Bye Bye town straight out of a Japanese film/anime I mean Futami. I'll miss you.
Rather than signs for moose, people, or bears (oh my!) common in the USA, Japanese road signs have warnings of random crossings of...large waves. This maybe more terrifying.
Change of plans - instead of riding along the flat coast, towards the Ferry to Beppu, we decided to ride down a valley through a town called Ozu (downhill mostly hurraaay).
Some highlights from Oz(u):
Highlight one: Ozu castle, which was continuously built between the 1300s and late 1500s and restored in the early 2000's. What is really cool is that it was restored using the original wood-working techniques, many of which had to be researched by the carpenters. I thought it was one of the more interesting of the Japanese castle-forts I have been to. The dioramas include dolls based on real people in the town who volunteered as models.
I'm not quite sure what is supposed to be depicted here but maybe it's just for humor?
Not one piece of nail is used here!!!
Imagine having to go down these stairs to use the toilet in the middle of the night.
Highlight two: We had a snack at a Garyu Brewing, a craft brewery and the lovely bakery across from it. Then headed off to the "old town" area, of Ozu, which has maintained it's look from the Meiji era (mid 1800 to early 1900s). We came across this section that looked like something from my Mom's era though (1940-1950's) which was pretty cool.
An antique statue of "Peko-chan" a character of the Fujiya company, which still sells confectioneries.
See the yellow sign with red lettering? That would be a cartoon ad for hemorrhoids. Sit on that for a moment.
Random vending machine selling alcohol.
And of course, America is everywhere...
Back on the road and through a not so nice tunnel (but still doable with bike), we rode up and down some hills and landed in Yawatahara to take the ferry.
Tunnel biking is never fun.
We mis-calculated (again) and arrived just in time to miss the 13:00 ferry so walked around a bit while waiting for the 17:30 ferry to Beppu. Armed with a map, we explored the "business fest" where the main attraction was prince Hamapon and also came across a small family-owned
Umebijin Shuzo sake factory (alas I was too busy gabbing to take photos of the factory).
A Prince Hamapon citing! (photo by Jason)
The coast guard also had their ship open for tourists so we took the obligatory hat-photo.
Back onto the ferry, we enjoyed a plush seating situation, drank some sake, and snacked on local mikan (citrus).
Our Ferry, the Reimei-Maru
She had some cush seating! There's also an area with tatami mats where you can take a nap. Our fresh buy, some delicious sake and local fruit (apple is actually from Hirai-san our wonderful host at Ushima)
...And landed after a few hours to start our next adventure in....Beppu!!!
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