Rebun Island 2019: Pocari Sweat

If you travel to Japan you’ll no doubt notice a beverage called Pocari Sweat in many of the nation’s stores and vending machines. Pocari Sweat is a sports drink that I’d describe as being like Gatorade-flavored water. Despite the somewhat humorous name, at least for a native English speaker like me, Pocari Sweat actually has a fairly good flavor in my opinion and I drank several bottles of it during 2019 trip across Japan, including on the final leg of the long ride back to Rebun Island’s ferry port. The supply of water I had brought with me was just about gone by that point in the day so I bought a bottle of Pocari Sweat from a vending machine in one of the villages along Rebun’s east coast. I honestly have no idea on whether Pocari Sweat is a great sports drink or not but a cold bottle of it was certainly helpful during that long final stretch of cycling.