Chapter 14: CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Reads: 1109
Comments: 1

PART III

SHIKOKU

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The drive from Kyoto to Kobe was gut wrenching. The north-south Route 171 was fairly straight and wide. But it was jammed with large intercity cargo trucks. I and my poor overloaded cub could do a good 50 on it -- the speed limit. The cargo trucks hurtled by us at anywhere from 70 to 90. The exhaust they spewed as they fumed by made me choke.

“John warned me this would be the worst part of the trip, little buddy.”

Beeep!

We turned onto the east-west Route 43 to get to Kobe Port. The road was not as heavily traveled. But it wove us around giant concrete pillars holding up the Meishin Expressway rumbling loudly above us.

“My God little buddy, if an earthquake collapses these pillars the expressway will come crashing right down on us!"*

Beeep!

--------------------------------------------------------

* Dave was right to be afraid. In the Great Hanshin (Osaka-Kobe) earthquake of January 17, 1995, that section of the expressway did in fact collapse right where Dave and his cub were were driving. Many cars and motorcycles were crushed by that collapse.

---------------------------------------------------------

More than two torturous hours after leaving my apartment building we finally made it to the turnoff for Kobe Port which was only a few hundred meters from Route 43.

“Well, I guess we can relax now, little buddy. The car ferry from here to Tokushima takes four hours. And we won't have to do any more driving until we get there.”

Be-Beep!

I walked into the large terminal building and found a long line of people waiting to buy tickets at the ticket counter. While I waited in line I noticed the the signboard listing all the different categories of prices and was amazed by how cheap second class tickets were. And first class tickets costing twice as much were still cheaper than the regular train fare for the same distance. Even with the extra charge I had to pay for my cub I was delighted by how cheap travel by car ferry was.

“I've never seen a car ferry anywhere near this large before, little buddy. A hell of a lot bigger than any of the few ferries I took in the States!”

Be-Beep!

We waited along with several other bikers and their bikes to be boarded by the flag waving boarding master.

It was a much longer wait than I expected. First the cars were boarded onto the car deck. Then the huge long distance cargo trucks -- mostly semi-trailer types -- to the even lower truck deck. Finally the boarding master waved his flag for the first of us bikers to board.

I felt squeamish putting up the long metal boarding ramp and into the dark cavernous truck deck, the lowest deck on the ferry. Putting us very carefully I squeezed my cub and me along the narrow slot between the outer most line of trucks and the inside hull.

“Stop it here!” the cargo attendant commanded as he came to rope the cub to a railing along the hull. “And shut off your gas cock so it won't spill any gasoline while we're under way. Leave your helmet locked to your bike.”

“I guess I'm going to have to leave you here for a while, little buddy.”

Beeep!

I felt guilty watching my poor little cub get all tied up with thick ropes to the railing as I squeezed my way to the staircase marked “Passenger Decks.”

Passenger . . . Decks? This car ferry is a ship!

I entered the second class compartment that was the lowest passenger deck. It was just one large room with two narrow aisles separating raised green carpeted floors lined with long wooden shoe boxes, ashtrays littering everywhere most already in use. The many people squatting on those crowded floors were all in stocking feet.

Guessing you treated these floors like they were tatami, I took off my shoes and stepped up onto one, shoving my shoes into the already jammed shoe box. I tried to squat on the green carpet as the all others but felt really cramped.

Thank God this is a day ferry. I don't see how I could stretch out to sleep here if this were a night ferry. . . God! . . . Like the one I 'm going to have to take on the way back from Matsuyama!

Over the loudspeaker came the announcement that the ship was about to depart. I decided I'd go out on the deck and watch. Better than staying in this cramped cabin with only tiny portholes to look out of.

I wasn't the only one. Many people were standing along the deck railing. Young girls of high school or college age had spools of brightly colored thin paper ribbons in their hands. They grabbed the ends of the ribbons and tossed the spools overboard to others standing on the dock who caught them and held them up forming a thin paper ribbon bond between them.

Boyfriends? Relatives?

