Day 19 - Running from the rain: Tonda to Nobeoka (67/ 939km)

This was a great nights’ rest on this forgotten campsite. The ocean waves provided a soothing backdrop even as far away as they were, past the local park and past the derelict outdoor swimming pool. I visited the shore the evening before to try and take a bath there but there was no way. The water was too wild and the waves a well-mixed concoction of water and sand. I got up around 7.30 with one goal in mind: pack up, eat something quick and cycle as fast as i could to avoid the rain which was meant to set in around 2pm. Th weather forecast indicated it was to be strong rain and I didn’t fancy getting soaked. My rain gear was sub-par, which was noticeable after 2h cycling as it didn’t keep the rain out. Breakfast consisted of 2 long but skinny cucumbers and some dried goji berries with some green tea from the vending machine nearby. Ready steady go! I left the campsite around 8.45, initially along some quiet countryside lanes, past an old Shinkansen track hat now spotted solar panels atop. The Japanese are also really heavily investing in solar farms, small and big, on all kinds of places and in the countryside. I guess it’s always gonna be hard to get away from nuclear, considering how power hungry Japanis. 

If only all roads could be like this…cycling would be so much more pleasant

Tea harvest, with some machinery and 2 people! The light-even shrubs are yet to be harvested, the dark-green ones already are. No plucking tea leaves by hand here.

Eventually the quiet countryside lanes would turn into bigger streets and eventually fully blown A-roads and dual carriage ways. A steady headwind blew in my face as I tried to pedal as quick as possible. After 1h I had another 2 rice balls and some Pocari Sweat drink for energy. This was second breakfast and lunch! I also put on my rear light and took my bright yellow backpack cover out to help the many drivers notice me. It worked for some, it didn’t for others. One guy in particular, in one of the main cities I. H led through, decided to pass me with about 20cm or so, earful,y. Loose when there was more space he could have made, or wait as the upcoming traffic light was red anyway. This was very unnerving as I was going at 20km/h and cycled close to the pavement. Eventually I caught up with him and indicated that 20cm is not good enough. He laughed, as he took another puff of his cigarette and indicating that I should go onto the pavement. I took my camera out and took a picture of him with strong thoughts around his rebirth being as that of a bicycle tyre of a long-distance cyclist circumnavigating the world, or as an inner tube to never see the light of day but to keep spinning round and round, in the dark…

This guy!

Eventually I reached Nobeoka in record time at around 12.30 where I had pre-booked a cheap hotel whilst on my rice ball breakfast stop, ¥6,600 without breakfast. It was high time for a stop as I ran out of battery on everything, all the tech and the power bank were on their last leg and half my clothes needed washing too. Nobeoka seemed the perfect gateway town into the mountains to visit the mystical Takachio. According to legend (and Wikipedia): “According to Japanese mythology, Takachiho is the land where Ninigi descended from the heavens, sent by Amaterasu, the sun goddess. It contains the Ama-no-Iwato shrine which is, according to myth, the location of the cave where Amaterasu hid, plunging the world into darkness, until clever Ame-no-Uzume lured her out.” It’s a great story! Check it out by clicking on a link.

Ame-no-Uzume, her dance is said to have lured out Amaterasu and is the foundation of the Japanese ritual dance, Kagura.

Its also hopefully a welcome change in scenery as I don’t want another day of cities, urban landscapes and A-roads with lorry drivers who think they own the road. As I entered Nobeoka, I already had a good feeling; it was a smallish town, nestled between mountains and the Pacific Ocean to the west. My hotel was relatively close to the city centre, or so I hoped. I got there, unloaded my stuff and went to reception. After some passport and reservation number checking the friendly hotel staff told me I’m in the wrong hotel as there was another, similar named hotel which only had a different word at the end. I didn’t pick this up when setting my location earlier but I also didn’t mind. By now, it had started to rain and I was pretty happy to have to just cycle another Kilometer towards the other hotel. Once I got here I unloaded my stuff, changed and asked if the hotel could keep my things as I couldn’t yet check in for another 2h. This was perfect as I wanted to sit down and relax somewhere. After my marathon sprint here I was pretty exhausted. My thighs have been in pain for a few days and my left arm’s tendons are strained a bit and some usual lower back pain, which seems to come and go.

I found a cute cafe not far from the hotel where I had a cup of coffee and a piece of cake. The cafe staff also offered me another coffee to try as a goodwill gesture. It was delicious dinner from Ethiopia, not too strong and so smooth. We talked about her “egg pastry”, which really wasn’t egg pastry as such but “pastel de nata”, a typical Portuguese pastry. At some point another customer came in and joined in the conversation, very quickly she dug out her excellent English, having studied it in Tokyo in university. We had a good laugh about her ending up here, when she really missed Tokyo so much, especially when I enquired what there was to do in Nobeoka. She said “not much, but there is a castle ruin and nice local park nearby”. This was perfect as I was in need for a bit of an afternoon programme, as I had just finished yesterdays blog and the cafe was closing soon. She also told me that there is an old school sento (public bath) nearby, which was just what I needed. 

The coffee shop closed at 3.30 and this time it was my turn to invite someone if only I could be quick enough. We were both happy to have met and she even showed me the way to the sento around the corner, which really was very old school and very local. Only one bath and many wash stations, with wooden lockers like the one I had seen a few days ago, which dated from the 1930s. Judging from the creaking of the wooden floorboards, the grandma at the reception and the general state of the bath, this could have easily competed with the other old school bath. I couldn’t care less! It had a hot pool and after purchasing a small towel for ¥220 to replace the one I had lost, I was also given free soap and shampoo. That and the hot water pool was all I needed to turn me into a human being again.

The lady from the cafe also told me about a good ramen shop, which would open at 5pm. Time to visit the park and castle ruins. The rain wasn’t too bad now and I put up my hood and walked up onto the castle ruin, just in time for the time keeper to tell everyone in Nobeoka that it was 5pm, using a huge bell and a wooden beam, with accurately timed intervals between each of the five gongs. This was my afternoon entertainment and I headed back down to the ramen shop. Interestingly not a local ramen shop but Sapporo ramen, from Hokkaido. Here I had a big bowl of Miso ramen, no meat, extra noodles and some Oolong cha (oolong tea, cold) Elfer heading back to the hotel for some rest, blog writing, re-packing and washing of a big bag of dirty laundry.

After the castle ruins, some ramen and some more walking in the rain my feet were pretty wet. Time to head back to the hotel and get some clothes, do some washing, blog writing and chill, eventually find a bar in the evening to pass the time. 

Around 9 I went to a local, 2min away bar where I got chatting to a music teacher and also another entrepreneur, who’s running a not for profit for people with disabilities and providing them with opportunities for work versus being at home. I know how meaningful this can be as I worked in an organisation in my late teens, as an alternative to joining the military in Germany. It seems that it’s not so easy in Japan to provide such opportunities for people with disabilities from what I understood. Mr Kazuhiro has managed to set up different operations in the region but the work is financially cha,,e ging and he has to now sell his motorbike. He also spent some 6 years in Bulgaria as IT teacher almost 20years ago and his English was pretty amazing, so we didn’t need google translate. We talked for another 2h about social entrepreneurship in Japan and the challenges and opportunities of working in social enterprises vs joining or running for profit businesses.

A great evening overall and even better conclusion to my day. I’m most likely going to stay here as it’s gonna be a fully blown rainy day tomorrow, both here and where I wanted to go and also all affordable hotels in that area being sold out. I’m sure my body can use a rest day before it’s up into the mountains!