The people who
walk every trail
before you do.
Third-generation island-born guides. JMGA senior alpine certified. Zero turnover in four seasons. The proof behind every Yakushima SP departure since 2007.
Hirohide Arima was three years old the first time his grandfather carried him up the Jomonsugi ridge.
His grandfather, a cedar cutter, taught his father, who taught him — not in classrooms, but on the trail, in the rain, in the patient hours between waypoints where a guide reads weather the way a sailor reads tide. In 2007, after twelve years apprenticed to the island's senior guides, Hirohide opened Yakushima SP from a single converted room above the Miyanoura fish market, with three guides (himself included) and a battered 1998 Toyota HiAce that still runs the airport transfer today.
Eighteen seasons later, the room above the fish market is now a restored 1932 cedar lumber house, the HiAce has been joined by three biofuel minivans, and the three guides have become eleven — every one of them born on the island, every one trained through a three-year in-house apprenticeship Hirohide wrote himself. No guides have been hired from outside Yakushima. None have left in the last four seasons.
"I do not believe a guide who was not raised under these cedars can be trusted with a guest on the Jomonsugi ridge in a September typhoon," Hirohide says, in the only meeting room in the house — a long cedar table he built from a single felled cryptomeria. "Patience cannot be learned in a season. It is inherited."
Four guides lead every standard departure. Each has walked the route a hundred times before they lead it with you.
Every guide profile below is staffed against this season's departure calendar. Tenures are current as of spring 2025.
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No. 01 — Lead Guide Tokuo Arima
Lead Guide · Jomonsugi SpecialistHirohide's elder brother and the only Yakushima guide to hold dual certification as a senior alpine specialist from both the Japan Mountain Guides Association and JMGA. Tokuo has led 41 of the last 42 Jomonsugi summit attempts to a successful finish. His reading of cloud cover over the 1,300 m ridge is, in the words of one returning guest, "the closest thing to a guarantee this mountain has."
- Cert. JMGA Senior Alpine Specialist · Japan Mountain Guides Association Senior Alpine
- Tenure 14 yrs (joined 2011)
- Routes Jomonsugi · Yakusugi · Western Ridge · Oku-Mine
- Speaks Japanese · English
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No. 02 — Wildlife & Botany Lead Sayaka Morimoto
Wildlife & Botany Lead · Wilson's Stork Permit HolderBorn in Anbo, apprenticed under Hirohide for three years before taking her first solo departure in 2014. One of only two guides on Yakushima permitted by Yakushima Town to lead the four-season Wilson's Stork and Yakushika observation routes. Trained as a botanist before she ever carried a pack; her morning ecology briefings are the most cited reason return guests give for rebooking.
- Cert. Yakushima Town Wildlife Observation Permit · B.Sc. Botany, Kagoshima University
- Tenure 11 yrs (joined 2014)
- Routes Wilson's Stork (4-season) · Yakushika · Coastal Cedar
- Speaks Japanese · English · French
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No. 03 — Coastal & Multi-Day Lead Kenji Tani
Multi-Day & Coastal LeadA former harbour master at Miyanoura port, Kenji knows the island's western shoreline — its tide windows, its cedar groves that meet the sea, its rain patterns in October — the way most guides know the mountain. He joined the SP roster in 2016 after three seasons as a freelance porter; he has not missed a departure since. The quietest voice on the team, and the one guests most often ask for by name on the second booking.
- Cert. JMGA Mountain Guide · YA First Aid Wilderness Responder
- Tenure 9 yrs (joined 2016)
- Routes Coastal Cedar · Western Ridge · 5-Day Grand Circuit
- Speaks Japanese · English
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No. 04 — Apprentice-Master & Spring Sakura Lead Mio Arima
Apprentice-Master · Spring Sakura LeadHirohide's eldest daughter, the first guide in the family to formally inherit both the certification and the apprenticeship textbook. She returns to the SP roster this season after two years secondment to a Nagano ski patrol, bringing what Hirohide calls "the only formal avalanche response training on the island." Leads every March–April sakura-season departure, and runs the team's three-year apprentice intake.
- Cert. JMGA Mountain Guide · Avalanche Level II (Nagano) · Apprentice-Master (in-house)
- Tenure 6 yrs (joined 2019; returned 2025)
- Routes Sakura Cedar · Jomonsugi · Apprentice Intake Lead
- Speaks Japanese · English · conversational Mandarin
"By the third morning I had stopped thinking of Tokuo-san as our guide and started thinking of him as the mountain's translator. We had a typhoon advisory on day four and he sat us under a cedar for two hours and told us, in this unhurried voice, exactly what the cloud was doing and exactly what the cloud would do next. He was right. He has been doing this since his grandfather carried him up here. You can feel it — nothing performed, nothing rehearsed."
- 98.2%Jomonsugi summit completion (5-yr avg.)
- 6guests max per departure
- 14:1industry average is 14 trekkers per guide
- 2007operating continuously, family-owned
Every guide above is staffed
against this season's departures.
Six guests per departure. Every route has been walked a hundred times by the guide who will lead it. Pick the season, pick the route — we will tell you which of these eleven is waiting for you at the trailhead.
Or speak directly to Hirohide's office in Miyanoura: +81 99-472-0118 · [email protected]