Written by Dave

Yawatahama to Beppu – Kyushu Island (5k, 10m)

I’m almost embarrassed to write the mileage total for today. I mean 5k (3 miles) is barely worth getting out of bed for. But that’s the way it works on days when you are mostly taking a ferry and you have to get to/from ferry terminals to your guest houses on both side.

Some of us were worried about the ferry. I wasn’t worried but did have “ocean swells” in the back of my mind. I naturally did not mention this to anyone in our travelling party for fear of raising anxiety levels. I’m glad I didn’t say anything actually as there were some swells, but they were only brief and not very intense. Mostly we had smooth seas and Nancy’s seasick bands did their job once again.

The ferry ride being mostly offshore was kind of boring actually. There wasn’t much to look at out the windows or up on deck. With a slight breeze, the temperature was perfect lounging outside before the sun became too intense. All-in-all, a pretty good day at sea – right Nancy?

We arrived in Beppu, Kyushu around 1PM and agreed on finding a dock side ramen shop for lunch. This proved to be a bit of a challenge as nothing seemed just right. We eventually settled into a quite busy shop where Nancy went inside while I secured the bikes. While trying to figure out what the story was, two people who entered after Nancy put their names on the waiting list right in front of Nancy. Seemed very un-Japanese but I guess when you are on a limited lunch hour, that’s what you do. We didn’t have to wait long and the ramen was delicious. By the time we left, the shop was empty – proving that it was a lunch crowd in a hurry.

In Beppu, we are staying at the Beppu Hostel U&T and after a couple supply stops we went there not long after lunch. We were 1 hour early for check in but they let us in without an extra fee. There was a bit of an issue about where “outside” we could store our bikes but when the manager said, “I can’t lie, I’ve had things stolen off my bike here (he spoke excellent English)”, well, that was it – they can’t go outside. Nancy agreed to look at the room and convinced the manager that the bikes would fit inside without issue. We had to carry them across the tatami mats and are being super careful but at least tomorrow we’ll still have bikes to ride onwards on.

Beppu is known as a hot spring town and there are numerous public onsen. We thought about visiting one but decided to hit the showers in our room instead. We’ll get more chances down the road. Instead of soaking we decided to do laundry and hit the shops for a couple camping nights we have ahead of us. We probably have too much food now but better safe than sorry.

On the food front, Beppu is known for a dish called toriten, or chicken tempura. Technically this is different than chicken karaage (fried chicken). Tempura batter is lighter than karaage. You’d probably argue the difference is subtle at best, if you had both at a food stall. Lucky for us, one of Beppu’s most famous toriten restaurants is a 5 minute walk from our guest house so we got to have the professional version. Nancy ordered toriten and gave me a taste – it was pretty good and yes, lighter than chicken karaage.

As tempting as the toriten was, the sushi/tempura set meal looked too good to pass up. So, that’s what I ordered. It was the best dinner I’ve had in Japan with so much food that I refused to take the dessert. Photos below. My dish cost more than Nancy’s and I was feeling a little guilty. Then it kind of dawned on me that all the food photographed below cost a grand total of $17 USD. And that there is no tipping in Japan. Are you kidding me? That’s a lot of super high quality food for a ridiculously small amount of money. I’m sure glad we road all those Ks today so at least I can say I earned it.

Tomorrow we head up towards Mt Aso, Japan’s most active volcano. There are some stiff-looking climbs on Komoot but we’ve scheduled a short day to give us time to push if we have to. We are camping tomorrow night – I know, I thought we’d never get the tent off the front of my bike. Finally.

We may not have signal so we’ll see about a post tomorrow….