Day 8 - Hidden Pottery Village & being scared: Imarin Beach to Shikamachi Beach (64km)

Moderate day cycling with some alpine climbs and full blast sunshine and eventual sunburn on my legs and arms. Cycling from:

Imarin beach to Imari (Arita Hidden Pottery Village) 16km

Arita to Matsuura 28km

Matsuura to Shikamachi Beach 20km

The day started on one beach and ended on another beach. I only had one thing to do, which was to see the pottery village, some 16km away. In the nearest city, I stopped by a cycling shop as I was looking for new gloves and pump up my tyres. That made a huge difference! Two extra bars of pressure, made the bike go faster, but harder but critically the load seemed lighter. The cycling shop did not have any gloves, but they gladly allowed me to use the pump. From the city, I headed into the mountains for a bit. I alternated between Google Maps for cars and Google Maps for pedestrians. It made a huge difference as Google for cars picked a more direct route using main streets where is Google for pedestrians would use sidestreets and often shorter roads ignoring terrain or usability. And of course, sometimes neither would work and the Google maps voice went bananas: turn left, turn right, at the next junction make a turn, head south…

I got to the hidden pottery village really quickly, even though it was uphill. It was such a small, beautiful village. The street signs were made from pottery and everything was very picturesque. Apparently the Japanese captured some Koreans back in the days who would teach them pottery eventually learning it themselves. I left my bike at the main car park and explore the village. It was a really sunny and hot day so I drank at least 2 L in an hour. After some exploration. I had it to the only restaurant that was open with most other restaurants, either closed or only having sweets available, the rest of that was open only serve to meet, so I had to go for some cake and tea, no problem. 

From the pottery village I headed over to Matsuura back the way I came from. It was nice and sunny and I changed long cycle short to my 2009 cycle T-shirt and. This was a mistake. I didn’t really notice at the time,  but the Sun was roasting me, blasting at around 22° with clear blue skies. I stopped at the nearby convenience store to pick up some more rice balls and water, eating it behind the shop in the shade. After the short break, I had to decide whether to follow the road along the ocean a detour of maybe 6 to 8 km or cut across the hills I went for the hills. Oh my God. This has to be the deepest incline I have cycled since 2009, when I went into the Japanese Alps. I was on the first year, and yet it was not enough I had to slalom and sneak up along the mountain road. All I wanted was to go across the mountain, find a nearby hot, bath, spa or local case to /public bath. As I got up the hill, I discovered a small road leading back down and used road that was replaced by a more modern highway that I didn’t want to use. This was such a treat. I was on the road by myself and able to go full speed. I had some good music in my ears quickly stopped at what looked to be a derelict house, and it was only to then continue. My journey downhill so many houses in rural Japan, with owners having either moved or died. And yet there are still more houses being built and more nature and trees being destroyed for new houses.

As I got to the main city, where I was looking forward to my own thing, and long rope was hanging across the entrance way, indicating it was closed. Oh well time for some dinner it was already kind of late about 6 o’clock, but I thought I had until 730 before the Sun went down. What was I thinking? Do you want a restaurant nearby was a tiny place with about 10 chairs. The owner spoke English and seemed excited that he had a guest. He showed me to some items of the menu some fresh fish some fried fish and I asked for some vegetables the prices seemed a little bit high but I had no choice, it was the only restaurant near Ate ate some sushi in some grilled fish. The only seemed a little bit dodgy. I had to ask how much do grilled fish was. He pointed me towards the most expensive fish which was 25 cm long, but the one eight was no more than 15cm. I notified the owner that the fish I ate was tiny, but he was convinced it was a big one. I ordered another one just to be sure I got my measuring tape out on my phone. It was barely 20 cm oh well. I didn’t want to make a fuss. At least let me use his electricity to charge my phone and my Wi-Fi router, both of them were nearly empty. I headed out at 6:30 by the time I looked into the sky and I realised I was out by one hour. The Sun had already gone down and I was late. I raced to the nearest campsite, which still some 10 km away.

To get to the campsite, I used Google Maps for pedestrians to take me along the coastal path and not the main road over hills again. Of course, the campsite was also closed with a small chain dangling across the entrance. I lifted my bike over it and cycled down towards the beach campsite. I was the only one of course but at least there were some lights and there was a vending machine that had water. I cycled to the furthest place on the campsite to pitch my tent as quickly as I could, in under four minutes. I think I figured out how to do it now. The Sun was long gone and it was already getting dark. My arms, my legs, my face were on fire from sunburn, despite having put sunscreen…maybe too little and too late. I decided to take a quick dip into the ocean to cool down, that felt good. There was something strange with this campsite. I didn’t know what, but in the distance across on the other side of the Cove there were some loud animal screams as if an animal was either injured or killed by …something. It might have also just been badgers fighting, but it just sounded really weird and actual shivers ran down my spine. Something was off with that campsite. I just had a weird feeling and it wouldn’t go away. I looked around. There was nobody and nobody would hear me in any case. I took a big stick into the tent, dismounted my strong bike lamp and horn and put them into the tent. Not that it was going to be of any use, but it made me feel a little bit safer. I really hoped my mattress was going to last this night after having fixed it earlier, but I could already see the sticky tape was coming off. I fully inflated it and laid on it and eventually after some tossing and turning for another hour or so, I fell asleep. I had very light sleep and woke up around 1 o’clock from some strange animal sounds, this time much closer.  O longer across the cove on the other side, no, on my side and much closer. There were also sounds coming from the ocean. I was thinking, maybe just fish splashing or the waves running ashore. Again shivers were running down my spine and my heart was beating faster. Maybe it’s one of the mythical Kappa, that decided to visit. I only know the friendly versions from anime (Summer days with Coo), but if you look on Wikipedia, they don’t look so friendly. 

Kappa, a mythological creature that always needs to keep its head plate moist.

Mars was shining brightly

Morning campsite, survived the night

I braved the night and took my big torch, opened the tent and went outside and shone the light onto the water and there was just waves splashing against the beach. Reassured. I went back to bed now. I noticed that my air mattress had completely deflated again, so annoying and so uncomfortable, eventually I fell asleep until 6 am when I got up. My arms and legs were still burning so I decided to go for another quick dip into the ocean. I’m not sure of salt. Water is good or bad but somehow it wasn’t that cold even though it was only 8° outside.after my morning bath, I quickly dressed warm and went to the wooden benches to have my breakfast - an emergency rice ball. I resisted taking an ibuprofen, even though my lower back was killing me. The cold water seemed to numb the pain so I just ignored it. I tried doing the blog, but my hands and fingers were so cold. I couldn’t even type so I set out for the day. The weather forecast said it was gonna be raining all day, not something I was looking forward to. But more of this in the next blog.

First, one more thing:

Blown by the fierce winds,

I am the waves that crash

upon your impervious rock

Though my heart shatters,

my love rages on.