Written by Dave

Matsuyama to Yawatahama – Southern Shikoku (69k, 690m)

Brekkie was big for us today. We’ve been here nearly two weeks and had quite a few Japanese brekkies. Today, the Dorny hotel buffet was mostly Japanese food that you had to pick out and arrange for yourself. We’ve been training hard so as not to make complete fools of ourselves. In my humble opinion, I did a pretty good job. Nancy, she needs work, you’ll note that she has quite a few western egg dishes on her tray.

We were a little nervous about getting out of Matsuyama, given it has a population of around 500,000. Well, no need to worry, Komodo/Wahoo did an amazing job. We had about 15k of inner city roads, mostly along a river dike that contained nearly zero traffic. From there we had 10k of rice paddy riding where we could see busy roads all the while we doddled along in peace with only the occasional farmer to contend with. I take back every bad thing I said earlier about Komodo/Wahoo.

Once we escaped the city, we found ourselves on highway 378 down the Shikoku coast. The road was semi-busy, with a fair number of trucks that we think were coming/going to Misaki Port. The port doesn’t look like much on the map but it’s all we could figure being down this way and meriting the trucks. The good folks of the Japan highway department made the ride much safer than it sounds, however, as we had a bike lane for probably close to 30k. It was bumpy at times but it also meant we didn’t have to even think about the trucks.

Near the end of the ride we had read about a long tunnel – yes, that had us worried as well. Well, one tunnel turned into 3 tunnels of 800 meters, 900 meters and 2,500 meters. None of them had a shoulder on our side but rather a sidewalk on the wrong side. So, we rode the sidewalk. No issues, I think the cars and trucks knew we’d be there. Our lights are so bright, we could be mistaken for a scooter but no-one flashed us high beams so it all worked out fine.

We had one last 1.5k tunnel near the end of the ride that was for bikes only. I think it was an old rail tunnel, or maybe the old highway. Either way, we were the only ones in that tunnel and had some fun taking photos. It’s nice to have zero worries about a tunnel.

We reached the port about 1PM and looked around for something to eat. There was a michinoeki (rest area) right at the ferry terminal, along with a fish market. The restaurant attached to the fish market proved a delicious place to get a feed. I had a sashimi (raw fish) special that was very tasty. Whatever the fish, I’d not had it before – very interest flavour – I should have asked them for the name but it probably would not have mattered as all the fish have different names here, even if I could have understood them – haha.

We are catching the ferry here tomorrow morning and contemplated spending the night in our tent in the rest area car park. There was a near-by public bath so getting cleaned up would have been easy. Strictly speaking, tenting is not allowed but authorities rarely say anything. We went back and forth on what to do then Nancy went into the information center to ask. At this point, regardless of what I wanted to do, I was committed to thanking Nancy and saying “great job” when she came out of the center. These interactions are nearly impossible for me and even hard for her. They take more time than you think and sometimes you end up with something you really don’t want.

Well, the center said a big NO to camping. They called a couple hotels for Nancy and found us a room at a city hotel. When Nancy came out to report, I said “perfect”. And it is. We are ensconced in the Harbor Plaza Hotel. I’m sure it’s better than the flop house I had picked as a possible spot and it’s way better than getting woken at 2AM by the harbor police asking us to move our tent. Good job Nancy.

I went for brekkie supplies while Nancy rested. In the shops I spotted a bunch of new Kit-Kat flavors. In the USA, we tend to think of Kit-Kat as one flavor. In Japan, Kit-Kat can be any flavour Nestle thinks they can sell. A sample of what I found today is below.

For dinner we tried another local food speciality, Champon. It was “invented” at a Chinese restaurant in Nagasaki, Japan in around 1890. It’s been adopted and adapted by various regions in Japan and taken of different forms. It is basically ramen prepared in one pan – noodles cooked with the broth, not separate. Here, if you order Champon and are expecting regular ramen, you’ll be disappointed. If you were thinking chicken noodle soup, then this is your dish. Neither of us felt we drank enough water riding today so a big bowl of chicken noodle soup hit the spot.

Tomorrow we have to ride about 4k in total, that’s 2k at this port to reach the ferry and 2k on the other side to reach our hotel. We are moving from Shikoku (the 3rd largest island) to Kyushu (the 4^th largest island). We’ll be on Kyushu, or islands off Kyushu, for the next couple weeks. The ferry is about 3 hours long and the longest direct ocean exposed ferry we’ll do on the trip. The forecast is not too bad so here’s hoping for a smooth sail.