It was the start of our island hopping today, first though there was 40 km of town road riding to do. This was mainly flat despite the dire hills predicted by the gps mapping app we use, it cannot seem to cope with tunnels.

To retrieve our bicycles from the underground storage we had to pay an extra ¥100 for each bicycle as they had been there two days, total for storage ¥400.

Off we go leaving the hotel and cycling through early morning traffic, for once it was not cars you need to be mindful of but all the pedestrians (you are riding on a shared pavement) and the incredible amount of other cyclists all dressed ready for work in suits, dresses and uniforms. Everyone is extremely polite and follow all the stop signs, no red light jumping here.

He politeness followed through with the car drivers, they pass you slowly and give way when they should.

The need to have eyes everywhere continued for he next 5 km until we left the city behind and entered the suburbs (still very city like).

Here we cycled through our first tunnel, they have a path of warning width and are generally lit. Throughout today we passed through around 10 tunnels, the longest one 1.7 km and had a lovely path separated by a screen from the traffic. A lot just left you to breathe what felt like a very toxic cocktail (where is my filter mask when you need it?).

At 40 km we turned off the frantic busy main road crossing a huge toll bridge, the Akinada Bridge (bicycles are free) onto Shimo-kamagari Island, suddenly everything was tranquil and quiet as we dropped down into a bay with views of the bridge we have just crossed and a large oyster bed.

The cultivated oysters here are “stressed” I know how do you stress an oyster? And why? They are left out of water regularly which causes them to grow larger (due to stress, a bit like overeating making us put on weight) than leaving them entirely in the water.

Only a short distance and one pretty town later and then it was up and over the second bridge Kamagario Bridge onto Kami-kamagari Island where we stopped for late lunch and spotted a map of the island, on it was a campsite by a beach just right for us.

Following the coastroad the campsite was chained off and disused, but chains mean nothing so we pushed and picked up our bicycles setting up camp on a beautiful beachside spot with spectacular views across the sea. Rather than wait until dusk to stealth camp we set up straight away, it is a campsite after all, we claim a mixture or ignorance and desperation.

So only to write the blog, eat, watch the sun go down and maybe think about tomorrow. Where will we go? Where will we stop? Will there be somewhere to buy food?