The Godfather 30/04/2011: Seiki to Nobeoka (then train to Miyazaki) 86.74km

Waking up i felt crappy and knew the outdoor living had got the better of me, i had a horrible cold which meant i was sneezing every few minutes, my head was rocking and had very little energy or enthusiasm to ride a bicycle. After i had packed up i went to the convenience store for the ritual of breakfast and a wash. While sat outside i got chatting to a local who was asking me about my trip. There was nothing unusual about this but he came back 5 minutes after he’d left with a hat, two drinks (one milky looking drink called ‘calpis’ pronounced ‘cow piss’) and 1000Yen. The 1000 Yen was hidden in the hat which had a message written inside, ‘Fight James’ and some Japanese which i decided not to try and translate.

  Russells train was an hour late and neither of us had a clue of how far we had to cycle to get to Miyazaki where we would meet Murray who we use to Pedicab with and nicknamed the ‘Godfather.’ When he did arrive i was sick as a dog, my dripping nose was uncontrollable and i felt like cow pat. After some food we were on our way, not to long into the ride we were waved down by a couple of guys who had bought us some drinks from a vending machine, i was doing ok for drinks today. We continued on and after an ice cream and a cigarette for Russell we appeared to have chosen the hardest road we could. The uphill’s were steep and down hills dangerous in spots, this made life for Russell very difficult as he was on his trusted fixed gear bike which he was pushing up some of the steeper hills.

As we had set off late we had the ambition to ride until mid-night to get to Murrays bar for a few beers. On the outskirts of Nobeoka it was almost 6pm, rain was beginning to fall and we still had 100km to go, a quick call to Murray confirmed that the rain would be coming down all night. Having already done 80km me and Russell (Russell persuaded me) to get a train the rest and we’d cycle the rest another day so my conscience could be clear that i’d cycled what i intended to.

Fixed gear +cigarettes 

At the train station whatever my body had been running on to get me this far was gone, i felt utterly drained but as Japan is Japan i needed to find a bag for my bike. You cannot bring a bicycle on a train in Japan unless its in a bag, i assume that the train companies have some shares in bicycle bags. I was done but Russell was pretty motivated in the search for a bag for my bike, we failed in the search and managed to squeeze both our bikes in the folded tarpaulin he used on the way down. We clambered onto the train which arrived on time, how strange is that.

In Miyazaki we assembled our bikes in the train station much to the annoyance of the ticket people as we were ruining their Zen. We then cycle a couple of kilometres to Murrays bar where we drank till close, then with Murray went to some more bars and once the sun was up went back (to what was Russell’s old apartment) to the apartment we had rented for the week, all arranged via The Godfather.