December 2, 2025
Day 91 — Kagoshima to Somewhere in the East China Sea
Well today was the day we would leave the main islands of Japan for points south. We had booked ferry tickets for Tokunoshima island, then on to Okinawa. We were both really looking forward to some island time, and were curious about what these places were like, though we were also wistful at leaving the main part of Japan and feeling a bit sad that this portion of the trip was over.
We packed up our stuff out of the apartment, and went through the rigamarole of getting the bags down in the elevator, then the bikes one at a time. The day’s plan was to get the bikes and gear to the ferry terminal, put them somewhere “safe” (everywhere is safe for bikes in Japan), then poke around town, get coffees, eat lunch, maybe eat lunch again, etc. The ferry didn’t leave until 6 pm, so there was a bunch of time to kill.
I was putting bags on my bike and could see Marilee looking at her phone with a frowny face. She had just gotten an email that they had cancelled the sailing to Tokunushima due to “port conditions” — which we took to mean it was too windy and rough to dock there. We could cancel without charge. Well, we sat there for a few minutes formulating a potential plan B.
We were interested in seeing one of the islands on the way to Okinawa, just because they seem out of the way and unique places to visit. We had originally thought to go to Amami Island, which was a decent size and had lots to see. We then learned that the ferry arrived at Amami at 5 am, and then would leave (there’s only the one ferry to Okinawa a day) at 5:30, meaning two very early mornings for us which we declined. The ferry arrived at Tokonushima at 9am and left at 930, so clearly Tokunushima was the island for us. Except now it wasn’t. It did appear that the ferry would still call at Amami, so maybe we would bite the early morning bullet and go there.
We headed to the ferry terminal to deal with this in person. There was zero chance we would successfully navigate the Japanese online booking system successfully. We got the ferry terminal to find that the ticket office didn’t open until 1 pm, so we went to a nearby mall to get a coffee and do a bit of shopping for the trip.
We were first in line when the ticket office opened, and explained through Google Translate what we wanted to do. The poor agent was very good, double checking what we wanted - all through Google Translate - filling out forms, checking timetables, checking berth availability, getting paperwork for bicycles (to be paid for later at a different office), on and on. It did all seem to work. We were bound for Amami, had berths in a dorm room, bikes had paperwork, we had reservations for Amami to Okinawa, and all previous bookings were cancelled. Phew. That done we went and had a big lunch at a conveyor sushi place nearby.
On return to the ferry terminal, we gathered up the bikes, found the office where we paid for bikes, where the clerk then directed us to the loading area, which was two blocks away. We found the loading area, which seemed a chaotic mix of forklifts whizzing around with shipping containers, military vehicles, commercial trucks, a few passenger vehicles, and several stressed out workers with coveralls and hard hats, flashing safety vests and light sticks directing traffic. And two dorks with bicycles. At some point there was a pause in the forklift traffic and we were ushered aboard. This involved pushing the bikes up the cargo ramp, then up another inside the hold of the ferry.
Once on board, we found our berths, dumped our stuff, determined dinner time, and settled in, watching the remaining cargo get loaded as from the stern of the ferry as the sun went down.
Goodbye main islands of Japan! We’re already planning a return!
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