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TAIPEI, TAIWAN—Japan Today reports that a team of researchers traveled in a 25-foot-long dugout canoe approximately 125 miles from southeastern Taiwan to Okinawa over a two-day period using the stars, sun, and wind to navigate. The strong current known as the Black Stream is thought to have carried migrants along the same route to Japan some 30,000 years ago, based on artifacts discovered on the Ryukyu Islands in southwestern Japan. “The Black Stream carried the canoe and all we did was steer it a little,” explained lead paddler Koji Hara. Previous attempts to make the trip in boats made of bamboo and rattan and canoes made of straw were unsuccessful. For more, go to “Japan’s Early Anglers.”
