Wow, I can’t believe the day has come! One more bike ride, one more packing my stuff together, having breakfast on a campsite here in Kyushu. But what day was it going to be? The weather forecast said rain, not just a little bit, a lot! And not only for a few hours, all day, here and in Fukuoka, with the rain steadily getting heavier towards the end of the day.
This was not how I had imagined my last day of cycling in Kyushu to be but I also acknowledged that I was very lucky that I only had like 2-3 days rain in 3 weeks of cycling, with one being spent stationary in Nobeoka and the other 2 days with just a little bit of rain. I was still awfully unprepared for serious rain, none of my cycling jackets can bear more than an hour of rain before being soaked, the same can be said for my “rain trousers” and overshoes. They were all pretty useless in the conditions I’d face today. There was only one thing to do, find a local building supplier and get some rain gear.
I woke up with the sound of rain drops hitting my tent. Here it was, the big cycle back. I braved the rain and got up at 7am, put all my stuff under the little wooden pagoda next and had breakfast: a cucumber, 2 tomatoes, 2 mange tout, 2 oranges and some green tea from the vending machine. Healthy but not substantial breakfast, but it had to be enough. I wonder what my weight will be by the end of the cycle as I tried eating healthy throughout the journey but the sustained exercise definitely had an impact on my “fat reserves”. I used a temporary switch from rain to drizzle to pack up my tent, my bags and set-off to the next building supply store. It was only a few kilometres away and today was Saturday, so I hoped there will be fewer cars and especially lorries.
Sadly my cycling shorts didn’t dry overnight, despite wrapping them in a dry towel. The other cycling shorts were useless and without cycling shorts it’s not a ride I wanted to attempt. Ok, into the wet cycling shorts we go and off to the building supply store. Luckily my body warmed up and almost dried the shorts in the few kilometres or at least it wasn’t too uncomfortable. After some browsing of the aisles in the large building supply store I found them, rain coats, rain suits, rain jackets and wellies! I picked a trouser/jacket combo that I thought would serve me for today, including some cheap wellies, knowing that eventually I’ll get wet from inside and out, especially after the first uphills. I spent ¥3,700 (£23) for the rain combination and wellies. This turned out to be a great investment! I put everything on straight away and it felt pretty solid and I was happy seeing the rain form little pearls on the jacket and trousers as I got going, this was good news!
My next stop was a Lawson or 7eleven, whatever came first. I had to stock up on some drinks and I was already hungry again. I bought 2 rice balls, one for now and one for later, some more green tea and then it was go, go, go - Fukuoka here we come! I hadn’t done a full day in the rain so the experience was still weird. I had to take off my good-mood-orange-sunglasses as they steamed up after some time, the same as with any other glasses so it was my first day riding without. Luckily the rain jacket had a see through hoodie at the front so I could pull it down into my face and ride without glasses, something I never do as there’s too much shit you get hit with when cycling, from flies to dirt. To my surprise my earphones still worked, despite their cold-wash with my trousers yesterday. They didn’t work in the evening but I put them next to the Wi-Fi router and battery pack, which warm up when charging. This seems to have done the trick and both worked again in the morning. This was a gift in itself as cycling in the rain without music isn’t so much fun, cycling without music generally. I put on an electronic music playlist to keep me company as the kilometres melted under my tires.
The first 30 kilometres went by relatively quickly, sometimes a bit fiddly as I had to stop often to check my phone, which also got wet every time I took it out of its waterproof holster on the handlebar. I had to keep checking for routes that were off the main roads as traffic was still bad enough and there were still many lorries on the road, with many drivers who still couldn’t care less about cyclists, just like on any other day and this despite my two rear lights and bright yellow flashing backpack cover. Oh well, I just needed to work around the main roads. This worked for most part of the first half of the journey but eventually it was up into the mountains again, no matter which road I chose.
By now, my rain jacket and trouser had lasted a good 3h and the wellies proved indispensable, as they kept my feet dry and warm but they too gave up at some point, whether from the under splash of rain water from the bike, puddles or sweat running down into them, or a combination of everything. The trousers didn’t quite go down far enough over the shoes, despite them being the longest size they had. It was no use, I had to make my first stop to de-water my shoes and wring out my socks as the slushy feeling of water in my shoes didn’t make me feel good and it got cold more quickly than just being damp. This procedure would repeat itself 3 more times over the next few hours as the rain got heavier and heavier.
