I want to be alone

'I want to be alone': Japanese man, 76, braves typhoons and biting insects living naked on tropical island (so long as he gets his weekly supply of rice cakes)

Remote spot is just a kilometre wide
Currents are so dangerous fishermen hardly ever cast nets in the area
'I've decided here is the place for me to die'


He rarely wears clothes and eats almost nothing but rice cakes but Masafumi Nagasaki says the small inhospitable Japanese island he chose to live on two decades ago is where he wants to die.

Where most people look forward to winding down when they retire, nothing was further from the mind of this sun-scorched 76-year-old who gives a new meaning to the term golden oldie.

In the early nineties Mr Nagasaki decided to shun mainstream society to set up base on the little island of Sotobanari, translation ‘Outer Distant Island’ to while out his final years.

The remote spot, which is just a kilometre wide, is in Japan's tropical Okinawa prefecture but is located closer to Taiwan than Tokyo.

It is a world away from a traditional retirement home in the sun. The currents that surround the kidney-shaped island are so dangerous local fisherman rarely cast nets in the area.

There is no natural water and since setting up home there Mr Nagasaki has had to brave powerful typhoons and biting insects.

Such difficulties have not deterred the wiry hermit who no longer wears clothes apart from for his once a week trip to a nearby island to pick up water and rice cakes with a small $120 donation sent from his family.

He said: 'I don't do what society tells me, but I do follow the rules of the natural world. You can't beat nature so you just have to obey it completely.

'That's what I learned when I came here, and that's probably why I get by so well.'

Ironically Mr Nagasaki says he spent years in the limelight working in the entertainment industry before he decided to get far away from civilisation.

His resolve was tested relatively soon into his stay when a massive typhoon swept through Sotobanari, removing most of the vegetation that he had relied upon for shade, as well as carrying away the simple tent he lived in.

'I just scorched under the sun,' he said. 'It was at that point I thought this was going to be an impossible place to live.'

For the first year he lived there he says he threw on clothes whenever boats passed his way, but slowly the island stripped away his embarrassment.

He added: 'Walking around naked doesn't really fit in with normal society, but here on the island it feels right, it is like a uniform. If you put on clothes you'll feel completely out of place.'

His staple food is rice cakes, which he boils in water, eating whenever hunger strikes - sometimes four or five times a day. Water for bathing and shaving comes from rain caught in a system of battered cooking pots.

Each day is conducted according to a strict timetable, starting with stretches in the sun on the beach. The rest is a race against time as he prepares food, washes and cleans his camp before the light fails and insects come out to bite.

It isn't the healthiest of lifestyles, he concedes - but that isn't the point.

'Finding a place to die is an important thing to do, and I've decided here is the place for me,' he said.

'It hadn't really occurred to me before how important it is to choose the place of your death, like whether it's in a hospital or at home with family by your side. But to die here, surrounded by nature - you just can't beat it, can you?'



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2131093/Sotobanari-hermit-Masafumi-Nagasaki-Japanese-man-76--lives-naked-tropical-island.html#ixzz1sOhfdjA9