Yakashima Got ()\/\/|\|3|)
Disclaimer: I can’t do this trip justice in words or photos, but I’ll do my best.
What’s the goings on of late I hear you ask? Good question. Well after Maki left Dave took a shining to my idea if riding around the island, so we hired bike and hit the road. the island is only about 150km in circumference, however we had been told 300 by some people. Anyway, it turned out to be very hilly! In parts we rode from sea level up about 500m, back down again, then up again, repeat over. By the end my perception of what level ground was had been warped. I’d be riding along, and think, ‘o sweet a flat… I can coast here for a while and let my legs rest..’, then I’d come to a sudden stop. ‘Hu??… o bugger, this must be up hill!’
Day 1 – rode 20km to an onsen and back to town just because we had bikes with gears and could ;). The onsen was on the beach, most beautiful. On the way back I discover a new passion, night riding. It was so peaceful. No cars, just us, the stars, beach and wide open road. Think I’ll plan a few full moon rides in Europe.
Day 2 – rode about 30km over hilly terrain and realised how far around the island we had come, almost half way. Decided to ride a few km back to a light house and stay there for the night. Was a really nice peaceful night. Spent a while looking out over the ocean just generally blissing out.
Day 3 – rode about 50km, the most hilly part, but the most beautiful. The world heritage area went right to the edge of the island in the area. It was thick rainforest, and a single lane road winding through the forest, over mountains, and several km of only down hill coasting!! Most fun! Stopped several times to check out the local monkeys, who were the best behaved monkeys I’ve ever seen. Stayed the night beside a football oval after Dave lost his beanie and road back 10km to get it… I just went to another onsen that was so hot it almost left burn marks.
Day 4 – Realising that we only have about another 50km to go on our ride, we decide to climb a mountain about the size of Mt Warning (1100m?)… This turned out to be most epic. While only about a 4km walk, 90% of the walk was uphill at a gradient of between 35-70deg! Nothing like Mt Warning at all. What a leg killer. It was only possible to climb due to complete coverage of the forrest floor with dense root system. With beer at the end of the tunnel we rode on 20km to Anbo, to wine and dine at the finest (only) izakaya in town. Below are some ramblings from the night. Hope you get a laugh out of it.
Day 5 – We wake with a hang over, but most content with how the night played out. Enjoying good japanese company, live music, local cuisine, Japanese famous drinks, getting offered a warm place to sleep, more dinner, breakfast and lunch! Its hospitality like this that has been giving me a new look on life. Why would someone do so many nice things for a complete stranger?? It really is heart warming and I hope I can carry a little bit of Japanese hospitality around inside me long after I leave Japan. We eventually make tracks, jumping back on the bikes for the final 30km back to Miyanora, our starting point.
Izakaya Ramblings
We roll into town. Exhausted after a massive climb and brisk ride. We find a place to plug in and use the internet for free in an onsen for a couple of hours … but not before having a massive feed from the supermarket (most affordable place to eat on a budget). We then proceeded in a state of exhaustion to find an izakaya, it was closed, then another, it was out of business… so we looked for the infamous red lanterns. Success! Izakaya ichi ban in Anbo! We get settled in the izakaya, leaving our bikes out the front. Sure enough a few people in the place have passed us on the road traveling around the island. They greet us with warm welcomes and the bartender, Anubol, tries to help us decipher the menu. I want chicken kebabs figuring I’ve lost a few kilos and need to gain some wait after all this riding and hiking. (my belt buckles is way below its lowest hole despite my best efforts to fatten myself up). So it is we ask for Anubol (the bar staffs recommendations… diajiobu… what ever you say… we can’t read the menu. Feed us we are hungry. The food arrives. Yumminess… I don’t even know what i’m eating and it doesn’t matter. because I’m so hungry and its is nutritious. I am sure that the level of japanese I can speak when I drink doubles or triples. Things just become so much easier. Why is that? Someone do a study and give me results damn it. Anyway they feed us and we order a few beers. That is enough… the locals take a shining to us and a local carpenter that has seen us riding around the island invites us…. in a very convoluted fashion to his house… our level of japanese comprehension’s very low and we could well and truly be getting into an orgy with his wife… but no. After a while a new character arrives and sings a few songs, and we order yet again more food, we work out that we are indeed getting invited back to his home to stay in the gauge. Since it is a fricking cold, and almost rainy nighy, we follow the grunk carpenter home, all in good spirits and having a laugh. I’ve given up trying to communicate in Japanese now and just have a big smile on my face and am talking in drunk language (a hybrid of world languages and universal symbology)… so how far is your place… ahhh…. reply in japanese…. second street on the right…. awesome…. japan is random.
*falls asleep with laptop on chest*
…
Ieeee… my head. Water stat. What a night. I’m back in the expensive onsen place that has free internet in the foyer. That was all written last night after so many drinks. Then we went inside for dinner after getting home late… and he gave us more Japanese famous shochu made with water from the region. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shochu)… also of interest was the awesome flying fish that is a Japanese famous delicacy. We ate lots of that… come raw in slices with a little soy and wasabi. Such an awesome night. I spent more than I usually do, but then we didn’t have to pay for accommodation so it all works out. This morning we got a big breakfast, and lunch to go all courtesy of our friend from the bar. Seems like lots of people have seen us riding around the island and are impressed… its such a nice feeling when people are genuinely amused by something simple you have done… They were such nice people, he said we could stay there anytime we wanted! He must not have told his wife that we were coming because she had a friend over, and we walked up to the door and looked in… we heard them say gaijin gaijin… (foreigner foreigner…) but she warmed to us… and was calling us cute this morning. :).
Ahhh… good times.
Posted on January 9th, 2009 :: Filed under Life,Travel
Tags :: adventure, aweseomness, Japan, Life, Travel
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