Written by Dave

Yaeyama Park Camping to Akune – (54k, 480m)

I was up again this morning for the sunrise, not as good as yesterday but nice all the same. At camp today, there was only one other person who bothered getting up. Somehow, I guess everyone knew that yesterday was the postcard day, though today was nothing to scoff at. I really like the mornings here – it certainly doesn’t feel at all like autumn yet. We made brekkie again at the campground – our view today was just about as nice, as evidenced by the photo below.

We checked out without issue. The check-in man yesterday gave Nancy a set of rules in a plastic sleeve with strict instructions to read them all. He was very stern and we feared a quiz this morning. Yesterday he told us to bring him our garbage because he knows we can’t take it home with us, as is required by other campers. This was kind of him but we pushed our luck a little, slipping in an empty gas container (a small one). Luckily, there was no quiz and no garbage inspection. We didn’t linger.

When I was up checking the sunrise I could see the highway down below the escarpment. There seemed to be a lot more traffic than we had yesterday afternoon. Perhaps it was just because it was Monday morning but we had heaps of traffic on Highway 328 and didn’t really get to relax and enjoy the decent out of the mountains and into the larger city of Satsumasendai. Adding to the traffic, both our bikes needed to have their brakes inspected/adjusted. It’s no fun riding downhill when you’re not sure your brakes will hold or that you might get run over by a truck – we survived both! (Senior editor’s note – not very confidence-inspiring when Dave tells me to ‘be safe, but try not to use your brakes too much…’)

On the way down we stopped at a rice field where they were drying hand cut rice. In the old days, all rice was hand cut and hung out to dry. Nowadays, most rice is harvested with a thresher. The hand cut method is much slower and causes more waste as some rice falls off while drying. While the image of rice drying has a somewhat nostalgic look, it really isn’t all that practical.

Speaking of rice, while riding through Satsumasendai out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a guy working on tatami mats (they are made from woven rice stalks). I yelled to Nancy that we had to stop and circle back to check it out. It was just a small shop but the guy had hundreds of mats in various stages of construction and in spite of our language barrier, he was happy to have us take photos and tell us what he was doing. Further research tonight helped us learn more – there is a lot more to tatami mats than I can write here – we were glad we stopped and got the person-to-person introduction.

Upon leaving Satusmasendai we joined Highway 3 heading to the coast and towards northern Kyushu. It turns out that yes, Highway 3 is along a beautiful stretch of coast but no, it is not an overly pleasant cycle as we had hoped. There is no expressway in this part of Kyushu and there were heaps of trucks, buses and us all sharing a narrow, twisty coast road. We stopped for a few photos, which came out nice, but don’t be fooled, if you come this way trust the suggested Komoot route that takes you up and over a second mountain range before dropping you into Akune – it has to have less traffic. At least we managed to find a nice lunch spot on the highway – getting us out of the mayhem for a while at least.

We arrived in Akune a little early but the nice folks at Iwashi House let us check in early. Iwashi means sardine in English. The first floor of the building is a cafe/gift shop that sells heaps of sardine related gifts and yes, sardines. The second floor is a sardine factory – where I think they prepare many of their various sardine offerings. And the third floor is a hostel.

The hostel space is really a warehouse that’s been converted. There’s a mix of amazing handmade wood touches, combined with plywood and wood pallets.  The rooms are almost rabbit hole like with 4 foot high round top doors and for heating efficiency (I think), the room partitions don’t go all the way to the ceiling. It’s quirky but cozy. We are by ourselves tonight, perhaps the ceiling gap would not be so cozy if the hostel was full or a loud snorer was next to you. Oh well, another experience, getting us out of our comfort zone is a big part of why we travel in the first place – right Nancy?

We’re taking the day off here to resupply and plan the route ahead. Planning has been harder here than on almost any trip. The inability to choose lodging more spontaneously being the main issue but somehow we keep landing on our feet so something must be working…

 More about sardines tomorrow.