The End is Koko!
Trip Start
Oct 17, 2007
1
6
7
Trip End
Nov 17, 2007
Miyazaki,
Japan
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
We took the high speed train out of Kyoto back to Onomichi to re-join our bikes and finish up the trip. I was a bit worried about the bikes; there was a suspicious lack of bikes outside the train station, and in the end, very pressed for time, we had thoroughly locked them to a random sign in front of the station. Only as we were pulling out of the station did I look back on the other side of the tracks to see a HUGE bike parking lot
Fast train. VERY fast train.
. Ooops!! But Japan is a VERY low crime country, and our bikes were still sitting just as we left them. We stocked up on donuts for the next day or two, and then set about getting our usual bowl of udon soup for lunch. At the train station restaurant we promptly encountered a new obstacle to keeping ourselves fed in this country; instead of stumbling through lousy Japanese with a waiter, we had to go put money into a vending machine, punch buttons for what we wanted, and then tickets were punched out while telling the staff what had been ordered. After a couple minutes of staring at the Kanji characters for Kitsune Udon and Tuskimi Udon on Lonely Planet we decided there were a couple buttons on the machine close enough to what we wanted and gave that a go. It's a serious handicap being illiterate!! Got what we wanted for lunch at least, and then tried to avoid that setup for the rest of the trip. From Onomichi it was two half-days to bike into Hiroshima. Not the most pleasant biking - we were mostly on the coast, heavy traffic, lots of population, and Hiroshima is a BIG city now, 1.4M people or so, but the sprawl to the north-east actually isn't bad because the city is contained by a set of ridges (which, incidentally, is partly how it was chosen as the target in WWII). We had an afternoon to spend in Hiroshima, which is plenty of time to explore the Peace Park which is a very well done set of monuments, open space, and a museum, all just south of the famous dome
A picture everyone will recognize
. The museum is large, well organized, and filled with several thousand school kids. The museum also does an amazingly neutral job of explaining the events leading up to WWII, being very clear that Japan was a rather unpopular aggressor with its neighbors, and then pushing the conflict to the US. They explain at great length the state of the city at the time of the bombing, how it was chosen as a target, the devastation of the bomb and after-effects and have some very impressive artifacts including a set of stone steps which were permanently bleached by the explosion - except for a dark shadow where someone was sitting on the steps waiting for the bank to open. Coincidentally, the pilot of the Enola Gay died just a couple days after we had visited Hiroshima. Leaving Hiroshima we had about 45km of heavily trafficked, industrially developed coastline biking from hell until finally turning inland and crossing Honshu Island to the north coast. The route was not as violently hilly, or scenic as crossing Shikoku, and the weather had turned very fall like - cool, grey, but fortunately not raining. All the same, we had a very cold morning dropping out of the mountains into Tsuwano, a touristy town in the hills known for the 1100 gate Shinto Shrine, and.... carp. Really. The town a long time ago (1600's) was a feudal fortress and to prepare against siege, hit on the bright idea of interlacing the entire town with canals in which they raised carp as a potential food source
Paper Cranes in Hiroshima
. The town's population is now about 6,500, but there are about 65,000 carp!! We said hi to the carp, and then climbed up through the 1100 red Shinto gates to the shrine on the hill before heading on for a campsite about 20km away. Now, one would think that after 9 months of being on the road, we would have a good handle on where we are, where we're going, and how long it would take to get there. But the days in Japan have a nasty hook to them, and suddenly it's 3:30pm, which doesn't sound late, but sunset is by 5:30, which, when densely cloudy, means dark by 5:45. The map has contours, but not very good detail, so we find too late that the last 20km is not a cruise, but an uphill grind, at 8-10 kph, and suddenly bang, it's going to be dark before we get where we're going. Of course, the other catch is we seldom know exactly where we are going as we're simply looking for a good place to camp. One aiming point is one of the the frequent road side rest stops which are marked on the map. The nice ones are big, have a nice set of rest rooms, and a big grassy picnic area etc. so would make a good camping site. Today at 5:25 and we arrive at the rest stop, still 6km from the camping area (also on the map), and it's getting dark fast, but this rest stop is small, nowhere to camp, so we press on. At least the rest stop big local area map also shows there to be a camping area, so confidence in having a destination increases. Across rolling hills, getting very dark, and of course, the question of whether the camp site is really open. 5.5km later we find the turn (we can read the Kanji for camping now at least), and apparently, judging by the very interesting signs, there is a bug zoo / farm between us and the camp site. lovely. Lots of really big pictures of really big bugs. Japan hasn't had many bugs so far (although there are a LOT of big spiders, perhaps there is a connection here), but camping next to the bug park is not encouraging. As we turn, I look UP at the hilltop and a light up there and think "that BETTER not be it"
