Day 50: Mine to Moji

November 14, 2024

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I'm starting to get used to this more relaxed schedule. It helps that the guesthouse stay includes breakfast. It's a first for us. I remember my first stay at a hostel. It was in Paris, and they provided free breakfast. It was cafeteria-style. I remember being given a big bowl, which I assumed was for cereal, only to have them pour café au lait in it. I thought that was cool.

I also remember staying in a dorm room at the University of Chicago for a couple days over winter break in 1996. I have no idea how I found out that they rent out their dorms when not in use, this being the almost-pre-world-wide-web days. What I do remember is eating meals in the cafeteria and being charged the student rate, which was a pittance.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm a huge fan of free and cheap breakfasts. So this was nice.

I was thinking again about how travel writing becomes more difficult over time. It's not just about the monotony, or that fewer things are novel, or that you've said everything you want to say about the trip in general. It's also about the suspense of not knowing whether the heroes will achieve their goals (not to imply that we're heroes of any sort). For us, the goal was to get from point A to point B in time, without having to resort to public transportation. I don't want to jinx it, but it's pretty obvious at this point that we'd be able to limp our way to Fukuoka if we had to.

Speaking of limping, today's goal was to keep slowing that roll. No major attractions to distract us, no killer hills to slow us down. Not even much in the way of scenery until near the end of the ride.

We ate second breakfast in a konbini parking lot. Three minutes later, this beautiful park presented itself. Oh well.

One last bit of river riding before the urban onslaught

Everyone line up for the urban onslaught!

After a few kilometers on good old National Route 2, the route briefly veers into the hills. It starts with the lovely little stream shown below, then passes through a posh neighborhood before turning back into industry. We took a break here to check out the shop at the nearby tourist info center.

Back on the coast highway, the bridge to Kyushu quickly came into view.

We weren't taking that bridge. Instead, our destination is this infamous tunnel:

I say infamous because all the YouTubers made a big deal out of it. I have to admit, it's a pretty unusual bit of infrastructure. A ferry would serve the purpose just as well.

Since we were trying to stretch out the day, we rode past the tunnel to a complex of wharfside restaurants to find the perfect lunch spot. Not surprisingly, a lot of them specialized in seafood, so it was slim pickings for me. We finally settled on a Chinese place, thinking they'd have something for me. They did: a garden salad. Whomp whomp. At least it was tasty.

Back at the bridge, we hung out in a nice park before entering the tunnel. I didn't try translating anything, but the theme was definitely "defending the strait". One of the cannons even has a little audio and smoke display that runs every few minutes.

If you zoom in on the photo below, you'll see that pedestrians are free, and two-wheeled vehicles pay a toll of 20 yen. It's on the honor system. I just happened to have exact change in my pocket, so here you go! Don't spend it all in one place!

We were still early to our unmanned lodging (meaning no early checkin) for the evening, so we rode over to the nearby waterfront. It was really nice. There's a banana theme, which we don't understand, but I think we'll keep that a mystery.

I know very little about Pokémon, so this manhole cover makes zero sense to me

Even the beer they have on tap is a hefeweizen, so it too has a banana taste

The apartment is pretty spacious and pretty Western. It includes an induction hob, so we decided to hit up the local grocery and put together a simple home-cooked meal. It satisfied our amusement food holes.

Every once in a while, an Engrish sign comes along that makes me chuckle

Tomorrow we continue to chug along the route, which is supposed to include some nice riding on the beach. We might get rained on, in which case it may not be quite as much fun, but that's okay. We'll make the best of whatever the weather brings us.

Today's ride: 47 km (29 miles)
Total: 2,869 km (1,782 miles)

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