Written by Nancy

Aoshima to Kanoya –  (107k, 960m)

After our relaxing day wandering around Aoshima and a fun dinner we came back to our hostel to find that there were another8 people staying in our building.  Normally that wouldn’t be an issue, but there is only one toilet in the building and that doesn’t really work for 10 people.  And, to reach the kitchen you have to go through a room where they had put 6 people on futons.  Not surprisingly, those guys closed the door to that room, meaning that you couldn’t really get to the kitchen.  It was a weird set-up  because the hostel also uses the next building but it must have been completely full.  Anyway, we both said we probably wouldn’t recommend it to others.

We had an early start today as we had a long day planned.  We tried to be as quiet as possible this morning while we ate breakfast in our room and packed up.  I felt bad about not taking our dishes back down to the kitchen so left a note next to them that we couldn’t access the kitchen – oh well, nothing else we could do without marching through a bunch of folks on futons. Did I mention the super squeaky front door right next to the 6 person futon room? Oh well, we tried…

We were on our way by 7am.  Our route was pretty straightforward today.  We were on the same road, highway 220, for much of the day.  The traffic was pretty light for much of the morning, so we ignored some of the Komoot suggested detours.  It often takes a stop for us to figure out if a suggested diversion is required (as the Komoot goes off the main road and continues in a different direction) or is one of those sometimes annoying ‘let’s just take them through this neighbourhood for a stroll and then get back on the main road’ diversions.  We had quite a few tunnels today, some relatively long.  Almost all had footpaths though, so it was safe tunnel day.  And, for the first time, today we had one tunnel that prohibited bikes and walkers as there was no footpath at all.  There was an old road around it though, so it all worked out.

We had a nice tailwind for much of today, which with the warm but not too hot temps made for a nice riding day.  We did get off the main 220 highway to take a smaller road over the headland, which was nice and quiet.  We ended up stopping at two roadside stands (Michi-no-eki), one for a pit stop (the store/café wasn’t even open yet) and another for our lunch stop (udon noodles, again).  After lunch we diverted off the main highway through some farmland on some quiet roads.  It was nice, as the main highway was getting busy. 

Then, just was we were getting close to our destination we came upon a coffee shop.  A real coffee shop that sold beans!  It turns out Dave had found this one on Google maps but the info indicated it was closed until Saturday.  Well, it looked open so we made quick stop and sure enough it was.  It was perfect timing for us as we are getting low on ground coffee for our Aeropress.  The shop sold only beans and coffee-making equipment but there was a little café right next door so we stopped there to have a nice cup of coffee (an affogato for Dave), as we were too early for check in at our hotel. 

We finally rode the last few kilometres to our hotel, after quick stop for some supplies at a nearby convenience store.  Our hotel for the night is hard to call a hotel – it’s a group of shipping containers (actually half of a shipping container), each made into a room with their own bathrooms (this one is called R9 – The yard).  It’s actually pretty cool – I think it is all brand new.  There are 32 of the containers in this parking lot.  They are all very close to each other but still separate, so I don’t think we’ll hear anything tonight.  There are quite few others staying here, it is over half full if every car represents a rented room/container.  I think this (R9) might be a chain, as I saw another one in a town near our future route. They are not very expensive – good value for money and you don’t have the share the bathroom with 9 other people.

Rather than go out to dinner again, we picked up some onigiri and ramen from the convenience store to eat in our room.  Sometimes trying to find a place to eat and going out every night gets tiring! Perhaps we should have gone out as the ramen was kind of ordinary – better than Top-Ramen, but nowhere near as good as the fresh stuff we’ve been getting most days.

Tomorrow we head to Cape Sata, one of the places Dave has been really looking forward to.  Cape Sata is the most southerly point on the main 4 islands of Japan. Had we ridden Japan top to bottom, as we had toyed with, then the Cape Sata would be truly momentous. We will be camping, as we couldn’t really find any place to stay. The weather looks okay, and the day isn’t too long, which should give us time to get down the actual cape to see it before we head to the campsite to set up camp.  That’s the plan anyway…

Today’s map