After
our travels on Yagishiri island, in my earlier post, H, R and I continued on to Teuri Island.
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When we got off the boat, we were greeted the man from our Hostel who had worried when H called, in perfect Japanese, if we could speak enough Japanese. He loaded our stuff into a cart and then accompanied us to the bike rental shop.
We rented bikes from the very kind people in the shop, who almost acted as though we were the only foreigners to have ever come to the island (I’m certain this isn’t true because I have friends who recommended coming to the island).
Then, we met the island’s police man.
He warned us that recently there had been a few accidents with visitors when they decided to cycle the island (as we had decided to do) and rather than stop to look at the scenery they took their eyes off the road. He cautioned us to be careful and if we wanted to look, to pull off to the side and stop.
Both he and the cycling shop warned us that we would go around a corner of fairly easy riding and then it would be steep riding for about 3k. We set off, following the directions to make sure we had water with us before we got to the steep part.
But, as expected it got steep, too steep for either H or I to stay on our cycles for long.
R on the other hand has been doing lots of insane rides lately and was able to stay on her bike slightly longer.
The view from near the top made the ride very much worth it (though we did consider jumping in a few times, but decided not to as we’d have to get back up).
Though it’s not an amazing picture, look at how blue the water is.
As we cycled the island, we ran into our cop friend several more times. Our conclusion is that with about 350 people on the island he doesn’t have enough to do, so he make sure the tourists are ok.
From the top, we went out to a viewpoint, where we were able to see many kinds of sea birds.
When we got to the Ryokan we had decided to stay at, we were amazed to find that it looked straight out on the docks.
After a quick shower, it was time for dinner.
Dinner was full of fresh seafood and uni (sea urchin). Unfortunately for us foreigners, the uni was still moving. Every time we touched it, the tentacles started moving. I was quite afraid to eat it.
Thankfully the ryokan owner came in to check on us and see if we knew how to eat it. When we responded that we did not, he came over and showed us how to break it open.
Unfortunately, it still continued to move. Despite this problem, I did manage to taste some of it (you eat the orange-ish part). It wasn’t bad, but it sort of tasted like sea-pudding, mostly just salty. It wasn’t bad and I can eat it, but it’s not something I’d choose on purpose again.
When we finished, we headed out for a walk and to see the sunset.
I’m not sure if this picture is going to do it justice, but it was a gorgeous sunset. Including a view of Mt. Rishiri.
On Monday morning, we woke up to another yummy Ryokan breakfast.
Though, I was surprised to find that the egg in the middle was raw. Apparently you’re supposed to mix it with rice and soy sauce.
I’m not sure I’d call it good, but it definitely wasn’t as bad as I had expected.
After breakfast, we gathered our things, returned the bikes and set off once again on the ferry.
Unfortunately, the clouds were low, so we had a soupy sort of fog to look at as we returned.
We made it back to the mainland after a fun weekend, anticipating the next weekend (and bit of the week) to be filled with English Camp and more fun last times together.
