Me and Tristan thank Megan for her hospitality and kindness as we say our goodbyes outside her apartment. Beppu is one special little town, and a friend always makes a place that much more special. We ride together, away from the stranger turned friend.
Mechanical Issues
My poor bike is falling apart. This trip has worn us both out. Today's problem is my jitensha's breaks. Worn down to the metal, a terrible screech comes from my bicycle each time I use my breaks. Any more use and the metal will eventually break my tires.
After trying a couple of bike shops, me and Tris find one and I buy a pair for my front wheel. The back needs it too, but we are running late as it is. We spend some time in a parking lot changing my breaks (neither of us is an expert) but thanks to my new friend's mechanical abilities, I find myself able to stop again.
Into the Heart of Kyushu
I am going south. Tristan is going north. We should both take the coastal roads in opposite directions, but instead decide to take the smallest one straight into the mountains...the one that leads into the center of the island. Both of our adventures' times are almost up. I am 5 days from the finish line. Tris is 3. Neither of us feels like the adventure should end yet....so we decide to take the harder path into the mountains....a detour, with the hope of finding something more than the coast promises.
Expected Hardship
Needless to say, our decision places us smack into an endless land of Yama. The entire center of Kyushu is extremely mountainous. We mostly walk for the majority of the day as the climbs are too steep, and too much strain results in excessive sweat, which then results in terrible cold. However, every other turn provides a stunning view of the surroundings. Since we walk most of the way, we chat away not really paying attention to the amount of distance we should cover. We are supposed to get to Aso, but instead, after many uphill and downhill roads, we find ourselves in Taketa as the sun goes down.
Parting Ways
Me and Tristan get some dinner at a local yakitori restaurant. There, as usual, we make friends with locals. Tris speaks good Japanese, unlike me who always has to use a mix of English, Japanese, gestures, and faces to get my point across. The guy next to us tells me about Cape Sata. He is not sure if there are monkeys there, but is sure there are wild horses in the area! Everytime I get some info on the place, I always get a different story. Who knows.....who cares. Sata is special because it's special. Whether there is anything there or not...is really a side-note. It's where the land ends...where I get to say I cycled the length of an entire country.......it's where a piece of me has been waiting for me to arrive, for a very very long time now.
The old man tells me then that he will fly his plane on the 30th of November, when I arrive in Sata, and say hello. His plane? Me and Tris laugh at the idea. The man is drunk....he is probably not telling the truth. After offering Tris a ride to Kumamoto, his next destination, as well as offering us food and drinks, we say our thanks and leave the place. Tristan denied the favor as his challenge also involves biking only.
In the freezing cold of the Kyushu mountain town, we say our final goodbyes. Me and Tris met by chance in Shikoku, the previous island, and have joined our two adventures for the past 4 days. But we are both lone wolves, heading toward places that are in opposite directions. We hug and hope to meet again. I find a hotel as he finds a quiet spot to place his tent. We go our separate ways, to live the rest of our lives. It's been fun, fellow traveler.
Jinja Time
Alone again. I always tend to try and find a jinja (shrine) each time I enter a new region or reach a new island here. I am as scheptical as it gets. The ones that know me well, know how much proof I need to believe in anything. But on this trip, I made a deal with myself in Cape Soya, the northernmost point back in Hokkaido. I said I would let go....live a different life, be a different person for a while, see a different side to life. It's been beautiful, not to say healing, exciting, and an array of other adjectives. So, I am finally on the last island. No more land other than little bits of Earth, here and there, down all the way to Okinawa.
Right next to my hotel, I see a jinja. It is dark, and it is cold. The sky is dotted by a thousand stars. I see the tori (a gate at the entrance of all jinjas). I enter it and walk up the stairs. I realize that this shrine is at the top of a massive hill. My bike is waiting near the gate. The rock stairs keep going up. It is pitch black. A stray cat runs away. It just keeps getting darker. "Are you afraid? After all you've seen.....are you STILL afraid of what may be in the dark Fabio?" I think to myself......hmmmm. The stairs are endless. I hesitate a second, but continue.
I always visit the first jinja of a new place. This is Kyushu....the island that I have been trying to reach for so long....the land that holds Cape Sata.....the destination I have considered most significant for so much time now. And this random shrine.....this is all of Kyushu's jinja in my book.
....I keep going, scaling the hill's stone steps. Into the darkness. Up and up and up. I see the stars above. I am quite up high. The forest is right next to me. "Stop....go back.......don't do it........you are alone..........defensless.......hopeless if attacked.....don't go, turn back!" my mind goes on, but I am attracted to this place by the side of me I have been growing on this trip. The side of me that got me all the way here. The stairs end.....and I find myself in a dark open area surrounded by trees. I see the shrine at the end. In the silence of this forest, I walk up, clap twice, and rub my hands together like Shigeru used to. All my fears go away....and the cool mountain air fills my lungs as I listen to the forest. ..................................beautiful, not scary........beautiful. I say thank you for all the things that are good in my life, realizing how long my list is. How lucky I am compared to most of the conscious beings of my world. I am at the top, somewhere. Just today, at a snack joint in the mountains, me and Tris saw a stray cat. His leg broken, bone sticking out, limping around asking for what could have only meant help. We fed it some hot dogs. Prolonged his poor existence one more day. The true sadness of it all is only understood by seeing the true beauty that exists in everything. And viceversa. Such is life. That concious creature will die and go back to the Earth soon. But at the moment.....alone in the jinja's forest, as animals die and are born around me, as the trees sway in the dark cold night...I only feel the beauty of life, and feel at peace, in this strange place full of mystery.
.....I open my eyes and head back down, proud of myself for reaching the top afterall. It is only fair that Kyushu's jinja present me with a different experience than all the rest. I reach the end of this path, where my faithful bike waits, broken and beat up, but always ready to carry me onto the next place. I wonder where I will be tomorrow. Sata keeps getting closer. It used to be months of cycling away....now I only have days left. I wonder if it was worth all this effort.....
68km
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