On the Seventh Day, I rested. Went to church, saw a bunch of folks who remembered me, met a bunch of the senkyoshi's serving in Shuri, Naha Higashi, and Nago. There were others; I just didn't ask where they were at.
On the Eighth Day, I took the knuckleheads to the zoo. The Okinawa Zoo is pretty small; however, folks can get surprisingly close to the animals. So, it was pretty cool, despite the absurd temperatures and humidity.
So, my plans for overnighting while on this bicycle tour was born out of a cycling blog I read about 8 years ago. While communicating with some of the folks associated with it, I asked how people camp out. The response was that you just go to a rural area, find a patch of dirt off the road, and set up. Most folks in Japan, they insisted, don't care, so long as you're respectful, etc. Right or wrong, that worked for me. As I planned this trip, I got on google earth and found plenty of candidate locations near my target stopping points.
Day 1 (starting tomorrow - I'll be following the alternative plan detailed in an earlier blog) ends on Ikei Jima, and there's a small resort beach there. I was going to camp out on a beach (in a bivy sack) around the corner and down a little animal trail until I found out that the resort actually allows folks to camp on their site for really cheap, and they have showers! I'll take that, as I'll be in desperate need of a shower. Swimming around in the ocean (which I most certainly will do) just exchanges one stink for another. Granted, I'd rather smell like dead fish and seaweed than sweat; but all things being equal, I'd rather not smell like either while I sleep.
I called the place to find out if I needed to book a camp site, or just show up, and they told me it's a day to day deal, depending on the weather. If its bad, they're closed. So, I'm going to have to have my wife call them tomorrow to kakunin a spot for me. If they're closed for some reason, then it's back to my google earth options - of which there are some righteous ones.
So, I packed my bags today, went to the neighborhood Sanei to get some snack foods to tote along with me, and decided on a critical wardrobe issue. I'm going with long sleeves. My arms are already torched, and the sunscreen fades off to easily. So, it will be warmer, but my arms won't burst into flames. I think that's a fair trade.
Will see how that works out.
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