entry nº 39 // 20180826

miyazaki road trip august 2018. sweaty humid deep summer summer summer. backseat landscape sliding past the car window as we head south. me and shoko and our friend erika. stayed at erika’s parents’ place the first night, and then at a hostel in aoshima the second night before heading back north toward home. couple things, really:

the bowl of karamen soup we ate upon arriving in miyazaki city, which i still think about often, though happily turns out that restaurant also exists here in fukuoka, and we’ve been a couple times. spiciness scale on those fuckers goes from 1 to 40 (?!?!), and i think there’s even an extended scale that goes up to 50, maybe, though you have to ask for permission for that one, or something? 

me and erika’s dad had the same pair of uniqlo STETECOs, blue with an angular white geometric pattern, and it was funny. 

second night, in aoshima, walking along the beach, and being snuck up on by, out over the ocean, the whole entire goddamned moon, shocking in its placement and brightness, unbelievable for a brief moment, your body just kind of, well, stupefied, if you will, looking out into the dark horizonless night ocean and expecting maybe the lights of a couple boats or whatever, but then seeing instead this thing, its color and position, unworldly, incredible. 

the chicken nanban i ate at the restaurant erika’s dad recommended to us, which was just, i mean, chicken nanban is totally delish all the time, but this was next level. deep blue ocean out the window, sandbar, heat. 

the “devil’s washboard,” these ribbed rock formations that look like, well? a washboard, which apparently belongs to the devil or, according to certain translations, the ogre. or, an ogre? not sure if it’s the or an. one? 

sleeping in the men’s side of the hostel we stayed at, maybe one other sleeper in my bunk room that particular night, curtained off, thankful to have a little window next to my top-bunk spot on the other side of the room. woken up by shoko in the morning, coming to get me so we could head out to catch the sunrise at aoshima shrine. it was great. the beach composed of tiny sea shells. full lap around the island. rendezvousing with erika a bit later after she got up, grabbing 7-11 breakfast, sitting on a stone wall by the water eating, sleepy, happy.