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May 21

Shima Nami Kaidou / Sunset Beach

After the delicious breakfast at the YH, I left going north, taking a coastal route. I spotted a beach right off of the road that looked beautiful, and I couldn't resist but go down. As it turns out, the water was freezing however, and upon closer inspection, the beach was actually quite littered. Overcome by good-boy instincts, I decided to start going up and down the beach and cleaning it up. I was approached pretty quickly by a guy who was dressed like a chef, and it turns out he was the manager of the Chinese restaurant that was right there on the beach.

At first I thought he was going to complain, since this shirtless barbarian (me) was walking up and down his beach in plain view of his customers while they are trying to eat. As it turns out, he actually thanked me, and came back down with a draft beer! He told me to come in afterwards, and after cleaning for another hour, I went in and was treated to lunch. Ah, karma works quick sometimes. Lunch was sweet and sour chicken at the Hakuraku Cafe. Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention that I found 2 unopened beers not too far from my bike, that someone must've not finished from sometime before. Cleaned those up and saved 'em for later. (more karma?)

From there I went on to Imabari, where the Shima Nami Kaidou begins. This is a set of bridges that go from island to island from Shikoku up to Honshuu, the main island of Japan. These bridges have bike and pedestrian lanes, so that you can actually ride it from one end to the other. Another advantage to being a cyclist is that it's actually free, whereas cars have to pay a toll at each bridge (some of which are expensive, about $15). There are even rent-a-bicycle shops all along the route, for Japanese tourists who want to ride the bridges, of which there are many.

At one of the rest stops on one of the islands, I met Takahiro, who himself just started a bike trip about a week earlier. He is working his way down from Osaka, towards Kagoshima in Kyushuu (where I came from).

I rode on and ran into a sign that said "Sunset Beach". It was getting late, so I figured I might as well stop, do as the sign says and watch the sunset, and then camp on the beach. I met two travellers, Joanna and Osamu. She's from Australia and has been teaching and living in Japan for 2 years, and he's, well, Japanese. They met in Tokyo, and are now using what funds they've saved for as long a trip as they can. They're driving around the country with their camping gear and just camping around.

I ate at the Italien place on the beach, making sure not to mention to the workers that I planned on camping on the beach. It usually costs about 1600 yen ($13) per tent, but for me that night, it was free. After dinner I went over to Joanna and Osamu's little tent setup, and hung out with them drinking the beers I had found at the beach earlier that day. They shared their wine and I shared my candles.