follow the yellow, uh, brick road
. It was. 45 minutes of mostly pushing the bikes up steep, slippery asphalt (wet, and lots of moss growing on it), we arrive at a completely deserted, closed for the season campground. BUT they left the bathroom open and the water on, which is all we need, and it's free! Sweeeeeet! Another morning of freezing as we drop into Hagi, and our first look at the Sea of Japan. Hagi is known for pottery, although not being a connoisseur I don't notice anything special on the large vases other than the fact that all the price tags are in excess of $1000!! The north coast is much less populated so we can once again enjoy riding the coastline. The first 25km are an amazing winding little country road, scarcely a lane wide in many places, and NO traffic at all, most excellent! We had hoped to treat ourselves to another Minshuku experience, but again, progress was slow, as the hills wore us down and as darkness fall fast, we were still short of anything big enough to have a Minshuku, but at least had a lovely camping spot on the beach. The park, I should point out, was so modern, it had a handicap wheelchair access ramp right down into the deep, soft sand by the waves. Go figure.
We were in need of a break from the cold and damp of camping, so after a half day biking spent a nice day in Shimonoseki, the last city on Honshu, and next morning took the tunnel to the south big island, called Kyushu. The tunnel is split-level, the cars travel in the wide part, the pedestrians in the area below the cars. We struggled uphill to the car entry, only to be directed right back down to the waterfront where we found a user-friendly elevator to drop us 180 ft straight down for the pedestrian tunnel. As we started to ride through a voice yelled out "Walking!
Vending machine culture
! Walking!!!". Apparently we were being watched. Another day of grey, but not wet biking and we spent the night in the town of Usa; apparently companies would register here in the 50's so they could put "Made in USA" on their products. Really. They had a nice park for camping at least.Saturday dawned grey, but still dry, and it was time for our last day from hell on the bikes; not that we set out to have these on any regular basis mind you. Late start after checking out a couple parks of ancient stone Buddhas, and then uphill on the Kunisake peninsula which has large temples, and larger hills all over the place. The rain started around 10:30, but for some reason, we were thinking it wasn't so far to Beppu, known far and wide for natural hot springs, so we put up with the rain knowing we'd be soaking in a hot tub before too long. The rain only occasionally let up to inhale before another deluge, and we took refuge at one of the temples for an hour where the resident monk took pity on us and served us tea and sweet potato. He spoke some English for a change, having spent a little time in New York state building a temple there. Then back on the road, dropping down, freezing, and then flat. then up. then more up. And suddenly as we were both bonking in the cold and the rain we suddenly realized we were nowhere near Beppu, 30km out still, with a lot of hills and stop lights between us and the hot tubs, and thanks to the pouring rain, it would be dark in less than an hour
This is not your USA Vending Machien
. This predicament pretty well defines "hour of need", and for the first and only time in Japan, a travel fairy stepped forward and committed a fantastic rescue. As we were about to jump back on the bikes to peddle like mad for an impossible goal, a large van pulled up, and offered to help. I should explain here that we have never felt so on our own as we have in Japan. In India we could always toss us, and our bikes on the first bus to go by, but in Japan, we know we're not allowed on the trains, or the buses, and the vast majority of people drive very small cars, and on top of all that, the language barrier is nearly absolute. So to have a VAN, big enough for 2 drowned rats and their full entourage of filthy, soaked panniers and bikes, pull up and offer to help, was absolutely amazing. It actually gets better. The driver, whom we shall call Gen, because that is his name, had passed us a half hour earlier and thought "gee, tourists never use these back roads, they look miserable, and are probably in big trouble even if they don't know it yet". He then went home, got the van from his work, and came back up to find us. He spoke some English, and his lovely wife Maya spoke a bit more. They gave us a ride the entire 30km to Beppu, and it was quite dark by the time we got there by car - bicycle would have been out of the question. On the way, he showed us the family business; a very elegant set of banquet halls, with a very traditional room, better decorated with Samurai armor and swords than most museums we've seen
Coffeeeeee!
