It rained heavily all night and into the morning, but I left my $3.00 umbrella on the plane; nothing seems to go together better than fresh rain and hot coffee though. I knew it was time to move and such times are never peaceful, especially when fueled by black bean and adrenaline; if anything it’s like picking up a painting stroke by stroke and moving it to another canvas while both you and it are on fire. Ain’t that something to think about? We are all expressions of our experiences, and nothing experiences itself more uniquely than humans do especially for the fact that we live in so many different places and in different ways.
Once out of the old hostel, I dropped off my bag in the next one paying a 400 yen fee to keep it there, then heading up the highest mountain in the islands capital city where the final stand of the Imperial Navy took place in 1945. As I hiked up the hill a storm blew around me, dark clouds gathering at the edges of the island. It rained here and there, but did not threaten to soak me until reaching the top of the mountain. I entered the glass dome protecting the old entrance to the bunker which became a tomb for over 4000 men who fought bravely even to the point of running out of all ammunition and committing group suicide beneath the earth when no other means of fighting remained to them.
As I passed the gift store and entered the old bunker, a coldness which cannot be explained by temperature began to affect me like the hand of death itself reaching up from the depths of the tomb. One does not enter a place of blood and sacrifice such as this and leave unmolested. Every inch of the walls spoke of a hopelessness matched only by the ferocity and skill by which they met their doom. As I walked out of that bunker the rain continued to fall, more fully than it had all day or night, but then stopped suddenly as I left, leaving me dry as I descended the mountain.
I found a small store and got some snacks to eat then found a park. There, I was approached by two Japanese men, both of which struck me immediately as overly friendly, compared to those Japanese people I’ve met thus far at least. They were very interested in what I was doing in Japan, and told me of many places to go, but as usual they were mostly based on eating meat and drinking beer, thus useless to me. But one of his suggestions I did follow, and it led me to a beautiful vista overlooking the ocean.
I checked into my new hostel and went to the community room where a guy was playing videos on his phone at full volume, I sat right next to him and leaned in, laughing at the screen, and enjoying it more fully than he could possibly enjoy anything in life. He became very guarded and pulled his phone away, I frowned, motioning for him to bring the device back closer. He started cracking his knuckles and I laughed out loud and shook my head.
“You play for everyone, you share with everyone.” I said, and gave him a death stare as I walked away.
I didn’t want to pay the 200 yen for a towel rental but did anyways. I was super sweaty from the walking, plus my capsule was up on the 4th floor and super hot, inside a room with 50 other men in capsules exactly the same as every other made of particle board and single ply fabric. I didn’t much like the place, so getting out was my priority. I took a bus to the western end of the island, though I had thought of renting an E-bike, in hindsight that would have probably been best, considering the 80 stops required to make it there.
Instead, I took the bus and had one of those forehead slapping moments twice in a row where my Suica card did not work on the island, and I required exact change in order to pay for the bus. Luckily there were two local ladies who paid my first fair, and even after that I had another bus which would could not break my 10,000 yen note and thus I gave them what I had, which wasn’t enough, and he let me go inside a place to buy a drink and give him the right change.
From there I busted out a very large bag of potato chips and began eating them on the sidewalk, a Japanese lady looked at me with wide eyes.
“All for you?”
“Yes.”
“Too much!” She said with a smile, “Where you go?”
“I go swimming, down there.” I pointed on the other side of the mountain some miles away.
“On foot?”
“Yes.”
“No. Too far. Take bus.”
“I’ll be fine.” I said, walking away. Famous last words.
I noticed right away on my google maps that there was a tiny trail leading away from this totally random mountain bus stop with a strange government building there. I took the trail just off from the main road and was immediately surrounded by the jungle. Every step I took brought me further away from civilization and more into a movie set for Jurassic park. Even the infrastructure on this path looked like it had been built in 1945 and abandoned immediately afterwords. It was creepy, but I felt mostly safe for the fact that there were houses interspersed along the jungle path which was obviously once a lovely mountain pass for bikers, walkers and such.
Eventually I found my way to the place suggested to me by the two Japanese gentlemen in the park. A lovely winery and cafe on the cliffs edge overlooking the bay. There was nothing even remotely vegan for me to eat, so I had an iced coffee and mango juice for 1,000 yen. Which I consider expensive, but in reality is not for such a place. I’m learning only now in later life just how I should value certain things over others. The prodigal penny-pinching Prince has finally returned home.
From there I had one of those crazy red bull clones which taste like battery acid and look like neon piss. That got me twisted, and once the 10 minutes of jitters passed I slumped down to the ocean where there was a 1940’s Miami beach resort with a rock wall enclosure for swimmers. There was even music playing from SpongeBob, a real bikini bottom mind fuck. I got in my boxers and took a swim, air drying as I was surrounded by high school children having an excursion together.
I got a bus back to the city and took another shower with my $1.30 rental towel, trying but failing to sleep in what would become one of the worst bed bug situations I’ve ever experienced...