Stories

We picked up our rental in Sapporo and laughed. The thing was the size of a large shoebox with wheels. 660cc engine. Room for two bags if you squinted.

The rental guy assured us it would be fine. 'Hokkaido roads are flat,' he said. He clearly hadn't driven to Shiretoko.

Day three we hit our first real hill. The kei car dropped to 40km/h with the pedal on the floor. Trucks passed us. Truck drivers waved. They'd seen this before.

But here's the thing: it worked. We did 800 kilometers. We fit in narrow village streets where vans couldn't go. We parked anywhere. We spent maybe 6000 yen on gas total.

Would we do it again? In a heartbeat. Would we get a bigger engine? Also yes.

The GPS died somewhere north of Wajima. My phone had no signal. I took a turn that felt right and immediately knew it wasn't.

The road narrowed to one lane, then to gravel. Then it ended at a fishing port with six boats and a cat. A guy in rubber boots was mending nets.

I was about to turn around when he waved me over. Pointed at a building. Looked like a garage. Was a restaurant.

An older woman – his mother, I think – served me grilled eel over rice. The eel was caught that morning. The sauce was sweet and smoky. I still think about it.

I never found that place again. Tried to mark it on Google Maps later – nothing. Some things you only get by getting lost.

The guidebook said the outdoor baths in Kurokawa get crowded by 9am. I'm not a morning person, but I'm also not a sharing-a-hot-tub-with-strangers person.

So I set my alarm for 5:30. Walked through the village in the dark. Steam was rising off the river. Nobody else was awake.

I had the rotenburo completely alone for an hour. Just me, the hot water, and the sound of the river. Mist over the water. A bird I couldn't identify.

By 7:30, buses started arriving. I was drying off and drinking vending machine coffee while tour groups queued up. Some experiences are worth losing sleep over.

Four ferries in one day. That was the plan. Matsuyama to Yawatahama, then across to Beppu, then down the coast. We missed the second ferry by three minutes.

Ended up on a slower boat that took twice as long. Best thing that happened. The fast ferry was a metal box. The slow one had a deck, benches, and a vending machine that sold hot corn soup.

Somewhere in the Seto Inland Sea, between islands, we docked at a port with one building. A woman sold mikan oranges from her garden. 200 yen for a bag. We ate them on the deck, spitting seeds into the water.

We arrived in Beppu at sunset. Missed the onsen we planned to visit. Found a better one by accident. Travel rule: the wrong ferry is usually the right one.