From Shodoshima Island I took the ferry to Himeji. I went to the famous castle. At the entry of Himeji Castle I’ve met two Korean bike traveler. We stopped and　talked.　Her　names　are　Min　and　Chan,　they　both　together　carrying　less　luggage　than　me.　They　want　to go from Fukuoka to Hokkaido in 4 to 5 weeks only. We made a meeting point on an offical campground by the beach. I went around the castle, but I didn’t went inside. When I arrived at campground there was nobody. I saw a price list and was thinking thats too expensive, the Koreans must be at another place. I drove to public park close by and here I met Min and Chan again and was very happy. We camped together by the sea. [...]

My camp in Fuchu was already situated out of the city so when I left I didn’t need to go through the city center again. But I had a steep climb up to Kumano. After I Kumano I went downhill to the coast at Yasuura. I found a great shelter in a park. On the next day on the way to Onomichi I met my first foreign bike travelers in Japan. Veronica and Harry started in Tokyo. Veronica is from Napier (New Zealand) and Harry from London, both lived the last three years in Melbourne and both have visited Berlin. And I’m from Berlin and visited Napier, London and Melbourne. So it was a bit special to meet each other. We talked over an hour next to the road, I didn’t want to let these guys go. I hope we can meet up again in Europe. Please contact me if you read this, I got your blog EveryDayAdventureClub but couldn’t find a contact. [...]

Honshu is the mainland of Japan. I entered it via the kanmon pedestrian tunnel. I followed a route that I found online on japancycling.org it’s a scenic route on quiet roads, so I didn’t need to plan my way. I cycled at first till Mine it was raining a lot and I camped next to a sports field under a small roof. The city has a big industry complex, I was thinking how can people live here, there is always noise from the factory. On the next I visited the Akiyoshi Dou Cave, it’s a big cave, I was impressed. After the cave I went to the karstland. In the evening I reached Hagi Castle town. This town has an historic city centre with many traditional houses and a castle ruin. I camped in a park by the coast. [...]

Kyushu is the third largest island of Japan, she fascinated me straight from the beginning. When the ferry arrived in Kagoshima I saw how the Sakurajima volcano spit out big clouds of ash. I never saw an active volcano before and was excited about it. When I left the ferry and tried to find my way out of Kagoshima I got a lot of ash in my eyes. At first I wanted to escape from the volcano but then I considered elsewhere and went directly to Sakurajima. Around the volcano everything was covered with black ashes. [...]

After Taiwan I continue traveling by myself. I’ve chosen Japan as my next destionation already last year. I flew on the 02.06. to Naha. Yen brought me to Taoyuan airport and made sure my biycyle comes with me on the plane. She booked the extra luggage at the counter. It was very easy to travel with her around Taiwan because I didn’t need to be worried about the language, Yen translated for me always. Before Taiwan I spent two years in Australia and New Zealand and could talk English to everybody. Now I’m going without any Japanese skills to Japan and Japanese have the reputation to have bad English skills. But I didn’t need to worry so much Yen wrote me an letter in Japanese so that people can help me to find a place to camp, she draw some pictures to point as well. The short flight was very scenery I had luck and got a window seat and the seat next to me was empty so I could stretch my legs. At the arrival there was a long queue at the customs for foreign passport holder, they are all Taiwanese tourists. Fortunately I contacted a warmshower-host in Okinawa in advance. Because for the immigration I need to give a local address and I can’t just write down “camp by the beach”. So I put the address of my host. Out of the terminal I assembled my bicycle. It was midday and very hot. I went back into the terminal and took money from the ATM that was good because most of the Japanese Banks don’t accept foreign credit cards, only at post office and 7-11. I bought a prepaid simcard from a vending machine. The simcard is for internet use only, foreigner in Japan aren’t allowed to own a simcard with an own number to make calls. [...]