Spent the night in a hostel where the entire building and bet shook when a truck was going by. There were a lot of trucks going by.

Beginning of the day was decent. After a konbini breakfast atop the Kagoshima CO2 museum I’ve managed to leave the big city. Riding along quiet suburb roads, relaxing enough. Bad experience while descending on a fairly big road. Speed limit on the road was 50. I was doing around 40 to 45. Took advantage of the entire left line in the corners as the left side of the road was in a bad condition at points. Couple of cars and bikes were still annoyed enough to honk at me for not letting them pass in the corners, telling me to move to the side. Apparently those people are everywhere.

ResizedImage_2026-03-20_19-34-43_6317 Some mountain road I went up.

While climbing towards Ebino plateu I’ve met a Japanese guy with a big bagback and a scooter (!). He was walking around Kyuushuu. He was currently headed towards Kirishima to get his scooter fixed, as he had a flat tire. Last year he was travelling all around Japan. From Tokyo to Hokkaido and what not. Some of it on a bicycle apparently. Crazy guy!

Not even five minutes later I’ve stumble across two Canadians, Mika and Tom. Both are on bikes too and are planning to go from Cape Sata to Cape Soya. Since we were headed roughly in the same direction we decided to ride together for a bit. I wanted to finish the climb up to the plateu, after lunch at a 7/11. They wanted to camp on the camping ground next to it. Just as I was ready to depart an older Japanese guy talked to us, asking where we were from. As it turns out he is into bicycles and also was into bicycle touring when he was younger. He promptly invited us all to his house.

ResizedImage_2026-03-20_19-34-42_5951-1- *Nice little bridge we three went over. *

Obviously this made me change my plans and I’ve decided to set up tent for the night with Mika and Tom, as I could not pass over this opportunity. After struggling to setup my tent in the strong winds and taking a quick and hot dip in the camp ground attached onsen the three of us made our way to Yoshi-san and Ryoko-san’s house.

The house was quite big. Had some western style rooms and a japanese style living room. They showed us their Hinamatsuri dolls (they had a lot of them). After retiring from being a grade school teacher and a business man they’ve moved from Kagoshima to the outskirts of Kirishima and build this house. The birds in the garden were so trusting you could hold out your hand with a couple of seeds and they would come and eat them. We talked about our previous experiences in Japan. Where we came from. Where we intended to go. Where we absolutely must go. All while getting served green tea, dango, rice crackers and dagashi (japanese sweets). After roughly two hours we said our numerous goodbyes and thank yous. Of course there was no way we were leaving without getting gifted some fruit, vegetables and sweets.

What a great turn this day took after starting quite mediocre.

Written in a tent at a very spacious camp ground.