December 7, 2025
Day 96 — Yagaji Beach to Higashi
Marilee here.
Today we put our lazy Okinawa plan into action (or should that be, non-action?). There were several days of high winds from the north-east forecast. So instead of energetically biking 65km in a headwind up to the northernmost point of Okinawa, Cape Hedo, as originally planned, we had decided to go easy on ourselves and instead shortcut across the island to a beach campground on the eastern coast. It would be a short easy day, with a nice beach at the end. Sounded great!
It meant that we didn’t need to get going very fast in the morning, so there was lots of time to sit in our little chairs, drinking coffee and enjoying our neighbour’s love affair with his camper van. It was clearly a new purchase, and he was smitten with it and determined to photograph it all lights, from all angles. His wife was allowed to be in some of the shots, but mostly the van itself was the start of the show.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Warm sunshine and waves lazily lapping at a nice beach are not strong motivators for me to leap on a bike and get going, but we did eventually tear ourselves away. This had been a lovely campground, right on the beach with a wide grassy lawn to camp on, but in the list we’re compiling of “the weird things about the campgrounds we’ve stayed at on this trip”, this one will have recorded against it that there weren’t nearly enough toilets for the number of campsites, and the showers were dilapidated and grubby (both very unusual criticisms to make of a Japanese campground — hygiene is an area where they generally exceed all western expectations. Leading us to ask: are we even in Japan anymore? What else about Okinawa is going to be different?).
Our route today began along the coast, mostly flat with a few rolling hills, and great views out to sea. We stopped at a Michi no Eki to check out the local specialities, which included packages of Okinawan coffee (which was tempting, but which we didn’t buy), lots of spam-related tshirts and hats (again, we resisted the temptation to purchase), and the item below, which really caught Tom’s fancy.
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Eventually we entered Yanbaru National Park, which occupies the northern point of the island. Soon after, we turned inland, to cross over to the eastern coast of Okinawa. This involved some hill climbing, naturally, and the road got much quieter and emptier. There are really no towns or services in the national park, and the part of the eastern coast that we were aiming for, just south of the park, is also quite lightly populated. When we happened to pass a restaurant, just a kilometer or so before our campsite, we decided it would be strategic to stop and have lunch.
This turned out to be a great decision, as the owner spoke good English and the food was delicious. We filled up with a big lunch and then coasted downhill for five minutes to arrive at our seaside campground.
It was empty (as expected), except for a woman having a long discussion with the park manager. We waited patiently for our turn, but the conversation went on and on and on, and we began to wonder what on earth could take so long about paying for a campsite. Eventually they wrapped it up, and we very quickly paid for our site and started putting up our tent. So did the woman who had been ahead of us in line. Her tent was one of the enormous camping palaces that we’ve encountered frequently on this trip — they require many stakes and guy lines, and take a long time to set up. We had our tent up and were heading to the beach long before she was finished erecting her palace.
We spent a peaceful afternoon reading on the beach. The only other beachgoers were four young western men, clearly American soldiers from one of the nearby US bases (clues: very short hair, not tanned, looked like they worked out all the time). (Tom interjecting: I was put in mind of names from Mystery science Theatre’s Space Mutiny episode: Buff Mclargehuge, Buck Plankchest, Slate Slabrock, Hack Blowfist, etc) One of them sat bolt upright on the beach for the entire afternoon, motionless and staring out to sea, while the other three lay sprawled on their towels looking at their phones and napping. I began to wonder if maybe the American military was developing androids and the three soldiers had been asked to take one of the units out for the afternoon and test how well it functioned in a sandy environment.
Once the soldiers (and android?) left, we started to think about dinner. According to Googlemaps, there weren’t any grocery stores in the area, but there was a michi no eki just up the road from us. These often have restaurants, and usually also have some interesting food, so we decided to go check it out. We walked over and were disappointed on all counts: there was no restaurant, just a takeout pizza place that had already closed, and the store had mostly souvenir key chains, crocheted cup warmers, and other non-dinner related items. We looked at each other — what to do for dinner? We had almost no food with us. The only choice seemed to be hiking back to the restaurant we’d eaten lunch in.
Which we did, and it was another great meal. Of course, we had to walk back along the road to the campground in the pitch blackness, but luckily there was almost no traffic, and we stopped on the beach along the way to enjoy the stars.
When we got back to the campground, our neighbour with the enormous tent had some visitors: a half dozen people were sitting around, grilling food, talking, and listening to music. We didn’t think much of it, and went to bed. At all the campgrounds we’ve stayed at in Japan the “quiet hours” rules have been scrupulously obeyed — by 10pm everyone is tucked into bed and the only thing breaking the silence is the occasional snore.
Well, not this time — our neighbours partied until at least 2am, and by the empty bottle evidence next morning, got through a staggering amount of liquor in that time. It was not a restful night for tired cyclists!
Today's ride: 23 km (14 miles)
Total: 4,722 km (2,932 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 7 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |