August 21st
Today, I finally got to sleep until 10! There was no 6am morning wake-up call throughout the city, and I was stoked. I just played the lazy card today, went driving around everywhere to try and find some surf places. I got lost, but found a beautiful farm with an old windmill. Mom, you're going to love this one.
I ended up playing phone tag with Topher, as he was catching waves somewhere. Mary Margaret called and told me to head to Cape Toi. Not only is there surf, but monkeys!
I saw one monkey run across the street, but he disappeared and I couldn't get a picture. It's okay, the surf was some of the best I've seen so far, and I was able to catch some insane rides.
Muro (my new motorcycle friend) picked me up and took me to his friend’s house about 45 mins away. First, though, he took me to his house to see his garage. Little did I know that I was going to see some antique Verocetta, Gas Gas, Honda, Harley Davidson, and Yamaha motorcycles. His Verocetta was from 1937, and was in mint condition. He even had a right-hand drive Mini Cooper that he was restoring. Car emblems, patches, posters, and other collectible items were in display cases and hung on walls. It was like walking into a motorcycle museum. I told him I wanted to sleep in the garage that night and he laughed. I was being serious. I met his son, who is a huge soccer player, and his wife who previously studied abroad in Costa Mesa. How crazy is that!? She spoke wonderful English, and so became my translator for a bit of the night. We arrived at the friend’s house, where there were Harleys, a Moto Guzzi, and a Ducati sitting in the garage. The friends were already tending to the BBQ and promptly came over to offer me a beer. One of the guys knew the phrase, ‘Nice to meet you,’ and he practically yelled it out anytime he had the drunken urge. Such hilarious guys. The meal was BBQ chunks of bacon, veggies, more bacon, chicken sashimi, beef, more chicken sashimi, and tons of boiled peanuts. Then they brought out huge plates of grapes, which caused the kids to keep bringing them over to me in exchange for an opened peanut. I met the owner of a motorcycle shop who said he would start searching for bikes that would fit me. The guy who kept yelling, ‘Nice to meet you,’ fell asleep in his chair around 10pm, and the kids kept trying to wake him up by putting grapes in his mouth. Everyone else just laughed. The night was great, we shared a lot of food, laughs, and semi-understandable conversations about riding. I really hope I’ll be getting a bike, just to ride with these guys. Muro drove me home, and I fell asleep right away. What a night!
Muro (my new motorcycle friend) picked me up and took me to his friend’s house about 45 mins away. First, though, he took me to his house to see his garage. Little did I know that I was going to see some antique Verocetta, Gas Gas, Honda, Harley Davidson, and Yamaha motorcycles. His Verocetta was from 1937, and was in mint condition. He even had a right-hand drive Mini Cooper that he was restoring. Car emblems, patches, posters, and other collectible items were in display cases and hung on walls. It was like walking into a motorcycle museum. I told him I wanted to sleep in the garage that night and he laughed. I was being serious. I met his son, who is a huge soccer player, and his wife who previously studied abroad in Costa Mesa. How crazy is that!? She spoke wonderful English, and so became my translator for a bit of the night. We arrived at the friend’s house, where there were Harleys, a Moto Guzzi, and a Ducati sitting in the garage. The friends were already tending to the BBQ and promptly came over to offer me a beer. One of the guys knew the phrase, ‘Nice to meet you,’ and he practically yelled it out anytime he had the drunken urge. Such hilarious guys. The meal was BBQ chunks of bacon, veggies, more bacon, chicken sashimi, beef, more chicken sashimi, and tons of boiled peanuts. Then they brought out huge plates of grapes, which caused the kids to keep bringing them over to me in exchange for an opened peanut. I met the owner of a motorcycle shop who said he would start searching for bikes that would fit me. The guy who kept yelling, ‘Nice to meet you,’ fell asleep in his chair around 10pm, and the kids kept trying to wake him up by putting grapes in his mouth. Everyone else just laughed. The night was great, we shared a lot of food, laughs, and semi-understandable conversations about riding. I really hope I’ll be getting a bike, just to ride with these guys. Muro drove me home, and I fell asleep right away. What a night!
August 22nd
This morning, I woke up around 8:30am to get ready for a day with Andrew’s old friend. I actually still don’t know his name, since he came over one day, not expecting me to be here, and then invited me for a day down to Cape Sata. He made it sound like we were going to ride motorcycles, so I was amped up for the weekend. It turns out, his wife wanted to meet me, so we drove in their Land Cruiser all the way to the point. She was so nice, wearing her full arm-length gloves, huge hat, and covered from head to toe with random articles of clothing. We stopped at Japan’s 2nd largest rocket facility and looked around the buildings/launch pad for a while. We stopped at some markets, a roadside ‘water fountain,’ a river that is 5 inches deep and runs atop solid rock, and climbed the tower at the southernmost point of Kyushu.
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| 'Water Fountain' on side of road. |
All along the way, I couldn’t believe how clear the beaches were and only imagined all the fish that were swimming around.
The couple brought me back to their home and cooked a dinner from the fish we bought at the market, along with some slices of watermelon we got at a roadside stand. They have two sons, one who is a DJ, and I can’t recall the other’s profession. The wife makes her own ceramic pottery, but doesn’t compare to my mom’s J But, I really can’t say enough about how great they were. He even took me to his shed that housed his 3 motorcycles, and told me that we could go riding one day. A nice, long day, but I was pooped. Tomorrow is my trip to KAPIC with Kyle, Ryan, and the other new JETs from Kagoshima.
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