Times I wish I had a helmet...

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We were ready for a little adventure after so much culture, but maybe we should be careful what we wish for.  Our first stop in Shikoku was the city of Takamatsu, but on Rika's suggestion we immediately headed out the next morning to the island of Shodoshima, the second largest island in the Inland Sea.  Rika had suggested the island as a nice rural retreat and suggested that it would be a fun day to bike around.  The loop was 70k but that seemed pretty doable for a full day, but we decided it would be more fun to rent a motor scooter and tour around.

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The ferry ride took about an hour and the boat docked in a tiny little town (think Mineral for those who have been to my hometown).  We were given the impression by several people that there would bike and scooter rental in an obvious location right as we stepped off the boat.  It was not.  Working from a map that I think my nephew Dominic drew we wandered.

As a lovely aside, we also were close to being out of money.  Japan is a pretty cash based society and there are very few ATM's.  Even worse there are fewer ATM's that accept American cards.  Since my bank has a $200 a day limit this created a problem for us a few times.  Hot and tired already a post office appeared in front of us like a ray of light.  We got lucky with the ATM working, thus solving problem #1.  Nick decided to ask the employees there about the bike rental.  They spoke almost no English and we spoke no Japanese but if you ask someone in Japan a question they will do whatever it takes to get you an answer.  Sometimes this involves flagging someone else down or running into a nearby store.  Sometimes this takes 30 mins but they will get you an answer.  In this case they got the phone book out and called some folks and then photocopied us a map.  They also tried to explain that the scooter might not be a possibility without an International Drivers License.  I discerned all of this from complicated charades.

Don’t let the beautiful exteriors fool you these birds were about to attack, these people got away by bribing the birds with food
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After about a 20 minute walk (using our lovely map) we found the bike store.  They sent us to the police station down the street and there they told us that our Virgina license was no good (Seriously, dude I can't believe you need an International Driver's License for an f--- scooter, but anyway...)   We were stuck with Rika's original suggestion of bikes.  Only, it should have occurred to us before we left that Rika is a pretty serious biker and we are not.

Let me give you a good description of the bikes we rented.  Bike #1 was a three-gear town cruiser, complete with a basket on the front.  The seat was so low that I got about half leg extension on a pedal.  It was also obviously made to be sitting straight up while pedalling.  Bike #2 was a mountain bike that my 13 year-old nephew wouldn't have fit on.  Neither Nick or I could put our entire hand on the handlebars, and the tires were starting to dry rot, but at least the seat was adjustable.

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With this beauties we set off to see this island, which is a little strange in what its "must-see" sites are.  There is a peacock farm which was one of the sketchiest places I've ever been and we were pretty sure we were going to be pecked to death by a few peacocks before we got out (there were like 100 roaming around and peacocks are not nice creatures.  There is also an Olive Park (the island grows a bunch of olives) with a ton of kitchsy Greek statues and an amphitheater.

Our one must-see item though was the monkey park.  Apparently there are a bunch of monkeys in cages and then a bunch of the native monkeys roaming around.   Unfortunately for us the monkeys were on top of a pretty big mountain.  We consulted our map and decided that it was 16k with an 800m climb uphill (which translates into a pretty steep climb the whole way) but we would just bite the bullet and go for it (you are correct that we are not very smart).

I just figured that I would combine biking and walking, but I had no idea what I was getting into.  For about the first 5k I biked for a while and walked just to get my heart rate down.  For the next 5k the misery of the town cruiser set in and Nick and I switched bikes.  The last 5k reminded me of the end of the Marine Corps Marathon.  I was just trying to put one foot in from of the other and my actual biking portions lasted about 100m a piece.  I was overheated, wearing flip-flops and about ready to cry every time I saw a sign that told us how far away the top of the mountain was.  It also started to rain and Nick and I were thinking about trying to hitch a ride with the next truck that came by.

On the bright side, we did see some monkey's in the road, including a mother and a small baby.  This would be a plus since we never actually made it to the monkey park as we ran out of time and desire to do anything other than finish the biking expedition.

We reached the top of the mountain and realized we could have taken an f--- cable car up there.   Although we did find a vending machine that sold hot noodles and drank about 4 bottles of water which lessened our pain.  We were also looking forward to the downhill ahead of us.  Turns out there was about another 800 meters of uphil during which I said the word f--- about 4,300 times (that might not actually be an exaggeration).

The downhill was glorious though.  I was cruising at faster than I'd ever been on a bike, maybe 35 or 40 mph, which was actually faster than the vehicle speed limit.  Lucky for us there were very few cars on the road, since there was no shoulder (I was in the middle of the lane) and it was pretty foggy from the cloud we were riding through.  There was also a series of U-Turn switchbacks that made the speed interesting.  Also the fact the the brakes on both bike were pretty shoddy didn't hurt in the excitement factor, but mostly it was the monkey that ran onto the road which we almost hit that made it really interesting.  I am used to avoiding squirrels, deer, even opossum, but never have I had to worry about hitting a monkey.

Lucky for us the bikes held up, we didn't actually "need" a helmet, and we made it back in one piece.  Granted it would take me a week to recover from the expedition and the guy at the bike store made it clear (despite the language differences) that we were crazy.  Rika would also tell us later that the bike trip was supposed to be around the base of the mountain, not over it.  Oh well...

Oh yeah and the island is also in the Guiness Book of World Records for the narrowest navigable straits in the world at 9 meters.   Just in case you needed some more things to love about the place.