Finishing the job

6/05/2011: Miyazaki to Nobeoka (then train to Osaka) 103.21km

Me and Russell were not in a massive rush this morning as we had a few goodbye beers in Murrays bar last night. It could be the last time i ever see Murray so a few beers were allowed. Just before we left the apartment a few drips of rain began so we headed to a starbucks for a heart warming cup of tea but the rain just got heavier.

There was a sensible option of just getting on the train in Miyazaki but this would cost an extra 4000Yen so we decided to cycle. It was wet but we were cycling, for a couple of fully loaded bikes a blistering pace, we got soaked but kept warm, it was only when we stopped we could feel the chill. Considering the rain we made it to Nobeoka in good time and caught an earlier train.

Train as mentioned before is the pain in the gluteus maximus of putting the bicycle in a bag. Russell being a cheeky sod reckoned we’d get away with using a scooter cover that we’d bought for 100 Yen (60p). We quickly rolled the bikes past the first possible obstructive station worker but on the platform someone came out of an office and said we could put the bikes of the train as they were. He disappeared back into his office and as the train was due any minute (you can rely on a train being on time in Japan) we opted to make a dash for it.  The train came, we bundled our bikes on and we were on our way, now we just had a change onto the famous ‘bullet train’ or ‘shinkanson’ to get away with then we’d be in Osaka. 

I was looking forward to the bullet train, it travels at 300kmph (i think) and would cover 600km in just over 2 hours which is much quicker than cycling and its much more luxurious than any other train i have ever been on. But we still had to get on the bloody thing with our bikes before any station officer decided we couldn’t. Getting to the changeover we ran and dragged our luggage to platform 13 and by luck the amazing bullet train we needed to be on was sat there waiting so we piled on with the doors literally shutting behind us. As the bullet train is on wider tracks this therefore means its wider inside thus meaning there was more room for the bikes, happy days. Once we were organised we took our seats and enjoyed the epic ride, when the train really gets going you can feel yourself being pushed into your seat by the G-force created.

In triple/ quadruple quick time we had made it back to Osaka, it was 11pm and after a stop for beers it was mid-night by the time we got back to Russell’s apartment to finish them. It had been a long day and i was cream crackered so as you can imagine slept exceedingly well.