A loud blast sounded from the ship's horn. Its engines rumbled to life. The ship began slowly slipping sideways away from the pier. And over the ship's loudspeaker came the strains of Auld Lang Syne!

What the . . . ? Hey! It's only September! Not New Year's!

Bewildered, I watched as some of the young girls started crying as their strips of paper ribbon began unrolling from the spools held by those still standing on the pier. Finally the ship was far enough away from the pier that the ribbons played out and broke their paper bonds with those left on the shore.

The ship's engines rumbled louder. The ship churned forward.

Most of the people lining the railing went back into the cabin including many of the young girls who had already stopped crying. I decided to stay on the deck and watch.

The ship slowly churned past other car ferries docked to the long pier. Some of them were larger than the one we were on. And one with a huge red sunflower painted on its white hull was more than twice as large. As we slowly churned past it I read the name printed on its bow. “Ferry Sunflower.” What else?

We finally cleared the pier. The ship's engines rumbled far more powerfully. The ship picked up speed. As it reached its apparent top speed I felt the breeze it created fill my lungs with wonderful fresh ocean air much like the mountain air in Shirakawa had. It was so pleasant I decided I'd stay on deck and watch. A hell of lot better than sitting in that cramped cabin with its smoke-filled unventilated air.

As the shoreline receded there was still plenty to watch. Kobe certainly lived up to its reputation as being Japan's third most important port after Tokyo and Yokohama. Ships of many different types sailed in all directions at what was the eastern edge of the Inland Sea.

It was so pleasant being out on deck that I stayed there for the whole four hours to Tokushima. There were so many things to see. The ships and boats, the tiny uninhabited islands here and there and the coastline of the much larger Awaji Island in the distance. Only then did I remember the small pocket camera I now had and snapped my first pictures of the trip, thumbing the film forward after each shot.

It wasn't until the ferry slowed, reversed and stern first very slowly churned past the breakwater into the far smaller port of Tokushima that I reluctantly headed to the stairway down to the truck deck. The ship docked making all sorts of clanking sounds. The cargo attendant came and untied my forlorn cub. The huge cargo ramp that was the ferry's stern slowly lowered.

But again I and my cub had to wait.

First the cars from the car deck were disembarked, then the trucks from the truck deck spewing exhaust fumes all around. So much for all the wonderful fresh ocean air filling my lungs.

Finally the cargo attendant waved for us bikers to disembark.

“Feels great to be back in sunlight, huh little buddy?”

Be-beep!

I putted us out of the port area as fast as safety would permit. I was sick of all the docks, cables, warehouses, cranes, fuel storage tanks and all the God knows how many other things large ships required. I just wanted to get into the Shikoku countryside as fast as possible.

Tokushima was larger than I expected and it was getting near evening rush hour. At last I spied the road sign for Route 55 and turned south on it. According to my maps Route 55 was the most direct road to Muroto-misaki. The point that formed the eastern edge of the southeastern coast of Shikoku. I couldn't wait to get there.

But it was already getting late and I felt really tired from all the driving to Kobe and then the car ferry trip. On the southern outskirts of the city I saw a sign for “Sea View Minshuku” with an arrow pointing east toward the coast and decided to chance it. The minshuku was on the coast all right, didn't looked too bad and I was too exhausted to look for any better place.

John told me to ask for sudomari and just stay overnight without meals.

Though there seemed to be some seafood restaurants near the minshuku, I just didn't have the energy to eat out. I still had plenty of nights left to try dining out on the town.

The tiny ofuro bath took some of the kinks out of my body, the sparse dinner was OK, the room fairly clean and the sleeping futon a really welcome sight. As I slid under the upper cover of the futon, I just wanted it to be tomorrow and have my trip begin in earnest.

Submitted: May 13, 2020

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

Like
Shelfit

Chapters

T
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64

Add Your Comments:

Sign in to write a comment

Comments

B Douglas Slack

Love this travelogue, Ken. I did much the same, but my stomping grounds were the northern reaches of Honshu and Hokkaido Island. Spent many happy vacations wandering along tiny lanes.

Bill

Mon, June 8th, 2020 3:26pm