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Konnichiwa Oita!

 

We’re currently at half-time here in Japan. We’ve traveled about 1.500 kilometers, and we’re presently in Oita, 2h away from Fukuoka. The fuel costs are meager in Japan; one liter costs only around 1 €. What is more expensive than fuel are the tolls on more significant highways. Once we’re done here, we’ll turn north again and head back towards Tokyo. 

Have fun reading!

Arigato Gozaimasu

Alicia & Marco

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Lousy weather and animal encounters

 
Week 2 in Japan starts with lousy weather. With our first Blog post written, we start the day driving along the rainy coast of the Mie Prefecture towards the Nachi Waterfall. On the way, we find another small local stamp rally as we stop at an observation deck. There were no better plans for the day, so we checked the other stamp locations, and suddenly, three monkeys crossed the street before us. A few corners further, some red crabs sat on the street. It’s amusing where those little stamp rallies lead you. Ultimately, we didn‘t find the stamp, but we saw monkeys and crabs… Later that day, another monkey crossed the street very slowly, so we managed to take a picture.
Further south, we found a lovely Shinto shrine named Hananoiwaya with beautiful red portals. We arrived at the waterfall almost at sunset, and no one else was there; even the parking attendants were at the end of their work, so we got free parking there.
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Testing our off-road limits

 
It stopped raining in the night, and we woke up on Tuesday morning with a blue sky, white clouds, and warm sunshine. We continued our drive along the coastline with perfect weather. We saw some nice rock formations at a Michi-no-Eki and took a selfie with Japanese girls traveling by bus. On a map beside the road showing the local countryside, we found a mark with a waterfall and headed inland to see it. We drove and drove, and as we looked on Google Maps, we noticed that we missed the waterfall. We turned around, but Marco saw an interesting little branch towards a stony riverbed—the perfect spot for a coffee break. Everything went well, and we parked the little Suzuki Every on good, hard ground. It went so well that Marco wanted to push the limits further… But what do you expect if you drive a small car with rear-wheel drive and 10cm wide street tires? That’s right. The Suzuki got stuck. There was one lonely fisherman with a 4WD about 1km away. If we couldn’t solve the problem ourselves, we would have to ask him for help. We took it as training for Western Australia, and Marco started to search for some wood, dig the gravel away, underpin the rear tires, and slowly but surely, we made our way out of the small gravel pit and parked on the hard sones again—time for a refreshing bath in the beautiful blue river. In the end, everything went well, and we will take it as a sign not to overshoot our cars and skills in off-road riding.
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Familiar faces in Osaka

 
We woke up with lovely sunshine 100 km south of Osaka. After a little beach walk, we were ready for a ride towards Osaka. Plan for the day: Meet Alicia‘s brother and girlfriend, who are traveling Japan by Shinkansen in Osaka. We booked a hotel near Osaka Castle and went straight there. We arrived at 10 AM, so we had 5 hours to go until we could check in our room. We went straight to the Dotonbori District and met with Christian and Fiona. What a feeling to talk German to someone again! We discovered the city together and returned to the hotel for check-in. The room was excellent and even had a Japanese-style dining table in it. But we had no time to lose and met again with the two at Tsutenkaku Tower.
After a beer, we searched for an okonomiyaki restaurant (like an omelet with cabbage grilled right before you). The first one or two were closed, so we ended up in something that looked like a Japanese grandma’s kitchen. There wasn‘t even a menu, only Japanese writings on the wall. We told her our wishes with the translation app, which functioned semi-good. Alicia‘s brother ordered one okonomiyaki with chicken, and what he got was only some grilled chicken. No rice, no noodles, no sauce, just grilled chicken. Ultimately, we paid around 6000 JPY (40€) for three beers, a Coke, two okonomiyaki with only egg and cabbage, and the grilled chicken. Quite expensive this semi-good food experience.
After this disappointing experience, we went to the Tsutenkaku Tower to see the Osaka skyline by night, which was lovely. The next stop was a nice Shushi restaurant beside the tower named Rokusen. The sushi was fantastic, and we also did a small sake tasting. The night with Christian and Fiona was excellent, and we think our paths might cross again somewhere else in Japan.
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Back to nature

