Day 17: Fukuoka – Shimonoseki

[post of Friday 24^th of August 2012]

Today we managed to wake up early, although we don’t feel 100% ready to the 90 km stage that awaits us.

That’s a stage as plain as boring the one we have ahead of us. We have to cycle for 30 km just to get out from the massive city of Fukuoka and its suburbs. Then we get a little bit crazy looking for alternative routes to avoid the traffic we’ve just been dealing with, as well as the high mountains that scare us so much.

We drive with sunglasses on through a never-ending tunnel. In theory, bicycle are not allowed in any tunnel in Japan, although no alternative road, or advice, is provided. Usually, you can go through a way reserved for bike, even thou that quite different from the only-bike-ways we have in Spain. In Japan, the pedestrian routes alongside the road are for both pedestrians and bicycles, and there is such a route in all highways too. Often the pedestrian/bike routes are as nicely laid down as the highway itself and, some time, we can even cycle side by side and have a chat. At times, the vegetation has overwhelmed them and is nearly impossible to cut through it without a machete. In any case, to travel on a bicycle in Japan is great. When these kind of route are missing, or you want to go faster through the highway, that’s reasonably safe, and you don’t to worry too much about cars. Because of the layout of the land, highways are usually stuck in between valleys, so they proceed in a snake-like way, where the speed limit is below 50 km per hour. Cars go very slow, drivers are quite nice, they never get too close to the bicycles, nor they beep at you ‘cause you’re going too slow for them. In addition, the majority of the road signs are in both Japanese and English, so it’s quite easy to find out your way around.

Going through the massive city of Kitakyushu, it seems like we’ll never get to the strait of Shimonoseki. Finally, quite late in the evening, we say goodbye to the Kyushu region. It’s being great to visit it.

We cross the sea surrounding the island of Honshu. We go to the wrong way to the hotel, get into the city centre by mistake and have to turn to go back. The hotel is full, and we have to go back to the city centre. We stop at a mechanic to ask directions to another hotel, suggested by the staff of the full one, and one of the guys working there jump on his bicycle and comes with us to check on different hotels of Shimonoseki. We’re looking for an hotel no too expensive and the guy brings us to a hotel that looks quite good if compared to its cheap prices. To celebrate, we treat ourselves with beers and ice-cream.

 

Day 16: Karatsu – Fukuoka

[post of Thursday 23^rd of August 2012]

We left very late this time. We enjoyed so much Joe’s hospitality in Karatsu that we took our time in leaving his house (perhaps too much time considering the day that awaits us). After several coffees we managed to dismantle the tent, assemble the bikes, and head down-hill for at least 8 km without even realising. That’s how a good day starts! Meanwhile, we think how lucky we were yesterday when Joe came to pick us up by car. Today, seeing the part of the road (up-hill) that Joe’s lift saved us yesterday, I have serious doubts we could have reached our final destination by our own.

When we get to the town of Karatsu, we see its massive castle overlooking the entire bay. Ages ago, all Japan was covered by castles. The majority of those open to the public nowadays are but modern replicas, although it’s quite nice to see the silhouette of the Karatsu Castle on the hilltop.

Following Joe’s indications, we leave the main road and go through a path that cut across a garden full of so many pine trees that’ll be impossible to see as many in Spain. the trees’ arms have grown in a peculiar way, bended, and there is a Shinto sanctuary in the middle of the garden. A perfect place to take some nice shot. We take some picture, and off we go. We must go on.

As we leave the pine garden behind us, we get into a road quite narrow, the edges in bad condition, and too many tracks to allow us to enjoy the view. We are beginning the less good-looking part of today’s stage, which will stretch out alongside the Northern region of the Kyushu. The worst part is that Gabriel’s bike starts making a weird noise. He cleans up the chain, and adds some more oil to the mechanisms, but the noise stays there. At the end, he dismounts the wheel and, after careful studying it, we get bad news: the box of the back wheel is a bit loose, and we don’t have the right key to tight it up. We’re not sure how long it’ll last, but we cannot stop here. We have to keep going on.

And so we go on until, late at night, we find the house. Our host today is a woman who had given hospitality to more than 300 people in the past. That’s because there are people who, once they start using Couchsurfing and letting people into their house, cannot help but keeping their door open to more.

It’s been 80 km today. Let’s go to sleep.

Day 15: Hirado – Karatsu

[post of Wednesday 22^nd of August 2012]

We wake up fully refreshed. Our body has finally accepted the fact that, regardless of its complaints, we’re not gonna stop. So it gives us a break; today we feel less discomfort to knees and elbows, the injuries caused by the short are curing, and the skin is not that affected by the textile of our clothes. At least! Because today we have to cycle through more than 80 km to get to Joe’s house, a friend of Shane, who offered us free accommodation in Karatsu.

