I left Minamiosumi around 10:00, My roommate Wataru-san is a nice guy. We spoke for a while about life and whatnot before departing ways. Once again a conbini breakfast was on the menu, and I proceeded to head out for Shibushi where I was to stay with Daniel, a JET teacher from Oregon. Although the hills weren’t as bad as the day before, there were still climbs. At the very top of the pass I got one final picture of Kagoshima Bay before heading towards the east side of Japan where I will be for the rest of the Kyushu trip. I passed through Kanoya which was a pretty busy town.
I ate lunch at a restaurant called Ohana Ami, the chef was impressed after I told him my plans to ride all the way north. We took a picture together before I left. As I was bombing down one of the hills, I noticed a guy with a huge backpack walking on the sidewalk. I passed him and turned back to say hello. His initial reaction was to say "konnichiwa." Eventually he figured out I wasn't a local Japanese guy. We started talking and found out that we are both going from cape to cape…but he’s doing it by foot! Oh, and he's going to walk around the world after he's done with this. We talked for a long time about our ambitions and reasons, and we were both looking to stay at Daniel’s house in Shibushi. He has been mostly staying with JET people throughout Japan so he was connected as he went from town to town. After a while I headed out on my own to Shibushi, a small rural port town with not much going on. I stopped at Famima to get a drink and found Daniel’s apartment. After settling down in his apartment, I realized that I had left my coin bag at Famima. As it turns out, it was still sitting on top of the pay phone outside where I had left it! Gotta love Japan sometimes…theft is so rare in this country.
Daniel and I spoke for a while about life in Japan and his job here. After I took a shower, we decided to head over to Joyful Restaurant, a Denny’s type restaurant that seemed to be the only place popping in town. Daniel and I stood out like a sore thumb. Ryan had mentioned earlier that he was going to meet us there since he didn’t have access to a phone. We kept looking out the window but after a while we gave up thinking that Ryan would find us in there. As fate would have it, Ryan showed up and we all ate dinner. As is typical in rural parts of Japan, there were a lot of stares at these “gaijin” that showed up. After dinner we went to a nice onsen bath overlooking the bay. We wondered if onsens would ever catch on in America…perhaps if they were marketed as Roman baths? Afterwards we headed back to the apartment and discussed plans for tomorrow. Ryan is hoping to make it to Nichinan with me but his feet are pretty tore up with blisters everywhere.