Chapter 19: CHAPTER NINETEEN

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CHAPTER NINETEEN

“This road sure looks different doing fifty kilometers an hour than it did yesterday putting along at only thirty to thirty five. You can't enjoy the scenery at all, right little buddy?

Beeep!

“Well maybe it's just as well. This way we won't get distracted anywhere and can concentrate on just making it to Matsuyama. To hell with the 8 temples and whatnot that my guide book says are there. I just want to get us there in time to catch that ferry.”

Be-Beep

Once we left that coastal stretch, Route 321 led us through mainly low mountainous areas that I'd seen plenty of since arriving in Shikoku. And when we reached Sukumo and Route 321 merged with Route 56 coming in from the east we could make even better time, particularly since there wasn't much in the way of traffic or scenery to distract us.

I did have to stop from time to time to let my ass rest a bit and let the cub's engine cool off. But the road was getting pretty boring and I couldn't wait to make it to Matsuyama and get on that car ferry. But even doing fifty and sometimes pushing us a bit faster, it was taking ssoooo lloooonggg.

Matsuyama was a real city.

According to my guidebook it was approaching half a million including its suburbs making it the largest city in Shikoku and as large as some of the biggest 'bedtown' suburbs in the Kansai area.

With the same congestion and confusing streets.

I stayed on Route 56 and kept on it even after it became Route 196 to keep us from getting lost on one of the many side streets. I must have been almost to the northern city limits when at last I spied the sign “Kansai Kisen Car Ferry To Kobe” and gratefully turned onto the street it pointed to.

But unlike Kobe it wasn't the simple one hundred meters or so from there on. I kept following those signs until finally I came to the boarding dock area and sighed with relief. It was already going on six o'clock and I was really tired from all the driving, the longest I had ever biked in Japan.

When it was my turn to buy my ticket, I didn't hesitate. “First class please.”

The woman looked up. “Do you have a reservation?”

“A reservation? . . . Uh, no I don't . . . I didn't know I needed one”

“Then I'm sorry. We're all booked up in first class.” One of her coworkers called out to her. “Wait a minute.” She conferred with her coworker for a few seconds and turned back to me. “You're lucky! We just had a cancelation. Is an upper berth all right?”

“I guess so.” After all, it was a bed, not a cramped floor.

Once again my cub and I had to first wait for the loading master to load the cars onto the ferry that was much larger than the one I had taken to Tokushima. Then the trucks. And finally me and my cub and the other bikers.

A deckhand came and roped my cub to the inside hull.

“I'm going to have to leave you again, little buddy, until we get to Kobe.”

Beeep!

I trudged up the narrow stairway from the lowest truck deck to the lowest passenger deck lugging my heavy saddlebags and other gear. I was met by an attendant who rather disdainfully looked at me in my motorcycle getup and saddlebags etc. and nodded his head towards the second class passenger deck that was already jampacked with people.

“I'm first class, not second! Here, look at my ticket!”

He did and his eyes widened and manner changed completely. “I'll show you to your cabin, sir. This way, please.”

We climbed the wider stairs to the upper passenger deck and he led me into a small, but rather nice lounge area. I saw the doors for the few cabins on either side of it and began to wonder just what kind of a cabin I was going to have. Judging by the how close the doors were to each other, I guessed the cabins were pretty small.

He opened the door to one and said, “This is your cabin, sir. Your berth is the upper one on the left.”

“Thank you.”

Before I could decide if I needed to tip him, he left.

The four man cabin made my two person dormitory room in college look palatial by comparison and the luggage of my three cabin mates almost completely filled the narrow aisle stuck between the two small bunk beds.

My cabin mates looked startled as I entered

“Can I put my saddlebags here? I think you can still open the door if you need to use the toilets or something.”

My cabin mates relaxed. This gaijin speaks Japanese!

We introduced each other and I climbed up to my berth. It made my small single bed in my college dorm seem like a kingsize bed. But it was mine for the night with no one to bang into me.

All three of my cabin mates were businessmen from the Kansai area who had been to Shikoku on business and had used their cars to get around. They said Shikoku's train system was almost non-existent. As I had suspected biking around it.

One cabin mate was quite gregarious and kept buying us all cans of beer from the vending machine in the lounge. We sat on the tiny chairs crammed around a shelf stuck just below the small window that served as a table.

We yakked away until twelve midnight, my putting around Shikoku on a 50cc cub being the main topic of conversation. Contented from all the beer and conversation, I climbed back up to my berth and pleasantly fell asleep.

Getting woken up by the attendant knocking loudly on our cabin door at four-thirty the next morning was not so pleasant. Groggy from lack of sleep and overhung by last night's beer, I sat up on my berth and banged my head against the low ceiling.

My cabin mates didn't look any better. After the ship docked, we gathered our things together and sleepily made our way to the car and truck decks below.

“Well, little buddy, we're in Kobe. A deckhand should unrope you pretty soon.”

Be-Beep!

The deckhand took a while, probably making sure all the cars on the car deck above were ready to go. Then the bow ramp banged down and the cars started rolling down it.

As usual, we had to wait for all the cars to be unloaded. Then the trucks on our level spewing fogs of exhaust, almost chocking me.

Finally the deckhand came and freed my cub and we were ready to go.

“Lets get out of this dock area so we can breath some fresh air!”

Be-Beep!

But after we had cleared the dock area, I still felt groggy.

“I'm going to need to rest up a bit, little buddy. I'm afraid I'm not in condition to drive yet. Besides, we've got all day to get back to Kyoto.”

Beeep!

I saw a coffee shop that was already open in spite of the early hour. Perhaps to catch customers like me getting off the ferry and needing a cup of strong coffee and a little rest before driving on?

“Well, little buddy, I guess I'm ready to drive us back to Kyoto now,” I said after spending an hour and a half relaxing in the coffee shop and drinking two cups of their very strong (and very expensive!) coffee.

Be-Beep!

Twisting around those huge cement pillars, Route 43 as usual was not very crowded. But the Meishin Expressway growling loudly above us and stretching all the way to Tokyo made me nervous again. “I still hate to think about what would happen to us if that overhead expressway toppled down on us in an earthquake.”

Beeep!

Route 171 jammed with trucks doing 70 to 90 zooming by us putting away at a mere 50 was nerve wracking again. But this time I was expecting it and we made good time. I got us back to my apartment building before twelve noon.

Being too tired to do anything else, I decided to glance at the pile of The Japan Times that had been crammed into my mailbox and in particular look at the Want Ads for English Teachers hoping to find a teaching position that would give me more free time for taking more trips on my cub.

Submitted: January 24, 2023

Romance romance japan gaijin travel-in-japan japan-1970s

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Prologue
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Comments

B Douglas Slack

Nice to see you writing again, Ken. A good finish to a picturesque trip.

Bill

Sat, January 28th, 2023 2:38pm

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Reply

Glad to learn you're still with me after all these months! Sorry for the delay. For various reasons I haven't been able to write until very recently.

As always, thank you for your comment!

Ken

Sat, January 28th, 2023 9:50pm