The day started early. I couldn’t sleep till 2am and was awake by 6, with my room buddy waking up and getting up at 6.30. Not much sleep but hey. I laid in bed for another hour or so before getting up. Keiji already left by then, he wanted to do 120km today on his machine, circumnavigating Kyushu in exactly the opposite direction to me, clockwise. For me, there was no rush as I would catch a ferry and then had a relaxing cycle in front of me. Also, the weather forecast said it’s gonna rain here and on the other side of the ferry until noon.
The hotel was and Onsen hotel so I checked it out. I was the only person in there and it felt so good to soak self. The right side of my chest had been paining me for a day or two, not sure what it is but the hot water seems to help. After the Onsen, today up my room, my stuff and check out. As I got to reception to settle my bill I was shocked to find that Keiji had already paid for the room - all I had to pay was for the hot sand bath. Arghhh! I sent him an angry/ grateful message!
The weather outside looked miserable, not great for cycling and upon enquiry with reception, the new t ferry was at 1pm. Ok, I had 3h to explore Ibusuki in the rain and get some breakfast. The hotel gave me an umbrella and I left to explore town. The first place I got to was a small cafe, with old men sitting inside smoking and having coffee. The menu looked good and there was pictures! Despite the smoking, I sat down to order some omelette, salad and bread. That was so tasty! The owner also brought me coffee on the house afterwards ad all for ¥600 or just under £4. I then strolled further, in search of somewhere else to sit where there was no smoking going on. It seems that down south here in Kyushu or in the countryside, smoking in bars and cafes is still ok. I also noticed that most people had ditched their masks down here with maybe just 20-30% of people wearing one, in Nagasaki or Fukuoka it was the other way round, 80-90% of people would wear a mask, even though there has never been a mask mandate by the government.
The next place I found was a cute little cafe with some delicious sweets and red bean tea (Asuki bean tea). Very delicious. The owner was doing some paperwork and as I asked if I could stay she cleared a small corner for me to sit down as she mentioned that it’s not nice weather outside! I took the kind offer and enjoyed my cake and tea.
By now, the rain became less, but still enough to use an umbrella. I strolled back to the hotel, past the hot sand beaches with the steam coming off the sand looking mystical. I wonder how this must have been back in the days in olden days Japan. How did this city look like? I am sure they would have made use of the hot sand and Onsen waters already back then.
I got to the hotel around 12, put on all my rain gear: overshoes, trouser, rain jacket and my good mood orange sunglasses as they didn’t steam up as quickly as my regular ones. The journey to the port was quick with around 7km. I cycled past some derelict hotels as it looked like corona also impacted businesses here, which many restaurant and hotel owners testified to. The ship was already waiting but there was still about 30min till we’d leave. The ticket was ¥1200 or £8ish. There was a local bakery and I bought some more break, breadstick and a baguette. This was the most bread I had eaten since arriving in Japan. A welcome change to my diet? I also knew that this was all I would eat till dinner, considering it was nearly 1pm. The ferry set off and I got chatting to an elderly couple who were on a 3 day visit down here. The ferry took almost 1h to get to the other side and I had another 50 or so Kilometers to do. I knew this would take me 3.5-4h to get to an Onsen in Shibushi, which already looked great from the pictures.
By now, the weather had completely changed and it was sunny and cloudy, no more rain! This made cycling so much fun and today would be a great cycling day, with the backdrop of Mount Sakura Jime at the beginning and huge mountains along the journey to Shibushi. I wasn’t quite prepared for the amazing ride I was going to have. Google maps for pedestrians did an excellent job navigating through a long valley, picking roads alongside river dams, past little villages many, many rice fields. Gone are the fields with potatoes and nobody seems to be growing strawberries here. I came across a huge number of derelict and empty properties, more so than anywhere before. I wonder what it is like to live down here, being a farmer?
I made some occasional stops to take some pictures, have some more water or check out a shrine here and there and I was very happy about todays ride that didn’t involve huge climbs over mountains or negotiating my way alongside busy A roads or dual carriage ways. By now, my right side of my chest continued to hurt. On downhills I protected it with my left hand from the wind, always contemplating whether I should put on a jacket, even though I’d get more sweaty in there. I decided against it, hoping that the Onsen at the end of the day will work some magic.
By 4.40 I got to Shibushi, a friendly small town where I shopped for some veggies, fruits and nuts, assuming that this might become dinner and breakfast as my final resting spot was outside town on a beach. At 5 it was Onsen time - the pictures on the internet did now lie. It was an amazing small Onsen with 3 baths and even a sauna. I weighed myself too. The scale said 81.5kg, so the weight loss continues but is slowing down. The Onsen was absolutely amazing, after about 15min my right hand side stopped hurting and I just felt whole and happy. I left the Onsen shortly after it’s another 8km to go to the beach. It was already getting dark and the sun had just set.
I got to the beach just in time with enough light to put up my tent and crawl inside for some dinner: small cucumbers, 2 tangerines, nuts. Nommi, nommi. The beach wasn’t as nice a camp spot than the previous one, a big road running past it some 100m away. Eventually, around 9 some cars arrived with some local youths who’d blast some music. My tent was hidden away so I didn’t really bother. To the sound of their music I eventually fell asleep by 10 and didn’t wake up till 4, which felt like some solid sleep. I got up by 7 with some more people arriving n their cars, taking out their surfboards and having breakfast. I did the same, dried my clothes, did some stretches, had more tangerines and nuts plus did some blog writing before packing up. Todays ride was pretty long if I’d do it, and steep. It would also get me to a nature reserve with some wild horses and would also essentially be as far down south west as I’d go, then rest of the journey will be “The Way Back”. I’ve got 10 days to get back to Fukuoka where I’ve got a Shinkansen already booked back to Tokyo.
A twilight breeze rustles
through the oak leaves
of the little Oak Brook
but the cleansing rites
tell us it is summer.
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