03/29/2026 JPBT Day 7 : Swiss (Near) Miss

It’s always fun to meet other bike tourists, and yesterday we met Nicholas and Manuela, along with Manuela’s sister. Nicholas and Manuela had ridden across Asia by bike, starting in Albania, making it all the way to Thailand, and then flying to Kagoshima - the same starting point as us. They were using Komoot to plan their route, and with the dizzying number of possible roads out here, it felt almost impossible that we’d see them again; the road map is as convoluted as a Sumo wrestler’s varicose veins. Yet later today, at one of these tiny mountain intersections, they rolled across our path at a perfect 90-degree angle. It was uncanny enough that we invited ourselves along on their ride.

We are a little more seat-of-the-pants in our touring style, so joining forces with them was like signing up for a guided tour. We just followed them: first to a grocery store, then to monte-belle (an outdoors shop) where we finally were able to buy stove fuel. Just like that; all that fretting, solved in five minutes by following two competent Swiss. Now if we could just magically send the drone and maybe the computer safely home or to storage in Tokyo, we’d be set. Carrying too much stuff weighs on me mentally even more than physically; my brain is wannabe-Swiss efficiency, so I constantly begrudge burdensome baggage.

We then followed them to a campground they knew about (and we didn’t), only to discover it was closed. Being good, rule-following Swiss, they actually called a phone number on a sign to confirm. Janet and I probably would have employed our usual touring strategy, which is somewhere between optimism and trespassing, and operated under the “better to ask forgiveness than permission” model. Now that option was off the table, so we looked elsewhere. This is where we had our amicable breakup, making sure we would remain friends splitting custody of the route 50/50.

We are always intent on meeting mostly local people wherever we go, but there is also something really fun about meeting people with a shared language and more familiar culture. We really enjoyed spending the afternoon with these guys and hope t meet them tomorrow on the volcano.

Speaking of meeting people, most of our local conversations seem to be with motorcyclists. They seem attracted to is, maybe because of the brotherhood of two wheels.

One guy today was especially interesting. He did all of his own maintenance on his BMW, which he had owned for its entire 44 years. This bike seemed big for Japan. It was in spectacular condition and had only 43,000 kilometers on the odometer. I asked whether he belonged to a motorcycle club, and he said, “The motorcycle is the one thing I can do by myself. If I wanted to be with that many people, I would take the tour bus!” That alone made me like him.

His ride home from where we were talking would be two hours, and he seemed to think the USA was safer for two wheels than Japan. Janet and I postured the opposite opinion. I guess the grass is always greener, though in this case I still think we’re right… that the grass is actually greener here than in California (and probably quieter, steeper, and better paved too).

After that, we scurried off into the redwood forest and quickly found a perfect place to hide the tent and have a quiet night.