Day 21: Suooshima – Miyajima

[post of Tuesday 28^th of August 2012]

Although today’s had to be a short-length stage, it becomes, we don’t know how nor why, another 75 km’s day. We left behind a wonderful island, of which we won’t show you any picture not because we’re egoists but because of the heavy rain that follows us when we left Suooshima. The rain keeps with us for the whole day, but we cannot complain considering what’s happening in Kyushu because of the typhoon. Because of it, the temperature has increased by 10 degrees. Today it’s the first time we wear long sleeves t-shirts, together with the waterproof jacket of course! To ride a bike when it’s raining is not very pleasant but, at least, we’re going to avoid sunstroke. Let’s have a great Forrest Gump moment: in Japan, there are different kinds of rain. What in Spain is a proper rain; in Japan would be nothing more than a “chirimiri” (Basque word, not Japanese). When there is a typhoon nearby, the rain is in smaller drops, but it comes with a strong wind and it doesn’t stop in the entire day. Japanese summer storms, like the one we were caught into in Karatsu or Fukuoka, are as scary as a typhoon. Those ones had dark clouds covering up the surrounding all of a sudden, in which you had less than five minutes from the first drops (or I should say, huge drop) to find a shelter. 

We leave the main road for a short while, just to go alongside the coast and have a look at the famous Iwakuni Bridge. It’s gorgeous, and it seems to bring you backward to an ancient time, even thou it has been built no more than a couple of years ago after a typhoon destroyed it. The kamis are on our side again, and we get a break from the rain when we stop to eat, and to take some picture of the bridge.

Finally, we get onto the ferry to Miyajima. In Miyajima there is the famous red door that is regularly flooded by the tide twice per day, that same red door that is among the picture of the photo gallery for Windows screen savers.

When we get down from the ferry, we’re asked the tickets again, and we have to do our best to make the woman at the ticket office understand that we don’t have them because we had to give them when we got into the ferry at Suooshima. Well, it’s our fault since when the ferry landed we stop to have a look at a dear and, when we finally headed on, the barriers had already been closed. In any case, how should we get to the island, with the bikes and our luggage? Swimming?!?

First idea, to camp here; but we’re soaking with water and a bungalow would be better. We go up a couple of hills in Miyajima, and we realise that the camping is farer than we thought. When we get there, it’s already closed. Between talking the new situation over, deciding to assemble the tent in the first good place we find, and to do it’s already dark. Like for the camping, there are no places to eat, so we go to bed like naughty kids, without dinner.  Instead, who did have dinner was a dear (whom we called Paco) who found a banana skin searching our saddlebag!