Swimming with the sharks

Ena and I went swimming on Shikanoshima last week. It was our first time to go together this year. We road our bikes counter-clockwise around the island to get to the beach on the northern tip, passing some nice scenery on the way:
We had picked up some cheap inflatable beach toys earlier and were happy to finally be able to give them a field test:
The ball works perfectly:
The nozzle on the big green ring had an unfortunate habit of constantly opening, meaning my lungs had to constantly fill it back up again. Nonetheless for 300 yen it wasn't a bad purchase!

I've been a bit worried about swimming in these waters since there was a story on the news a couple weeks back about beaches in neighboring Nagasaki prefecture being closed due to the presence of hammerhead sharks. Further internet research turned up all sorts of stories of people in the waters around Kyushu getting attacked or even eaten whole by sharks, including great whites. But it was REALLY hot out and there were lots of other bathers so we just said "screw it".

Its kind of a long bike ride out there from our place, but on the way back we could enjoy the sun setting at our backs as we crossed the bridge from Uminonakamichi:

Saturday fun in Shikanoshima

I haven't posted on this blog in over a month now. Part of the reason is that on July 11 I had a major presentation to make and I was busy in the month leading up to that with preparation, etc.

Another reason though is that one day in the middle of June it started raining. And then it didn't stop until about 3 days ago. Kyushu's rainy season lasts about a month and for its duration Ena and I were pretty much stuck at home on all the weekends.

Yesterday was a really brilliant Saturday. I like sunny Saturdays a lot. I do a lesson downtown in the morning and Ena works Saturdays, so we ride our bike in together. Its a really nice ride, we go through a bunch of parks and some of the more "colorful" areas of downtown on the way in.
I finished my lesson at about 11:30 and had a sunny day to play with for the first time in over a month. I didn't want to be entirely unproductive though, so what I decided to do was bring some papers that I need to read with me to the beach at Shikanoshima.

After stopping at home to get changed and pack a lunch, I hit the road. It takes about an hour by bike to get to Shikanoshima from our place. I stopped along the way at this one little spot:
This is on the penninsula leading up to Shikanoshima. Just a tiny clearing in the trees along the roadside which offers a perfect place to sit down for a snack while enjoying the view of the Bay.

After arriving on the island I decided to circumnavigate it in a clockwise direction, which would allow me to ride on the side of the road facing the sea (best views). Its a really nice ride on a clear day. I stopped at Kin-in park and enjoyed their map of East Asia in ancient times:
After a while I came across the entrance to a hiking trail. Parking my bike I head off on foot up the hillside overlooking the sea. It was insanely hot - about 33 and humid - and by the time I reached this nice viewing platform I thought I was about to pass out. It had some really great views though:
Climbing down the hill I reached my ultimate destination: the Beach!!
I had the foresight to pack my swimsuit and a towel. I jumped into the filthiest public bathroom I have ever come across to get changed and then made a beeline for the water. I was a little worried about jellyfish but the second I put my feet in the water it felt so nice and cool that I just jumped all the way in. It was great, I spent about half an hour floating around on my back, enjoying the view of the islands. It was a Saturday so there were a few other people there, but not too crowded.

The sun was quite bright and glistened off the water:After my swim I dried off and got dressed again and started hiking along the rugged rocky Shikanoshima coastline away from the beach in search of some solitude. After a bit of walking I climbed up the biggest rock I could find:
It had a nice view:
And I got down to some actual work. Read this article about class action lawsuits (and felt the need to photograph myself doing so to prove that I did in fact do something productive that day):
After finishing the article I clambered down and did a bit more walking, coming across some interesting rocky outcrops here and there:
At about 5PM some storm clouds started moving in and I decided it was time to call it a day. The suns rays fought through the newly arrived clouds and made for a pleasant scene:
The darkening clouds also gave the happy little beach a more foreboding, desolate appearance:
To get back to my bike I unfortunately had to climb back up the hill which I had come down. I paused to take a picture of a fishing boat passing in the distance from the top:
I got back to my bike and decided to return the way I had come rather than completing the circuit around the island. The clouds were starting to dominate the bay:
The above picture was taken about 2km or so from a village that sits at the entrance to Shikanoshima (where there is a bridge connecting it to the mainland). After taking the shot I rode those 2km to the village, where I saw something else I wanted to take a picture of. Only when I went to grab my camera, it wasn't there. I had dropped it somewhere along the roadway.

With the stormclouds and darkness moving in I desperately retraced my path, scouring the roadside while trying to avoid traffic at the same time (its a narrow road with no shoulder). I got back to the place where I took the shot without finding it. There was a mobile cafe (a mini van decked out like a restaurant) set up there and a few people on lawn chairs relaxing with some drinks. I went up to the group and asked if they had seen my camera. They were really nice, everybody put down their drinks and started looking around for it. A couple of 7 year girls were quite enthusiastic and made a point of scouring the beach for anything blue (the color of my camera case). I didn't have the heart to tell them I couldn't have dropped my camera there, they were having a lot of fun.

The search turned up nothing, so thanking them I headed back towards the town, carefully scanning the ground but without luck.

On arriving in town I noticed there was a police station and thought I'd give the officer on duty my name and number just in case someone dropped it off. I opened the door and the officer was on the phone. In front of him on his desk was my camera! Someone had found it and turned it in! I was so happy!

