The day started, as usual, early at around 7am. I was awake like 3x in the night and I wonder if this interrupted sleep is doing anything to me. The first thing after crawling out of my tent was to take a dip in the ocean, this felt amazing and I think I’m overcoming my old beliefs that it’s not good to run around with salt water on your skin and not shower afterwards. I’ve been doing this now a few times and it doesn’t seem to faze me.
I had a lot of food left from the night before as I shopped thinking I’d have dinner in the tent. After some rice balls, veggies and strawberries, I wrote the blog, which took me an hour but helped me get ready for the day. I was only 4km or so away from the port that would take me off mainland Japan and onto an island called Shimoshima Island. It played a major role in the 15th and 16th century for Christianity in Japan to get a foothold.
I cycled to the port, got my ticket and was hanging out looking at my route across the island. Eventually the ferry turned up, I handed over my ticket a boarded. It was a car and passenger ferry and I had to board last with my mini lorry. The journey took about 30min and was super smooth. I realised too late that I could be charging my devices, all of which relied on my spare battery pack already.
It was a warm and sunny day, which meant I stayed covered with my long sleeve cycle shirt and a white towel wrapped across my neck to protect me from the sun. In hindsight I should have also worn long trousers as my thighs got a bit burned but I didn’t want another trouser or irritant on top of my cycle shorts to keep the saddle burn down to a minimum. Shimoshima island was surprisingly big and from one end to the other was some 55-60km depending on the route. I made a quick stop at a bakery on the road and had the most tastiest bread ever, it was a small, sweet loaf with a crusty top. Nothing special but this loaf would sustain me for most of the day as I kept nibbling on it.
After this brief stop, I took the high road across the island vs the coastal road, for a change, hoping that the hilly bit will also have some forrests that would protect me from the sun. But to get to that, it was 20km of flat roads along the coast with a headwind so strong that sometimes wanted to throw me off my bike. It was a serious and trying fight. This was a first gruelling 20km after which I entered the mountains, with the road then turning into the most rewarding cycle on this whole journey through Kyushu. I cycled through thick pine forest that shared their space with various leaf trees and of course huge bamboo. The road through the forest also included some steep uphills and smooth downhills. Eventually I was on a road that was so narrow that only one car could pass. The air was warm and I was protected from the sun; cycling at its best!!!
Eventually it was back onto a main road and the headwind was just as strong as before. I think I must have had headwinds now for 90% of the journey, sometimes more sometimes less, but always windy on coastal or general roads. The only protection seems to be in the steep mountains. Eventually I came to a long stretch on a new road with rice fields left and right, where I saw a car in front of me that stopped in a strange place. A man jumped out as I got close and waved me down only to hand me a warm bottle of team. That was just what I needed! I had a bit of water left but the green tea gave me a good boost for the rest of the journey. The kindness of strangers!
I made a stop around 10km from my final destination as I had spotted an Onsen on the map. I asked a local where it was who pointed me onto a small hill. I went there but sadly it was closed. Noooo. I really was looking forward to a soak. Oh well, the journey continued for a little longer. I was well in time and arrived at a Ushibuka around 4.30. I found a nice little park on the other side of town, overlooking the park was dotted with palm trees, hibiscus shrubs and various other trees and some stone shrine. The perfect spot for my tent. I unpacked, put up the tent and headed into town. This was a 15min walk but I couldn’t bring myself to get back onto the bike. Before that, I had to check out my private toilet building and wash room that made this stay so much more pleasant. I had a quick wash before changing into my evening robes. They’ve been the same now for almost 2 weeks. A thin linen/ cotton trouser, black; and a jacket, black and a grey or black T-shirt. Not very exciting but it was lightweight and kept me warm if needed. I also made a final attempt at fixing my sleeping mat, this time using the sticky patch AND, critically, zip tie. This seemed to work after a few attempts, wrapping the spot with the hole over a round seed that I found to give the sip ie something to grip. Phew, let’s see if it lasts the night but it was looking solid.
The town was pretty small and I used google maps to find a nice spot for lunch. One Japanese restaurant stood out called “heart”, as it had good reviews and many reviews for the town (35). I headed there and was greeted with a big welcome but also a huge surprising look on the face of the owner and the only other guest, Akira. The owner brought me a starter and I tried to figure out how to find stuff on the Japanese menu. Eventually I showed her pictured from previous reviewers on my phone. She understood immediately and shouted something into the kitchen. It was grilled jaw bone of some big fish…and it was super tasty. I continued to point at things across the evening whilst we also started to make conversation with the owner, the one guest and eventually another 2 who came in. One of them was a high school girl who seems to have been called by Akira to come and “check out the foreigner”, with most of us eventually installing Google translate to talk. She told me that she’s a performer in the Lokal folk dance and all the patrons of the restaurant iterated the importance of preserving culture, especially through the young generations. Our conversation topics spanned from tourism to work to local sights. This turned out into a fun evening with all of us having lots of food and drink.
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