I wanted to do the whole tour by bike alone, but when I looked into it, it turns out you can't cross Awaji Island by bike. I was pretty disappointed, but if I take the ferry I can ride as far as Shōdoshima and get to Himeji too, so it's more or less fine. I'm looking forward to taking the ferry as well.

On Shōdoshima I took a wrong turn and started down the coastal route. While I was looking for the right road, I met and talked to a man called Uchiyama-san. He was cycling a lap of Shōdoshima. His previous job was designing agricultural machinery, but apparently it was tough because he had to work overtime every day. He'd worked as a mechanic before that too. At the moment he's taking a break while looking for work. We talked about the cultural differences between the UK and Japan, and it was fun. While we were talking I lost track of time, and although I was 14 km from the ferry, there was only an hour until departure. I thought "oh no", and pedalled as hard as I could in a panic while taking in the sea views. I only just made it. Normally that kind of distance is no problem, but the hills were brutal. The view from the ferry was beautiful too.

Before arriving, I looked up Himeji's local speciality. I decided to have ekisoba (station soba). Ekisoba is really popular, and apparently there's a culture of eating soba while you wait for your train. I thought it'd be great if we had that kind of culture in the UK too.

I got to the station, but I had no idea how to find it, so I asked two men. One was a fisherman called Nori-san. He told me he was forty, but he looked far younger than that. He walked me to the shop. It's on the platform, so I needed to buy a ticket too. Nori-san treated me to both the ticket and the soba! He was so kind. Next time we meet, I'll definitely treat him! By the way, the ekisoba was tempura soba, and it was ridiculously good! When I finished, I wanted to order another.