cuisine de mushi: Bicycling Japan 2024: Day 1 ("accidental" tour along Shimanami Kaido to Ushima)

Day One

We didn't get the Japan Rail Pass this year since it was an arm and a leg but this means we got to take a Nozomi. Photo by Jason.

This should technically be Day Zero point one. Because we're on our way to my uncle's place on an island along the Shimanami Kaido (which we did 11 years ago). Since I'm in my 40's and wanted a comfortable travel experience, I carefully mapped out an elaborate route via bullet train (to Fukuyama), local bus (Shimanami Liner), and a ferry BY HAND (Dear Japan, as the epitome of technology, I'm confused why several of your travel schedules are still IN PDF FORM and don't reliably show up on route planners. As a person with only a 6th grade Japanese reading level, and with a recently diagnosed issue of focusing on small details too much, it literally took me HOURS to plan this. Just saying. Sincerely, -Yumi in Mid-life crisis).

It was to take roughly 4 hours but I'd arrive dry and breathing normal in time to meet the house minder who would be waiting for us on the island.

As a public service, in case anyone reading this would be interested in taking the ferry from Miyakubo-Ushima-Oura, here's a schedule as of 8 November 2024.

But no. As we're about to get off the bullet train, Jason turns to me with puppy eyes: "Yumi, it's so nice outside. Let's bike the rest of the way! I took 5 minutes to map the route. We can make it in 2 hours. We'll have plenty of time."

Famous last words.

To you strapping 20/30 year olds this probably looks exciting. Doable, even. To my 42-year old "sedentary life style" self who was supposed to be sitting in an air-conditioned bus, not so much. If you are curious we would ride from the "You are here" red circle to station 6 in the blue rectangle.

Little does she know as she pigs out on that tarako musubi that in 70 minutes she will be cursing the stars and sobbing and looking a big(er) mess. Ironically, I'm sitting on the "See you Again" side of the sign. Photo by Jason.

Two grueling hours later, we're still 15km (9miles) from our destination and there are only 2 ferries left. I now know what it means when your lungs feel like they are going to explode. How was sweating with goose bumps?? At one point we thought of getting a taxi but I (yeah, me) said "no! we keep going!"

One of the bridges. Looks majestic? Not after you climbed the switch back leading to it like your life depended on it.

Jason as he tries to tell me "see, not so bad, right?" uh-huh.

The bicycle switchback trail way up to one of the bridges. Do not be fooled by the flat-ness, there was no way I was going to snap a picture on an incline.

...And we missed the ferry. By five minutes. Of course.

But, the universe was somehow looking down upon us because there was a real-life working well maintained (and clean. Clean! I could lick the receiver. I did not) payphone from which I called our very kind house-minder, who handed us the keys as we stepped off the last ferry of the day and he stepped on it to go back to his home.