Tottori to Sakaiminato

Tottori. A medium sized town on the northern coast of southern Japan...does that make sense? Anyhow, that's where the bus took us. With 2 days until our ferry departs and 120 km to get there we figured it'd be a good test of the bikes. It took a few hours to actually get them together at the bus station. Details like neither of us having ever put our panniers on our racks before ate up some time. Once fully loaded...and they feel FULLY loaded, we headed out in the direction we both thought most probable to get us to the edge of town. Money was an issue at this point...or more precisely, the lack of. As hunger turned to hanger and atm after atm rejected our cards I encounted the unthinkable- a McDonalds. I went in and asked if they took visa, which they did not. Hanger. While waiting outside for B to return from a failed bank run the fellow in McDonalds came out with 2 big chicken nuggets and managed the word "samples" with a bow and gave them to me. I don't quite know what to think about that interaction...I guess I must have looked pretty hungery for McDonalds to give me charity. More accurately, it was the kindness of the Japanese. Even B took a nibble from those fantastic greasy nuggets. Onward for a little while, discovering that pretty much every street has a bike lane and near highways, separated lanes. How civilized! We fixed the food issue by going to a "Lawson's" which is like a quicky-mart that pretty much everybody here uses as they're much more common than grocery stores. Anyhow, they take visa and we scarfed much over packaged goodies. The cheery afternoon ended which a cozy little campsite near a graveyard and shrine. Being culturally sensitive we did our best to remain at a distance.
Woke to torrential rain. Why are we bike touring again? It rained all day and the traffic noise started to drive me insane. Breakfast, lunch, and supper from Lawson's and a campsite near a beach where we were pummeled by wind and rain all night. The next day was better. Woke to drizzle and the weather improved as we got closer to Saikaminto. We had time to have a Japanese hot-tub session and eat at a bonified grocery store for a change and still arrive a little early to the ferry terminal. Except that upon attempting to pay for our tickets I got the "cash only" phrase. When will this end? I thought to myself! We weren't exactly near any atms but I hopped on my bike that seemed like a ferrari now that it was devoid of gear and sprinted in a direction I thought would have a bank machine (or a Lawson's). I felt like a bike-courier on speed(note Japan drives on the left) as I zipped around in search of cash. Finding a bank atm I put my card in only to be presented with about 25 different choices in Japanese only...oh god help me! Lucky for me there was a person entering to use the machine next to me. I did my best Japanese sign language depicting money coming out of the machine and waving my card. He seemed like he didn't want to impose by helping me so I got more intrusive by inserting my card and getting him to come over to show me what button to press. I got the no-no as he waved me off...stop being so polite I thought, I know you won't look at my pin number. More gesticulations for money coming out and then pointed at the panel of choices as I crossed my arms in front of me in an X while saying "no Japanese"...this finally sunk in and he gingerly pressed the withdrawl option. I entered my pin and it spat my card out. "Jesus-H" I mumbled while tearing out of the atm area. Sprinting back I arrived empty handed and drenched in sweat. It ended up that they accepted a combination of mostly US dollars and the few Yen that we had left...lucky for us.