Written by Dave

Masuda (Hotel Daiei) to Yonotsu  (Kushishima Campsite) – More coastal cruising – (82k, 960M)

It was quiet overnight in the hotel, other than the lift and A/C unit outside our door and window. Ok, maybe not perfectly quiet but fine all the same. Brekkie in the hotel was a buffet with mostly Japanese treat but also scrambled eggs. Most of the staff didn’t speak English but one gal did and said “thank you so much” all the time. I did not ask here where she learned English but clearly she has listened to NPR in the states where “thank you so much” has officially taken over for “thank you” as the baseline official thank you.

It rained last night and there were clouds around until about 9:00 this morning. Or at least that’s when we got our first actual sun. The road was wet in a few places but nothing to bother us. The entire day was spent either on Highway 9 or skirting it on nice coastal diversions that Komoot found for us. None of them dead-ended today so we were happy. Highway 9 was pretty busy but almost the entire day there was a footpath and curb separating us from the traffic. Seems like a really big investment as we don’t see many folks using it. At least it frees the society from being 100% car based for every trip so that’s something.  The downside is that sometimes the footpath just disappears, and when it’s on the other side of the road from your direction of travel it can be tricky to get back across to the correct side.

We had morning tea at 7-11. We had to divert off the Komoot route to reach a conbini but that was more us being unsure where the next one was located. Some wrote that in Japan, you are never more than 35k from a conbini and I think they are right. If you counted only the big three – 7-11, Lawson and Family Mart – it’s probably true. Throw in the rest of the smaller chains and it seems like they are everywhere. We see folks getting shopping baskets and doing “proper” big shops at them so it’s possible that they have replaced the bigger stores in smaller towns.  Though we do have to pay attention because when Komoot is working hard to keep us off the main roads it also means we miss stores and restaurants.

We were reaching 60k and feeling peckish when we hit a long section off Highway 9. We kept looking but nothing came up. Out of desperation, we stopped at a Chinese restaurant right across from a Lawson. We had serviceable Ramen but in truth, it would have been in the bottom five of the trip. It could well be a case that we should have ordered something Chinese and it would have been better but we’ll never know.

After lunch we 20k to ride to reach camp. There were a couple hills, the first which allowed us to avoid a tunnel. Highway 9 traffic was not to bad at this point so we just blasted through the tunnel – it was short, so no issues whatsoever. Having  generator hubs and lights on 100% of the time has been one of the best things we’ve done on this trip. The hubs also charge our devices but the lights really have been great. We enter a tunnel and have both front and rear lights 100% of the time without a worry over batteries. Great peace of mind.

The last to hills before camp were pretty steep and we were flagging when we arrived. The gals running the place were so happy to see Nancy however – they lifted our spirits. Nancy does all the bookings and clearly is not Japanese even on the phone. She probably has the foreigner red star next to her name many nights and gets a warm welcome when we arrive anywhere. See Nancy, it’s better if you do all the bookings!

Camp is pretty small, only about 6 tents and not much room for more. But we’ve had showers and the kitchen is more than adequate, so it will work fine for us. We like to camp but here, with now having to book in advance for everything, a campsite is just easier sometimes. They are easier to cancel and don’t seem to stress over payment if you cancel – or at least they don’t pre-bill your card so we don’t stress.

Tomorrow we have a longer day, almost 100K but with less climbing than today. We have a hotel and another rest day planned as well, so really, it’s low stress, we just have to get there. First up there’s the 1k uphill that we road down this afternoon to reach here. It’s never fun knowing that a hill is coming but I don’t think tomorrow’s is really that bad. We’ll see…