Japan Exodus -Day 22: A Third Start!

Today is a special day for me. Its not my birthday, its not a national holiday, its not even that I have something significant planned. The specialty of the this day is found in its timing. Today, I will begin again, for the third time.

You can could the first day of this trip as my first start, a good and easy ride down to see some friends, eat, and drink the night away in the still cold climate of early spring. That was a lot of fun and I used that starting day to re-tool my packing situation and help decide what to send home, and what to take with me.

The second start of this trip was when I met up with Kyle, and we set off to champion the Shikoku mountains, of course. I read in a brochure somewhere only yesterday about cycling across Japan and the tourist information board gave specific warnings to ambitious cyclists: Shikoku mountains are not like the mountains of Honshu or Kyushu. In so many words they said, "Get ready to get your butt kicked." I'm paraphrasing of course.

This third start is something worth celebrating. This third start is something that I have been cooking up for over two years now, and finally the conditions have been set into motion where I can claim to really set off. For a long time now I have wanted to cycle Japan. Not in Japan as I have done throughout my two years residency here. Rather across Japan, as I did Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Taiwan. I have done parts of Cambodia and Laos too, but not all by bike, vacations mostly. Now its time to complete what I have wanted to do since my arrival, cycle the length of the Japanese islands from south to north.

日本縦断 is the mission of my trip. A direct translation is "Japan, longitudinal." The implication there is that I will cycle across the entirety of Japan. 　

Also, did you know? Congratulations to Japan for landing the number two spot on Lonely Planets' best country's to visit 2016 list!

From where I last left you, I should quickly mention that the waiting station where I was to pick up the ferry in the morning had kicked me and an older man out at midnight. There was to be no waiting inside for us at this station. Alas, the rain started again around this time, and I was faced with a small dilemma. Only about 5 hours worth of time between now and when I could conceivably return to the station and start the embarkation process; so, what to do? I thought I would stay just outside the building where there was cover, and rest up against the cement wall of the building. Yet, that too came to an end when again the older gentleman and I were asked to leave the premises. It was now around 1AM.

Kicked out and no where to go. I don't think that even if I wanted to, a hotel would take me in at this point. So, I went to the only place I knew would be open all night: the convenience store. They did not have an inside table that I hopped they had (some do). I was however able to buy some hot tea and read my book under the florescent lights of colored advertisement signs between bouts of sleep punctuated by the drunken laughter of the late night couples and the distinct engines sounds from random delivery trucks throughout the night.  

So you can see then, whey I had no qualms about eating some ice cream for breakfast. I had survived the night, and taken a shower immediately upon entering the ship and placing my things down. Once I laid down, I lost a good sense of time. When I awoke to notice that we had not made any progress, that we were still at the dock, I got up to go look around. Actually, we had moved! I was in such a deep sleep that I had not even noticed that we had departed Naha, and docked another two islands off along the way, haha.  

Today is the most clear day I have seen in a while, and I am happy that there is so much water around to really take in the deep blues of the ocean depths and the lighter shades of the atmosphere filtered sky. 

Planning, snacking, watching people take their dogs around for walks along the deck. When I am not napping, this is the ship life. 

I have come to really like traveling by ship since coming to Japan. You must, since there are so many islands. Being from California, I never really had the opportunity, or rather, the need to go many places by boat for a long time. There are a few islands, I've camped Catalina and visited Alcatraz. It is on these longer boat rides however, that I think I am falling in love with traveling by ship. 

Although we make four or five stops along the way, we do not stop at every island. Some islands are uninhabited, and others require a separate boat to approach. Ours is much too large. 

Next time you find yourself looking over the side of a boat in Japan, try and recall those old print images of the Ocean and its waves that Japanese print artists once made. You know the ones I am talking about. The high rising waves with a small white crests pointing out in every curvy direction, themselves smaller waves. Look over the side of the boat with that image in mind, and you can see two things: that it is not hard to see the resemblance between the actual waves and the old depictions of them, and that if art or its methods have changed then the ocean sure has not much. 

One of the last islands we visited while I was out side on the observation deck. I seem to be the only one here. Strange. Off on just one side angle of the island, waves broke upon the out of view beach. The waves seem to start from no where, gain momentum and then crash again behind the cliff. That the area where the waves where breaking was so specific led me to wonder if there was something underneath this patch of sea that caused the waves to from. 

Again at every island dock the forklifts danced to ballerina music in my mind as they collected and redistributed the large metallic crates. 

Island life is something else, is it not? The greenery of the overgrowth, the white sand that naturally feels so welcoming, and the shades of blue so clear that you might think the water was dyed by design. I soaked up this last image in my mind as long as I could. This sort of life is not the one for me, but I sure love it once and while.


Sleep and tiredness got the better of me in the afternoon. I had not slept a wink the night before and only a small sum in this morning. I would like to stay awake until the evening so as to not through off my sleeping pattern, ideally. That was not going to happen. I said good bye to the sea and reentered the cabin, crawled into my little cot where my blanket had been refolded for me and a pillow placed on top. There was nothing else I needed.

Sleepy Love
-A