Another Autumn in Japan

My flight from Seattle to Japan in September marked my sixth visit to the island nation in just three years, and my second autumn. The pursuit of love and adventure has been richly rewarding as I’ve gained a better understanding of myself and a deeper view of Japanese culture. Generally, when I’m here, I’ve been hanging out domestically in Tokyo with Claire, but there always seem to be some kind of adventure brewing.

Well, my repeat visits to Japan always center around Claire and her schedule, either for a holiday or seasonal cultural event. Shortly after my arrival was the Daita matsuri, her local festival, where the neighborhood gathers to carry around a shrine (mikoshi) housing the local god (kami) for a tour through the streets and make a big ruckus all the while doing it. Supporters line up to offer drinks and snacks to its bearers, and this labor of love goes on from midday to dusk. It was my second year participating thanks to the inclusive efforts of her dear friend, Haruna, and really gives me an anchoring feeling to Claire and her community, even if my communication skills are still quite lacking.

I’ve been working on that too though. This time around, to make better use of my ample free time, I enrolled in a part-time language school for a month; JaLS in Shibuya. 2.5 hours a day with a small cadre of fellow adult learners from around the world, all with their own interesting stories. The extracurricular activities were a bit touristic for me, and the staff a little too eager to monopolize scant free time with small talk, but the actual classes were worthwhile, and I felt like I made a big leap forward in my learning and competency. It still feels like a chasm between me and language proficiency, but every day of study makes me a little better in that department. Claire and other friends have noticed an improvement which I can take away as a win.

One thing I got into this time with my free evenings was getting into watching some big sporting events. I went twice to Ariake for matches at the Japan Open, after watching Wimbledon with Claire and her mum back in the UK. I finally saw a big Japanese baseball game to mirror the American tradition in Saitama, and the energy of the big, enthusiastic crowd was infectious in a comeback win for the home team. Finally, at the suggestion of my pal Glory back in Tucson, I saw an All-Japan Pro Wrestling event near Tokyo Dome, for some theatrical, and shirtless, combat.

But the highlight of this trip was, of course, another bike trip. After cycling the length of Japan this spring, I actually had left my bicycle behind in Tokyo when I went off to Vietnam and then the UK. So, it was very easy to do another trip together for Claire’s week off in fall. We decided to tackle Yamaguchi prefecture this time, as it was Claire’s last region of Japan unvisited by bicycle, and for me, part of my original, intended route before Claire convinced me to take a ferry to Shikoku and ride along the epic Setonaikai through Ehime. She was right on that choice, by the way, I fell hard for Ehime on the journey.

We picked our biking back up with a couple nights in Beppu, the esteemed (& steamy) onsen city of Oita. We actually parted ways here after riding Kyushu south to north together back in Spring, so it was nice to resume where we left off and see where we get to in a week. My hackneyed planning led us to start in a Jurassic Park themed love hotel, which sounded awesome at first glance, and absolutely was sufficiently kooky, except for the caveat of having to bike up 300 meters to it after dark. I’m glad Claire took that in stride, and at least it made for a good start to some fun adventures on our next day.

Day 1 of our trip was just about riding our bikes around the city and relaxing in as many onsen as we could fit in a day. Thanks to our starting position, we got to hit a couple at elevation easily enough. Counting a morning bath in the hotel, it came out to four soaks total, and we even had our dinner onsen steam-cooked to boot. From our campsite that evening, in the forested beach outskirts, we were sure to plan to grab one more soak in the morning on our way out.

We proceeded up and around the almost-circular Kunisaki peninsula north of Beppu. I could see some jagged mountains in its center that would be fun to ride, but I couldn’t quite convince Claire to do another monstrous climb after my dinosaur-shaped mistake the previous day, so we settled for balmy, coastal riding around it. A quiet seaside park at its northern tip wound up as our camp that night, and an ocean rinse of the day’s sweat and dust was almost as good as a bath. Despite it being October, the water was still decently warm to boot.

