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May 13

Arrive Kagoshima / Leave for Miyazaki

In the morning I was approached by the drunk father of the family who sat next to me. He was still drunk from the night before, and his breakfast of sake (Japanese liquor) wasn't doing to much to make him any more sober. It also wasn't helping me understand his slurred Japanese. After he passed out, I ended up talking more to his wife and 4-year-old son, who were pretty fun.

Finally, we dropped anchor in Kagoshima, and after picking up my long-overdue bikeshoe from the nice guy at the shoe repair shop, I headed over here, to Best Electronics Department Store. Unfortunately, this time they didn't let me use the net for free, the guy actually had the balls to confront me. My stomach is calling, since I've eating nothing but 2 bananas today, so I am off to find lunch.

My plan now is to return to the Sakurajima YH, do some laundry, and leave before evening. Within 2 days I should reach the city of Miyazaki. I have a friend I met from a Japan bike tour internet site, so we'll see how that goes.

I returned to the Sakurajima YH, and the nice lady who works there seemed pretty bored, since they don't have too many customers right now. Probably because of this, and the fact that we got along pretty well, she let me use the laundry for free, and even showed me which dryer works the best. My clothes smelling nice and fresh again, I decided to repack and get rid of some of my dead weight. I gave away my mini-condo (portable stove) to the other girl who works there (the one who I previously had the intense philosophical conversation with, the one I usually can't really understand too well).

While my laundry was doing, I spent my time fixing up my bike. The back wheel was just very slightly wobbly, in that it rubbed against one of the back forks. This can become a problem over time, because it'll wear down the tire to the point where you can easily get a flat. Here I got to experiment with tightening and loosening the spokes on the wheel. Lots of room for mistakes. Since this was my first time playing with spokes, I'm impressed at my progress. The wobble is still there, but just slightly less pronounced, so that it doesn't touch the bike. As for the spokes, I stripped about 3 of them, so that I don't think I can adjust them later. Oh well, we'll see how long it lasts.

Even though it was getting on 5:30pm or so, I decided to leave anyways. I headed out going around Sakurajima itself. Although it used to be an island, around 1916 it had a large eruption where it spewed out enough magma to connect itself to the mainland. It filled up the previously interveining sea that was 500m wide and 80m deep (about 1/3 mile wide by 250 feet deep). So, although it still has the name of "Sakura Island", it's now a penninsula. I rode around the island to that penninsula point, and headed south.

I got past the town of Tarumizu, and decided to camp under a pedestrian bridge that went over the street, in case it rained. I finally found a restaurant with Saraudon (a Nagasaki specialty), which is alot like Yaki Champon, only it is eaten as is, without sauce. I wasn't terribly impressed. Could have used that sauce that the Japanese call "sousu".

One thing I'll say is that compared to Okinawa, it is cold over here. I actually have to wear a long-sleave shirt and pants at night (especially since I shipped away my sleeping bag back to Tokyo a week back).