I reached the mountains towards Fukuoka and the uphill battle began. I was used to it by now, switched into first or second gear and just kept going. Everything was wet now, my hands looked like I was in a swimming pool for too long, the same with my feet. Everything else was completely soaked too. I was about 22km away from Fukuoka and still in the mountains when I made a quick stope at a roadside station. Most people looked at me in disbelief throughout the day but I don’t think they were ready to see some Westerner take of his socks and shoes to turn them over so the water can run out, followed by some squeezing of socks and putting everything back on. Oh well, I couldn’t care less. I just had to keep going!
Then followed the first of two big downhills! Yes, we like downhills! But Japan had other plans - one last time it would throw everything it had at me, with the rain intensifying to a point where I could barely see through the rain jacket visor and the wind became a gale that wanted to throw me off my bike. The bicycle-hating Ministry for Transport also had the final word in the way they designed the mountainous roads with deep ruts in the road along the width of the road around corners, which made my bicycle wobble as the tyres couldn’t stay in between and neither on them; on top of that, the road markings were raised as to force cars to slow down, especially in corners of this downward slopping road and the strip next to the road was unusable, so I had to stay on the car lane, wobbling downhill - But the human-bike-machine could not be stopped, slowed down maybe, but not stopped!
This was the most treacherous cycle experience in the whole of the 3 weeks as the combination of rain, road conditions and strong winds sometimes forced me to a near halt. This continued for another 30min as I also managed the second up-and downhill, only to be greeted by road signs of Fukuoka being 12km away. Yes! We are so close.
Being back in a main city made me fight with some more “pretend cycle pathways” that either ended in nowhere, being blocked off by a building or with too frequent interruptions as Japan just doesn’t do cycle lanes, with driveways interrupting the so-called-cycle-lanes every few meters through lumpy ups and downs. This meant back onto the main road, with everyone else as I was getting uncomfortable in my wet clothes by now. My thighs were hurting, my fingers numb, my feet cold. Just…a …few…more..kilometres…
I turned on turn by turn navigation on screen as I couldn’t be asked to take the phone out of its case every hundred meters as google gets confused being a cyclist, using the pedestrian setting and I had enough battery to just keep the screen on. There it was, Fukuoka City and just 2 more kilometres to the hotel that I booked last night, one of the few hotels with reasonable room rates available, as it was already Golden Week, or the weekend preceding it and everywhere was busy. It had to be done. There was nothing I wanted more than a hot bath and dry clothes.
I found the hotel relatively quickly but I couldn’t bring myself to go to reception looking like a wet poodle. I felt so uncomfortable as it was, that I found the hotel rear entrance and changed from my soaking wet clothes into dry ones, quick emptying of the wellies which were full of water again and I was ready to check-in at 2.55, perfect timing as I could go straight to my room. I had the best bath ever but it took my feet over 10 minutes to warm up. Eventually I found out there was an in-hotel onsen, laundry facilities and vending machines! Perfect! I did some much needed laundry, turned the dehumidifier in the room to maximum as my jackets were still wet, as well as most of my bags. Time for some tea and rest.
It has been done, circumnavigating Kyushu in 3 weeks and over 1,200 kilometres! What a ride, especially today, with Japan testing my resolve one final time. I still couldn’t believe it as I was laying there staring at the ceiling that this was it, no more camping, no more cycling… but onsens, there was still one more thing to do: Check out the onsen as my clothes were washing and drying, which took about an hour. I changed into the hotel Yukata, and headed down so I could soak my muscles one more time. The high-tech onsen scale told me 78.5kg, which meant that I lost some 7-8kg over the last 3 weeks, whilst gaining muscle mass and losing fat. I can’t remember a time in the last 5 years that I felt as good as now, physically and mentally, which means my body was quite happy with this change of diet and exercise regime, surely something to keep up?
The rest of the evening was spent eating celebratory ramen, with desert and obligatory visit to Starbucks for some blog writing as Fukuoka descended into a wet mess thanks to some more torrential rains here.
This is the end, my friend!
Blown by fierce winds,
I am the waves that crash
upon your impervious rock.
Though my heart shatters,
my love rages yet.