. And, one last thing to blow your minds, Gen is the sixteenth generation family manager of this business. Yes, really 16. So, thanks very much to Gen and Maya, we did get our hot tub soak in Beppu that night after all. After a cold beer and tofu steak no less. They were also able to shed some light on various mysteries of Japan during the drive. For example, there are slot casinos everywhere in this country. The most common, Pachinko Slots, is apparently owned by a North Korean. Most Japanese apparently don't known this, but Pachinko is probably a large portion of the money going into that country.... Leaving Beppu, we were down to 8 days in the trip. 8 Days is not very long, unless you're biking uphill in the rain. However, the weather gods had completed their vendetta against us, and we actually had the most fantastic fall weather for the rest of the trip we could ever hope for. We cut inland first, up towards Aso, and more days of massive elevation change (up to 5000 ft of climbing per day). The fall foliage was at complete peak with bright red Japanese Maple trees, and lovely little volcanoes in the background. One of them looked like a model of Rainier, without the snow. The landscape is very beautiful, but usually in a subtle sort of way, an overall impression of beauty, the curves, the lighting, the colors. It's not dramatic, stark beauty like, say the Canadian rockies. Perhaps this explains a bit about Japanese art styles. After a few days of this rather idyllic, but strenuous biking through the center of Kyushu, we dropped down to the coast and went through Miyazaki the first time. Miyazaki sits in a warm water current, has a balmy climate, and is surfing central for pretty much all of Japan. To drop straight out of chilly, New England style fall into Miyazaki is like biking from Maine to San Diego in a day - which really messes with the brain
now THIS is a swing!
. We had a few more days left of cycling, so continued south, back along the coast down to Cape Toi, a local "most southern point", although hardly the most southern point for Kyushu, not to mention Japan, but it made a nice landmark where we could say hi to the wild horses (which looked like any old horses to me, but again, I'm not a connoisseur, and these didn't have price tags), and then head north again. And then it was time for our very last night camping. The site we aimed for turned out to be a medium sized sports park, and absolutely excellent! Huge playground equipment, and a big picnic area with sinks, running water, picnic tables, and electricity! It says something about our lifestyle that this combination is now considered the "lap of luxury".
A final day of biking, and rolling into Miyazaki for the second, and final time brings to close an amazing 42 weeks, 14,000km, 14 countries, over 10,000 pictures, and a lifetime of memories. And not a single serious accident, incident or predicament. Never did we feel seriously threatened, so to all those who told us we would be mugged, robbed, or killed for our spare tires, so there.
And now it's time to go "home", which is probably Seattle. Already the nightly dreams have started where it's getting dark, and we have many km to go, only to wake up in a nice comfy bed. But already I feel like an hour or two of exercise a day is a piddling excuse for exercise and being inside for more than a couple hours at a time feels stuffy and claustrophobic. 10 months of living mostly outside is lousy preparation for going back to office land. Good thing I don't have a job!
Heron Dancing in Tsuwano
! I expect some serious culture shock returning to the US. Japan should have buffered things a bit, although I'm wondering how long it will take for me to realize that all doors no longer slide open automatically. I AM looking forward to being able to read again. In fact, I'm wondering if I will have a serious case of ADD; right now my eyes grab anything written in Romanji / English; suddenly being able to read everything may be a bit overwhelming! I'm also really looking forward to being able to walk into a restaurant, and explain, using my words, what I want, and to have the wait person understand, and comply. I'll even do this in Spanish if necessary. As anyone who has spent some time out of their language knows, the usual scenario here is to give the helpful waiter a big dumb look, and do some charades, get asked some questions, respond with even dumber looks until they give up on us and our IQ and wander off to bring back something from the kitchen. As I told Gretchen the other day, in a memorable statement "I'm tired of being a moron", although it will naturally take a lot more than returning to an English speaking nation to fix that problem! In any case, I figure if the culture shock doesn't hit hard enough, visiting any major shopping mall the day after Thanksgiving should be sufficient for a terminal dosage!That's all from Japan!
I do hope to write one more rambling wrap up in the near future, as much for my edification on tying up loose ends as anything else
until then,
Sayonara
MK
Comments
congrats!
bryan and i followed your blog every step (pedal) of the way. although our paths have not crossed, that does not mean it never will! we are planning to be back in la in two years, let's grab some margaritas and burritos then.
aloha,
gizem and bryan