The day goes quite well and, by midday, we’ve done already 40 km. The road is plain and the sky cloudy. The sun gets through only when we’re going through our very last up-hill in the whole day. It’s not easy to get through it, and we stop half way, right in front of a pottery workshop.

The master potter comes out to greet Gabriel. He sees we are exhausted, and invites us to his house for an iced tea and some Japanese cakes homemade by his wife. He’s enthusiastic about our project; he’s travelled all across Europe himself, some years ago, and can speak some English which, together with our poor Japanese, allows us to communicate and understand each other. Then we move to his workshop, where he shows us an impressive collection of pottery pieces, from Japan, China, and Korea. We see also pages of magazines with his name on them; he must be famous. His family and he have been travelling quite a lot teaching the traditional Japanese techniques to make pottery. He offers us a cup of “matcha”, the green tea that is not filtered but beat up until it gets a delicious cream. It’s getting late and we have to leave, but we do so with a smile… and we keep with the good mood and the smile on our faces, until dark.

After 10 km passed the workshop, and while we go through a tunnel, Gabriel looks at the sky. The mountains are gone, covered by some newly arrived clouds, and they are very dark, menacing, and scary. Thunder comes shortly after. The clouds are coming down-hill, heading toward us. We realise we have less than two minutes to find a shelter and avoid the fury of the sky. When the first drop falls, it immediately followed by thousands more. Luckily, we’re under cover by then. We contemplate the storm from a Seven Eleven, and wait until it’s over. An hour and half later we realise it’s not gonna stop; we know the shop by heart by now, we had a look at all the magazines in there (those about recipes, which are just beside the ones about children, etc.).

Thinking we’ll be late to Joe’s, we call him to let him know we’re stuck by the rain… and he volunteers to come and pick us up, bikes and everything. His house is 20 km away from where we are. We’re so lucky! Joe’s car is huge and everything fits nicely in… and we’re getting a shortcut worth 20 km!

Our host today is just wonderful. He lives in a lovely house, where we feel instantly at home. He cooks for us spectacular mashed potatoes, and much more. Wine starts flowing (even over the “tatami,” the “floor”) and, again, we’re so happy about the journey and the many fantastic people we’re meeting along the way.

Day 14: Hirado Camping – Hirado

[post of Tuesday 21^st of August 2012]

Before retiring for the night, we hear thunders. “Oh well, it looks like it’s going to rain tonight. Let’s close well the saddlebags just in case.” But it’s just raining… it’s pouring down like hell. It’s like if someone was throwing buckets of water against the tent! And although we fear that the flooding water might have taken away our stuff, it’s impossible to get outside to check it out. The only thing we can do is to wait inside, and hope that when the storm is over our saddlebags are not floating on the sea. These are the longest 20 minutes in our life!

When the rain get a bit lighter, we go to check the luggage… incredible, everything is in place, there is no mud, and the water has gone down the floor and drained away. There is only a bag we didn’t close tightly enough, and a couple of thing inside are soaked… and few initial moments of panic when we don’t find our toilet bag with the passports. After checking out everything, we go back to the tent more relaxed. We manage to sleep some 10 minutes, then, we hear a group of Japanese walking down toward the beach, just in front of our tent… they light up a fire and… fireworks! Why? We don’t know, and the night is not over yet. Because of the rain, there is water in the side of the tent where Ainhoa sleeps. While Gabriel sleeps like a baby, Ainhoa is in a pool, and wakes up as if she was getting out from a washing machine without the spin programme.

Today we wanted to visit the whole Hirado Island, which is beautiful. Well, that’ll be another time since Ainhoa is in no shape for hard-core sightseeing. We decide to go back to Hirado city instead, where our next host, Nelly, awaits us. Before we leave the camping, we decide to do a little check-up on the bikes; we make sure all screws are tight (few days ago, Ainhoa nearly lost the rear derailleur), we clean up the bikes and oil all parts in need of it.

We’re gonna have a great day in the city. When Nelly gets out from work, she’s going to bring by car to see the rest surrounding of Hirado City. There is a castle and, beside it, a lovely garden. Nevertheless, the place that really takes our breath away is another one, full of “pagodas” [“Buddhist temples”], where the building are literally meddled into the luxurious vegetation. Nelly is a great guide too; she speaks Japanese and plays the tenshogoto, a sort of harp but smaller. We finish up the day eating pizza in a samurai house with great atmosphere, and more sake!