The Great Kamigoto Expedition
Jonah & Tzu-Han, Fukue
It’s late summer, on Fukue, the main island in the Goto chain. Over lunch in an ALT meeting I spontaneously decided to buy a moped. So with ALT friends supporting my still evolving Japanese, I went to a shop, and bought the only moped they had left that same afternoon. 70,000 yen was a hell of a deal! I blame Macklemore for the impulse buy, but half a year later I can reaffirm that it was an excellent life choice.
A moped opens up a world of possibilities. Not only do you look cool, but as we discovered it is a lot cheaper to get mopeds to other islands than cars. Fellow ALT Tzu-Han borrowed her friend’s moped, and we decided to go to Kamigoto, one of the other main islands in the chain. Here’s what happened…
Saturday
We got up super early, picked up bento from Lawson, and with all our belongings under the seat (or in a backpack for Tzu-Han) we got on the ferry with our mopeds. A one-way ticket only cost us 1,800 yen, an absolute bargain. We set off from Fukue for Wakamatsu port, on the southern end of Kamigoto.
It turns out the Goto-Kamigoto ferry is positively bougie compared to the Goto-Nagasaki ferry. TVs that have reception the whole time, comfortable booths and adequate air conditioning have made this my favorite ferry. We arrived, disembarked, and then set out in what we hoped was the right direction.
I personally only had one goal whilst on Kamigoto – see as many bridges as possible. Bridges are cool. Nothing further needs to be said. To that end, we set off to the south-west, where there were a bunch of islands connected by what seemed to be bridges. We went the wrong way, saw some shrines (the view from Mabushi Shrine (above) was pretty solid), then took a coastal road. We traversed Wakamatsu Island, enjoying neverending spectacular ocean views from the coast road, and reached our first bridge:
Spectacular. See, bridges are cool. (Also, the moped on the right is cooler cause its mine. And it has a basket. Unfortunately Japanese people call the color “cockroach brown”) We continued on and only 500m later came to our second “bridge”. Although between two islands, it was really just a road on a bed of concrete. Not to be put off, I set my hopes on the next bridge – only to be disappointed again by concrete blocks between two islands.
Feeling minorly defeated, we arrived at the end of the road at Hinoshima. There seemed to be a sign talking about a stone pagoda up the hill, so we left the mopeds and adventured up a path that we figured had last been walked a few years ago. No kidding, the steps were buried under small landslides. Anyway, we found the pagoda on top of a hill (well, half of it anyway, the top half was nowhere to be found).
We poked around for a bit and found a sort-of-maybe-might’ve-been path, and having nothing better to do decided to follow it. After a rather slippery slope crossing on which Tzu-Han nearly slid to her death many times, we found a much more distinct trail with steps, and followed signs for the observation deck.
Upon arriving at the deck, there was no deck. The supports were all strewn around and the “deck” was nowhere to be seen. Maybe the wood rotted and a wicked typhoon came through, who knows. A sign promised another observation deck, so we decided to continue upwards. Fast forward a long time, many, many steps, and a bunch of signs at appropriately spaced intervals saying “がんばれ”, “ファイト”, etc. we finally made it to not only the observation point, but what we could only assume was the summit of Hinoshima. Both of us were wasted, but it was well worth the climb for the view was amazing. I’d even probably concede it was better than the bridges.
Tzu-Han had had the brains to bring food, so we enjoyed some onigiri before heading back. Instead of heading back to the mopeds we followed another path around to the next bay, where we found a shrine that is only accessible by boat or the rather untravelled path we had followed. Personally I’m not a huge fan of shrines but this one takes the cake. We had a sneaky swim and then headed back to the mopeds.
Well famished from our mountaineering expedition, we stopped at a beach on Hinoshima and had lunch. While we were there an older Japanese couple arrived and asked about our moped plates. See, Tzu-Han’s moped has a Kobe plate. Anyways the couple turned out to be from Hokkaido and were super friendly. There is a reason I mention this, so make a mental bookmark.
