynasty Hotel and Casino to the cliff below Lookout on the south end of the island. This road is really overgrown and not used by vehicles any more. In the picture below are all of the hikers standing on the road. We didn't walk on the road but walked in the jungle next to it, where there was less grass and the going was easier.

Of course as we followed the road, we started to run into boonie bee nests. In the picture below, Erica is examining an old boonie bee nest. At least there were no bees on it to sting her.

We found another tire in the jungle as we walked back. This one looked like it had been there for a long time, like the other two tires that we had found earlier.

As we got near where we had started, the forest started to open up. I happened to come upon a bunker in the jungle, which is in the picture below. It was the first time that I had ever seen this particular bunker. As you can see in the picture, it looks like it was made of cement bags that supported a thick sheet metal roof.

Just a little more towards the shoreline was another bunker. It had a collapsed cement roof, as you can see in the picture below. It was not the first time that I had seen this bunker. Since I knew this bunker, I knew exactly where we where. We were just a little inland from the first bunker that we had found on this hike. So we walked down to the first bunker we had encountered on this hike, and followed the trail from it out to the beach.

Once we got back to the trail that led to the latte stone site, Judy suggested that we stay in the beach strand area and out of the sun as we walked back to the car. We all agreed and headed slowly back to the cars in the shade.

As we walked back, I happened to be talking about the butterflies that could be found on the hunek trees (Tournefortia (Messerschmidia) argentea). Judy happened to mention that she sometimes sees the butterflies on this tree too. So we took a careful look at one of the hunek trees and there were a lot the butterflies there. In the picture below, you can see the butterflies ganging up on a young shoot of the hunek tree. These butterflies are the males of Euploea eunice, the blue-branded king crow. The male butterfly visits the hunek tree to get chemicals to make a pheromone to attract the female butterfly (click here to see an article about the use of plant chemicals by butterflies to make pheromones).

Below is a closeup picture of the same butterflies as in the picture above.

The picture below shows the leaves and flowers of the hunek tree. The young leaves are edible and are fairly pleasant tasting. The leaves are also excellent defogger for diving masks. You just crush a little bit of the leaf and rub it on the inside of the mask. After that, you rinse the mask with water and you are ready for some fog free diving.

After the short walk back to the truck, it was short ride back to the village. Everyone had a pleasant time on this easy hike. Because I enjoy this hike, I do it fairly often. Read the October 15, 2007 for more pictures and another description of this hike.

As for the boonie bee count, it was only one, me again. I got stung on the shoulder and elbow as we walked back following the road. I also happened to get two large spines in my shoe as we walked from the large bunker to the dump platform. See the October 15th hike for more information about these spines.

I would like to thank the other hikers, Judy and Mitch, for helping in providing pictures for this posting.

The next hike will be to the Chiget cliff line. See the October 20, 2007, hike for information about this hike. This might turn into an all day hike, so bring a lunch and plenty of water. We will meet at Grace Christian School at 8 AM on Saturday, January 19.

Everyone is welcome to join on these hikes.