 
One day and night in Osaka was enough for us, and Japanese nature pulled us away from the cities again. The plan was to eat Kobe in Kobe, but we had enough of driving a car through city traffic and went over Awaji Island straight to Shikoku Island, where you can find some of the remotest parts of Japan. We planned to hike the Tsurugi-san with its 1,955 m. The way to the trailhead was quite a surprise, and we drove endless curves on a small mountain street for two hours in the dark. Finally, we made it to our sleeping spot, and after a cold night, we had a fresh, sunny morning with around 7 degrees Celsius. After our coffee, we started the hike to the top, and right before the top, we reached a small Shinto shrine where we wrote our first ema wood plaque. You could write wishes on these beautiful signs and hook them beside the shrines. We continued our hike and reached the summit with the best weather. Because of the weather and the nice paths, we continued our hike towards Mount Jirogyu. Ultimately, we went down by Cablecare; only one seat, no belt, but speakers with nice calming Japanese sounds. We were thrilled and exhausted; what a fantastic Friday.
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Hiking Round 2

 
Because we liked the hike so much, we decided to hike Mount Ishizuchi on Saturday. There was rain forecasted for midday, so we wanted to walk early in the morning. So again, we drove to the trailhead, and again, we drove the last hour in complete darkness on small little mountain streets. The morning was cloudy but dry, so we went for Ishizuchi-san. About two kilometers from the peak, it started to rain, and we paused at a public toilet (what else do you expect after hiking 4 km into the mountain in Japan?!) around one kilometer away from the top. We waited a few minutes to see if the rain would stop, but it didn’t look so. So we went on, and some young sports group with the same outfits followed. We quickly saw that they were pushing each other, so we let them pass. We followed them, and the rain was forgotten after we had the new goal to keep up with their speed. Just before the top, the rain ended, but it was very cloudy. After our hike, we drove out of the mountains towards Kochi, enough of hiking and driving small mountain roads.
On this day, we experienced again how friendly the Japanese are and how fit elderly Japanese People are. On the top of Mount Ishizuchi, we talked to elderly Ohme, who lives in Kobe, and went out the weekend to hike. He was the fastest of his group of 7 hikers, and as we spoke, his friends arrived, and he asked if we could make a group foto of them—no problem, and a selfie afterward. Two Japanese women from the group came instantly towards us to gift us some Japanese snacks. We liked them very much.
On our way down, we met Kota with the nickname Noisan. He was carrying 25 kg of food for the mountain hut on his back and lives around Ishizuchi-San. He asked if we had an Instagram account, and as we have none, we gave him a card for our blog. Cheers, Noisan; if you are reading this, meeting you was nice!
On our hikes to Mount Tsurugi, Jirogyu, and Ishizuchi, we only saw one Western-looking tourist. It differs from something like Osaka, where you can hear every language. This is the Japan experience we are here for!
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Beaches, Spiders, and temples 

 
Today, we decided to escape the bad weather by heading down the coastline to visit some temples and enjoy the beautiful weather at some nice locations. Along the way, we saw a lot of spiders, but it didn’t dampen our spirits. Overall, exploring the beaches, temples, and nature was a great Sunday. One thing we recognized is the signs of tsunamis. You can see the escape signs everywhere, and we also saw some tsunami shelters.
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Onsen and Ferry Day 

 
On Monday, our plan was simple. We only wanted to visit an Onsen and catch the ferry towards Fukuoka. As we slept near Amazing Gorge, we went for a little morning hike, and as we saw a rope swing over the water, Marco couldn’t resist. On our way to the Onsen, construction work blocked the road. A construction worker named Nakamura, who is 40 years old, told us we had to wait 45 minutes, so there was no problem for us. We made coffee and gave him one. He was pleased. We found a nice little Onse for only 500 JPY (3 €) in the countryside. The manager of the Onsen was Yoshi, and he also had a campsite next to the Onsen. He was very interested in our route through Japan and had a friend who lives in Berlin. He loves Techno and hopes to get into Berghain one day.
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Food and Drinks

 
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That’s it for this week’s blog post. Thanks if you made it down here! Let’s see what the new week will bring.
 

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