The weather forecast for today was mainly rain. After packing my tent away and picking the route, mainly along the coast so to avoid mountain roads and steep climbs as my lower back wasn’t getting any better. I’ve picked the pedestrian Google map for that. It let me onto some gravel roads which made for interesting cycling before heading back onto asphalt roads. My first stop was about 10 km away, a small fishing town. There were many Catholic Churches and references. Probably when the Portuguese landed here, they spread Christianity.
In the nearby town, I found a local supermarket that are just received its daily packages of pre-packed meals. The food was still warm and I picked fried fish with rice some veggies and salad for breakfast. This was the second breakfast as I had my emergency rice ball in the morning, alongside my daily dose of magnesium. I had already packed all my rain gear into my backpack, and my main luggage was already sealed in case it rained. It was another 36 km to go after breakfast. Rain started immediately first a little then more. To counter the weather a little bit I put my good mood sunglasses on put my hood over my head and my helmet on top. I put my other shoes on my rain jacket and my rain trousers. They lasted for about one hour before my trousers in my jacket were soaked.
The biggest city I had to go through was Saseba, a port town with a US Army base, but there were also many Japanese warships in the harbour, including an aircraft carrier. I had never seen one up close. Cycling in the rain is not a lot of fun the moment you stop you get cold. I had to stop frequently eaten to check the map is Google what is really going bonkers today and I had to navigate between pedestrian and car version as I didn’t want to go on main interstate or highways, but wanted to stay on smaller roads, but not so small that they’re not illegal to cycle on. Navigate me into oncoming traffic to walk on sideways which obviously I couldn’t so I had to do in a couple of extra kilometres back-and-forth to find the right way. I stopped at a local supermarket to pick up a big bag of mixed nuts and a crate of strawberries I eat them straight away. I only had another 15 or 18 km to go to get to my final destination. I wasn’t going to go much further today. I was cold, I was soaked and I was not feeling too good. I had picked Onsen with many baths and I also decided to quickly go onto booking.com to pick a room for the night. No camping for me today. I needed to dry my clothes and get at least one good night of rest. Another hour to the hotel, phew!
I cycled on, still raining and by the time I got to the hotel, which was around 2.30, I was really cold and wet. It took some time for me to check in as I had booked only about an hour or two earlier and I wasn’t yet registered on the paper booking sheet. Luckily there was a western gentleman who spoke English. It felt good to speak English again. I told him that I only just booked and by the way he looked at me, he wasn’t really sure whether I should be staying in this fancy hotel or not. But I was! The next hurdle was figuring out whether I can get the COVID Tourism room discount considering I am not for a foreigner that lives in Japan nor am I Japanese. Other hotels were giving the discount, but this one didn’t so I had to pay an extra ¥3000, but I couldn’t care - all I wanted was a shower or a bath and lay down. The porter brought my luggage upstairs as it too much to carry in one go, but no problem with a trolley. He told me that the local Onsen would open in about 30min, and that the fee is included with my room. That was great news and there was also a bus bus that goes between Onsen and hotel every 10 minutes. Yeh!
The moment I drop my bag took my wet clothes off, filled the bathtub and soaked my cold bones. This was the best decision not to come tonight as it was gonna rain this evening tonight and tomorrow morning. With some fresh clothes. I left the hotel and explored the area. Somehow they have created Amsterdam in this area all the houses, even the waterways it, all looks like Amsterdam. Do you want to ¥7000 to see this pod but I wasn’t interested. All I wanted is to go to the Onsen and soak myself. I took the bus to the local a Onsen. It was pretty big with 6 to 7 baths, two saunas and an outdoor area with another three baths. The water was amazing and it was mainly Japanese people who visited. As usual, men and women were separate and you had to wash yourself before you could enter the sauna or baths. I spent about an hour and a half or two hours there. I felt fully restored and relaxed from that I had a back to the hotel with the bus exploring the area around the hotel, which looked a little like Amsterdam.
To celebrate the occasion, I bought a small one cup sake before exploring the local area. There were a few more tourists who had the same idea but it was still pre-season and not busy at all. Eventually I wanted to have dinner and most restaurants were either expensive or the quantity of food wasn’t sufficient and I was hungry because I only really had breakfast and some strawberries, which had all been absorbed into the cycling machine (my body). The hotel did an all you can eat buffet for ¥5000, on the pricey side for sure but little did they know that I hadn’t eaten all day…It took me about an hour to have dinner. I took my time and there was so many good things to eat. From salads to grilled fish, seafood, all looking like Michelin star mini meals. The desserts were to die for - I had lots of fresh mango and pineapple but the cakes were something else! After dinner, I took another stroll exploring the area which just made me feel confused as I wasn’t sure anymore whether I was in Europe or in Asia, they did a really good job with rebuilding Amsterdam. Back in the room and managed to write the two blocks from yesterday and today. Thanks again to dictation which makes blog writing so much easier, only having to correct some words here and there.
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| Dinner Part 1 (of 4) |
Tomorrow I will go to Nagasaki, some 60km from here. I hope it doesn’t rain all day…so far, I’ve done around 300km and it feels like I haven’t gone that far around Kyushu. I’ve done some calculations and I think it’s all possible but if I don’t manage my time and distance properly, the last bit back to Fukuoka (where i already have a room booked), will be across some steep mountains. Let’s see! First I need to go south, having so far only explores the western, mostly populated parts of Kyushu.
Night night!!!
On this summer night,
when twilight has so quickly
become the dawn,
where is the moon at rest
among the clouds?
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