02: Be water, my friend

Cycling across Japan day 2/3: Kagoshima to Izumi, Izumi to Kumamoto.

Day 2 - Kagoshima to Izumi

Never have I seen so much rain fall from such innocuous clouds. But rain it did, and rain even more as we left Kagoshima for our first big day of climbing. Flood and thunderstorm warnings pinged through on our phones, but the Google Sheet overruled; we had a schedule to keep.

As we dragged ourselves over the hills separating southern Kyushu from the middle plains, everything was water. It was the first big test for our legs, morale, and the waterproofing of our saddlebags. All passed with merit.

The reward for our efforts? A chorus of frog song accompanying us through the mountains, egging us on from their rice paddy hideyholes. A landscape in full flow, storm pipes and swollen tributaries feeding rivers close to bursting. A convenience store egg, perfectly salted inside its shell. Coffee, courtesy of Mutsumi Kodama and his popup shop.

It was wet. Really wet. And that could have been problematic. But we were well served by our waterproofs and the views unfurling ahead, and our spirits remained high as we meandered through Satsuma country. (Fun fact 1: the Satsuma Domain — now Kagoshima — was the final holdout of the samurai in the late 19th century, and inspired The Last Samurai; and 2) is the origin of a small, sweet citrus fruit, popularly known on UK supermarket shelves as satsumas.)

The day ended with a long, snaking downhill through some truly Jurassic valleys, populated not with pterodactyls but grey herons, deemed the lucky omen of our trip. Water brought the mountain to life, the new leaves on the trees plump with moisture, a bright shade of green. As we finished our descent, the clouds swallowed the mountains behind us. With them, finally, went the rain.

The last great challenge was to dry our clothes. Our accommodation was a designer shipping container on the outskirts of Izumi, fitted with a monster AC unit. We hung our shorts, cranked the temperature to max, and hermetically sealed the room while we went out for dinner. Our clothes dried, but the smell will outlive us all.

Day 3 - Izumi to Kumamoto

Each of us opted for a luxury item this trip. For me, it was a drone. For Tom, it was a 500g bag of coffee, an aeropress, and the world’s heaviest grinder. The coffee this morning was excellent, thanks Tom.

Better still was the absence of rain when we left our shipping container. 105 kilometres lay ahead of us, and we had a dinner appointment in Kumamoto, so we had to get a move on.

Trouble is the country is so damn beautiful, and there’s too much that grabs the attention. Barely 2km goes by between one of us stopping to take a photo, spying a new snack at a convenience store, or admiring some particularly striking koi.

Perhaps the best moment came on our final climb of the day when we spied an orange grove, ripe fruit littering the ground beneath the trees. I nipped up, grabbed a couple, cracked them open and feasted. Half-time slices never tasted so good.

Whistle blown, back on road, and in pursuit of some semblance of self-control, we found ourselves whizzing through the farmland on the outskirts of Kumamoto. All around, big greenhouses growing cactuses and citrus; ripe fields of wheat, ready to be harvested; new rice shoots, evenly spaced in their well-irrigated paddies. High above, the bullet train roared through the centre of the valley, speeding passengers north to Kumamoto. We took off in chase, but could never quite catch up.

In Kumamoto, we had our first onsen —delightful, as always — and met up for our dinner date with Kerry Greer (who I’ve known since I first moved to Japan, and has made it his life mission to restore the village of Akizuki to its former glory) and his partner Lisa for sashimi and mustard-stuffed lotus root in a tiny izakaya in central Kumamoto. A wonderful evening to cap off a long day in the saddle. Next up Aso.

Thanks for reading,

Oscar

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Stats

• Distance covered: 242 km

• Vertical: 3,000 meters

• Onigiri eaten: 11

• Bike weight, loaded: 18.5 kg (Oscar), 22kg (Tom)

• Starting weight: 66.5kg (Oscar), 72kg (Tom)

• Sunburn: