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Wednesday, 7 January 2015

29/10/2014 - Cycle Touring Japan - Day 35 - Japanese Onsen (hot spring)

 

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Distance cycled: 149.7km from Yunomae to Kagoshima and boarded overnight ferry to Yakushima, Kyushu, Japan.
Average speed: 20.8Km/h
Moving Time: 7h10m
Elevation Ascended: 1954m
Total Distance on Current trip: 3,055km
Distance until I have cycled the circumference of Earth: 9,235km
Money spent: $130 including ferry tickets (return)

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Many people rave about the Onsen experience here in Japan, simply they are public baths where you bathe and relax in the Earth's heated pools.
You are divided by gender into separate rooms and you enter the steamy tiled (at least in my case today) rooms.
For those who are traveling like me and need to soak your aching muscles this is ideal however I do not recommend doing so in the middle of the day where you have some distance to cover. I used only 30 minutes of the allocated 2 hours and upon leaving the building I was left dizzy and lethargic in a good way but having to mount my bicycle and cycling 75 more kilometers to Kagoshima. It was difficult to fight the effects of relaxation and took plenty of determination not to lay down on the side of the road and go to sleep.

Thinking the road to Kagoshima was mostly downhill was hugely disappointing until eventually I hit HWY 10 on the Satsuma peninsula where the God of wind blew me to the city.
Here I had a choice, take the overnight ferry that was cheaper or spend the night at a hostel where I could finally sleep and get the faster and more expensive ferry in the morning.. Anyone who knows me would already know which one I would get and you would be right, of course the cheaper one!
Not knowing the port was some 13km away from the city center was very much a surprise and I had less than an hour in city traffic to get there.
I made it with 15 minutes to spare, hopped aboard and ate the equivalent of 3 standard Japanese meals I bought for the whole trip. Back at the onsen I weighed myself and unless the scale is not calibrated correctly I have lost 5kg!!! That's nearly 10% of my original weight when i first arrived.

Also, I got flagged down by a police officer today, he accused me of running a red light which is generally the case but this time it was amber. Communication between us was difficult to say the least but I simply smiled at him and told him that Japan is a beautiful country and he sent me on my way; I swear it was amber.

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A front room of a household open for public view.

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Halloween is celebrated here, I didn’t expect that

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Now getting close to Kagoshima

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