And I got to take the picture of that thing in town: this little guy:

Circuit around Shikanoshima

The weather wasn't too bad yesterday - warm and hazy but with no rain. So we decided to head over to Shikanoshima island with a picnic.

We've been to Shikanoshima a lot of times before but yesterday we decided to take a ride along a coastal road that does a full circle around the entire island.
From a cyclist's point of view, Shikanoshima isn't as pleasant as Nokonoshima, the other big island in Hakata bay. This is mainly because Shikanoshima is connected to the mainland by a spit of land and a bridge while Nokonoshima can only be accessed by ferry. This means that on Nokonoshima there is virtually no vehicular traffic. So on Nokonoshima you don't have to be constantly looking over your shoulder while riding on the roads and (more importantly) the roads themselves are rather quaint country roads that blend in well with the scenery.

Shikanoshima's roads on the other hand get a fair amount of vehicular traffic on the weekends. This in turn has invited a lot of unsightly "improvements" such as massive concrete retaining walls that mar a lot of the island's natural beauty. These "improvements" did not, unfortunately, include a paved shoulder so we had to battle it out with traffic. Fortunately the speed limit is 40km/h and the traffic goes quite slow, so it wasn't particularly stressful.

That said, the road does offer a lot of really great views of both the open sea (north and east) and Hakata Bay (south and west).
We got off the busy road at the northern part of the island to do a little walking along the beaches up there:
After coming around a corner we discovered what all the traffic was there for: the obligatory big beach resort hotel:
The beach was pretty crowded but quite nice (and of course you don't need to be staying at the hotel to enjoy it). We spent an hour or so just enjoying the view and relaxing there:
I walked further along the coast away from the beach and came across some nice rocky coastline:
The water was quite clear:
After that we continued on our loop around the island, stopping to take some pictures here and there:
There is an interesting park that we went past. We didn't feel like climbing up, but I took a picture of Ena in front of it:
This is the Kin'in park, which commemorates Shikanoshima's main claim to fame in Japanese history. In 1784 a peasant was breaking some ground on the site of the present park and discovered a gold seal. The seal had some writing on it indicating it had been a gift from the Han dynasty to an ancient ruler in the Japanese archipelago almost 2000 years ago. This is several centuries before the beginning of recorded Japanese history (they didn't get their writing system until about 1500 years ago) and is the earliest evidence of a Japanese political entity that was organized and strong enough to have some sort of relations with mainland China.

Anyway, shortly after that we completed our loop of the island and went home!

Hiking in Shikanoshima

Ena and I went hiking on Shikanoshima Island today. The weather was great, 25 and sunny. I've been to Shikanoshima several times as detailed elsewhere in this blog but this was the first time to explore the mountains. We followed a little road that took us past some really fantastic scenery:
Wysteria grows wild all over the island and the purple flowers were in full bloom and looked great.

We followed some side trails into the woods to find a little shrine that was dedicated to the memory of the victory over the Mongols in 1281. During that invasion the Mongols actually landed on Shikanoshima and probably did all sorts of bad stuff to the locals. The island is littered with little shrines commemorating various things related to the Mongol invasion. This is us on one of the side trails looking for one of them:


We got back on the main route, which turned into a pretty cobble stoned lane winding into the woods:
One problem with hiking in the mountains in Japan is that invariably some dirtbag has ditched a bunch of garbage in the woods. This time we passed a pretty big piece of junk, a car that had been abandoned for quite some time:

When we got to the top of one of the mountains in the middle of the island the views were spectacular. This is the view of the spit of land that connects Shikanoshima to the mainland (ie the way we came!):
This is the view over Hakata Bay, Nokonoshima island is on the left:
There was a viewing platform that we took some pictures of each other at:

At the beach

It was a warm and sunny day today, which resulted in two noteworthy things happening: North Korea was able to launch a ballistic missile over Japan and I finally got the chance to take Ena over to Shikanoshima. It is the latter of these earth shattering events which this post will deal with as I don't have any photos of the missile launch to share.

The water was warm enough to go swimming but we just settled for putting our feet in, given that neither of us brought bathing suits:
The sky was quite clear so we had a good view of the Fukuoka skyline and Nokonoshima.

Ena got to do some beachcombing and found some nice shells to add to her collection:

After spending a few hours on our bikes we returned home to dinner and some very cute cakes I got at the local bakery:

Shikanoshima Part 2

I ended up cycling all the way to Shikanoshima again today, only this time with 20 friends in tow! We all got together at the suggestion of my Ukrainian friend Oleg to go to Uminonakamichi and after we got there decided to go to the island that I had been telling everyone about. Unfortunately Ena was busy again today and couldn't make it (though she's joining us for dinner), otherwise it would have been a perfect day. This is the group photo (except for me because I took the picture) at Uminonakamichi (the amusement park):
This is a couple of smaller group photos from later at the beach near Shikanoshima. It was sunny and the temperature got up to about 20, which is crazy for February. We literally could have gone swimming if we had brought our swimsuits and towels (the water was warm too)!:

Then we went up to the temple on the island with the plum blossoms:
This is me getting robbed. I was just about to eat this shellfish when Tai Ching, my classmate, decided she wanted it and tried to steal it from right off my chopsticks. Fortunately I was able to defend myself and eat it: