There's plenty of driftwood coming down the Bei Nan River - been down the last two days and there are bits of hinoki there but the competition for them is pretty keen. In fact the police were there and they'd busted a guy with his crane who'd hooked onto a couple of big hinoki trunks - they explained to me that the rule is (which is as i had already understood it) that if you can carry it away by hand, then it's ok, but you can't bring in cranes to haul it away. What i'm not clear on is whether you can find large bits, then cut them up with your chainsaw into 'carry away' sizes.

Whatever, there's a large amount of stuff that is suitable for legs, and that's of value to me, so have been stocking up.

Will be interested to know when it starts turning up on the beaches. The bulk of it is coming down the Bei Nan as it's source reaches into the central ranges. In theory, the current should carry it north once it gets into the sea and as such should start washing up on northern beaches over the coming days.