The following day we crossed into Fukuoka Prefecture, with a stop at Usa Jingu on the way. It’s one of the major shrines of Shintoism that dates back over a millennium. I really find observing other culture’s religious sites and rites quite interesting, and I’ve even gotten into collecting the wooden blocks with unique art to each temple (ema). I learned in this writing that it is here, during the Nara Period, that the carrying of the mikoshi actually originated, a unique tie-in to my earlier cultural activities.

Afterwards, I was shocked to find pawpaws at a roadside station (michi-no-eki) in Nakatsu. I always enjoy checking the markets for vegan snacks and unusual produce, and was richly rewarded that day. Pawpaws are a fruit native to North America, and very rare there outside of the swampier regions it grows in, and only fruit in autumn. It doesn’t travel or store well, so most Americans aren’t even aware of its existence, let alone tasted one. The last time I had pawpaw was upon wandering the country in 2018, while bicycling the Potomac River in Maryland. Claire had never tried one and wasn’t much for them, alas. ’Twas all to my benefit, as I got to eat half of hers as well, for that sweet, nostalgic taste before the door on this flavor again closed.

After there we made our way to the northern tip of Kyushu, where it nearly connects to Honshu, with only the narrow Kanmon Strait dividing Kitakyushu and Shimonoseki. We had a respite at the town of Mojiko, the nearest to the crossing, which has a retro, Western-fusion appeal to it, and prices to match the accompanying hipness. There is a kilometer-long pedestrian tunnel connecting the two landmasses, where we alighted to after enjoying some beers at the channel and watching the fast flowing water eddy this way and that.

Unfortunately for us, the road east immediately turned into a high-traffic highway, and we found ourselves riding away from the sunset on a busy highway. Apparently cyclists usually press north for the remote western coastline, but that wasn’t in the cards for this trip. Instead, after a night camped near yet another tattoo-unfriendly onsen, which remains a constant let-down, we soon found some remote country roads to divert for a worthy detour up into the hills to Akiyoshido Cave.

Akiyoshido Cave is a Quasi-National Park and a very worthy detour, with awesome karst formations aboveground and caves formed of limestone below. We did the cave tour, with a kilometer walking path each way past spectacular subterranean features. It was even better since the timing kept us off our bikes during a passing rain shower. That night, we cycled into the city of Yamaguchi, visited its famed pagoda, Rurikoji, and closed out our visit to the prefectural capitol with some riverside camping.

All along this trip, we gazed at the lovely Seto Inland Sea as we cycled alongside it. Its beauty is well worth lingering over, with its many islands and sunnier microclimate. We camped adjacent to the ocean on our last night before reaching the Iwakuni airport just south of Hiroshima for our egress back to Tokyo. Another day and we likely would have reached Onomichi at the northern end of the Setonaikai and linked this route and my Shikoku one from Spring. This time, I snacked on bundles of mikan, Japanese mandarins, which are the citrus export of the Seto area. I even grabbed a 2kg bag for the flight home, proof I’m always thinking with my stomach.

After all this, we had a week until my return to the USA to resume my life in Tucson after what became 7 months away from home. I finished my language class, Claire resumed work, and we shared a long weekend of chill, domestic Tokyo vibes. Goodbyes are always hard, and I really feel like we have a good cadence together when I’m in her apartment, enough for it to really feel like home for me as well. It’s really feeling to me like I could live there full time. It’s what I’m really looking into now this winter.

One interesting avenue may be to try teaching. Since I traveled so thoroughly across Japan this year, I have decided to apply for the Japan Teaching and Exchange Program, known as JET, as perhaps the way I can be here more permanently and to see how fulfilling I find teaching. If selected, I’d embed with Japanese public schools and help with English education, hopefully near Claire. I’ll find out in the Spring about that as a potential next step in life. Meanwhile, I’m taking the warm feelings of my adventures across Japan and a cross ocean romance with me back in the desert I still call home for now. I’m still looking at my options in tech, continuing my Japan studies, and getting in good connection with friends and media all the while.