May 4	Home	Calender	Map	Japanese	May 6

May 5

Ride to Kagoshima / Sakurajima YH (for free!)

Stretched and ate my jumbo onigiri for breakfast, and then headed out. I mostly rode on the 3 highway, seaside route, until I hit a little road called "Orange Road". This prefecture of Kyushuu is famous for its oranges, and so I decided to take this route. I got some good oranges on the side of the road, but it turns out that this road started going inland and taking me towards a different route. After getting slightly lost, I eventually ended up finding and taking the 328 highway, which basically climbed a big mountain, then downhill to a city called Miyanojo. After Miyanojo was another mountain, and then down to Kagoshima, which I reached in the early evening.

I have to say that this route that I took was probably the most fun so far. The traffic tended to be less, the scenery was gorgeous, and although the climbing could be tough at times, the downhills were super fun.

The problem is that during all the climbing I could feel my knees starting to feel pretty messed up, on and off. I'm not sure if I should keep biking until I've taken a day (or a few days) off. The last time my knee totally gave out, I couldn't bike for a week, and could barely climb stairs. I wouldn't like to be in such a condition in the middle of nowhere, Japan.

At Kagoshima I stole some maps from the closed information booth at the train station, and then called the local YH. It's located on Sakurajima, the still active volcano island next to Kagoshima, reachable by 10 minute ferry. The YH girl on the phone told me that they're full, so I asked for the next closest one. After some stuff I didn't understand, she just told me to come. I said, "what? I don't understand.", and she just kept saying "Please come. Please come". Wierd.

Took the ferry there, and when I got to the YH's parking lot, I helped a girl named Chiki unlock the gas tank to her motorbike. Then she helped me with my arguing to the front desk, since they now claimed they were full, and had no room for me. Basically it was decided that I could use the facilities (shower, etc.), and if a room opened up, it was mine. If not, I could pitch my tent downstairs - for free. I left my luggage in the closer, and as it turns out they locked it later, without me knowing. Jokes on them though, cause 2 nice portugese guys showed me that one of the 8 beds in their room was empty, so I got to sleep in the bed for free anyways.

There was a huge group of junior high school girls staying here for a volleyball competition on Sakurajima Island the next day. They started talking to me, and helped me find my lost Totoro towel, and later I made a whole mess of friends out of them. I showed them pictures of Jen (my girlfriend) and they kept saying "very cute-o". I promissed to try to see their competition the next day, and we took some pictures.

Other than that, I met some other foreigners, from Autralia, Canada, and Portugal, as well as some other Japanese. It was then that I noticed I hadn't spoken any real English in the last week. I had my fill that night... I'll try not to make it a habit!