Feeling more human after some food, we worked out our next destination. We decided to head to our accommodation, a guest house in Aokata called よらんかな. We went straight there, along the way riding along another, you guessed it, bridge!! Muy bien!
The guest house was huge, and super cheap. It even had a projector you could link your phone to. Outstanding.
We had arranged prior to the trip to have dinner with the Kamigoto ALTs. They are like the other half of Goto, so we figured it would be cool to meet them. We made our way to Hamaguri Deck, where we were to do a 飲み放題 with them.
Upon arriving we figured out that rather than being the occasion for the party, we had actually crashed the welcome party for the new CIR on Kamigoto. Oops. Regardless, it was a very enjoyable evening and everyone got just a little bit toasted. Arriving back at the guest house, we hit the sack after a huge day of, among other things, bridges. Over to Tzu-Han for Sunday!
Sunday
We slept in for a bit and had a slow(ish) morning – me with my orange juice and left-over conbini karaage on the engawa, my favorite part of a Japanese house, and Jonah with his orange juice and book on the bench outside overlooking the bay. As much as I wanted to sunbathe on the engawa and take another nap on the tatami, we had a 14:55 ferry to catch and no time to waste. We packed our bags, bid our big and very comfortable guest house goodbye, and commenced day 2 of our moped adventures.
Although there were still quite a few more areas left to explore (like the very long road going up to the most northern point of Kamigoto which is 50 minutes away by car), with limited time, our grand plan was to head north to Yagatame Park Observatory, which was only 20 minutes away, and grab ice cream on our way back.
We arrived at the end of the road at Yagatame Park and headed up to the observation area first before taking the steps down towards the stone beach. On my previous trip to Kamigoto, I had sat and had breakfast on this beach. This time, though, we kept going to find the lighthouse on the other side of the big rock.
The steep path leading up to the lighthouse was, you guessed it, overgrown with seaside plants and covered in sandy dirt and slippery rocks. But it was a piece of cake compared to yesterday’s mountaineering sidequest. We made it to the lighthouse soon enough. And you might be thinking that’s it, they made it. That’s what I thought, too. Except, Jonah had a different idea. And before you know it, he was on the top of the lighthouse.
Unable to pass up the opportunity, I slowly, and reluctantly, made my way up. Halfway up the ladder I was reminded of my fear of heights. It was windy, the buttons of my shirt kept getting stuck on the ladder, and my glasses kept sliding down, but with some encouragements from Jonah and the knowledge that we didn’t have much time left, I made it to the top.
Let me say it was a beautiful day to be on top of a lighthouse. The view was great. Was it worth the climb? I don’t know but I am glad that I made it up! Anyways, it was time to go get some ice cream so we made our way down and back to the mopeds. When we got to the parking lot, we discovered a piece of paper in my helmet. Turns out it was a note left by the people from Hokkaido we met the day before, with their contact information for if we ever visit Hokkaido. They must have recognized my (friend’s) Kobe license plate.
With the clock ticking, we quickly made our way to Yagatame no Eki for some delicious salty, milky ice cream before riding to Wakamatsu port for our ferry. Jonah mentioned that it is a lot cheaper to get mopeds to other islands than cars, and I thought I should add to that and tell you that it is also easier – you don’t even have to make reservations. You just show up, get a paper slip to write down the kind of bike you have and the ports you are riding to and from, get your ticket, and you are good to go.
Trip details and ferry information:
- Saturday: OCEAN (カーフェリー) 8:05 (Fukue) → 9:50 (Wakamatsu)
- Fukue → Wakamatsu one way costs 860 (480 with islander discount) + 870 for a moped
- There are two ferries from Fukue to Wakamatsu via Naru Island – OCEAN (Car Ferry) and ニューたいよう (high-speed boat)
- Sunday: OCEAN (カーフェリー) 14:55 (Wakamatsu) → 16:40 (Fukue)
Key takeaways
- Buy a moped
- Local ALTs are great for suggesting local spots
- Kamigoto is a cool place
