Japan 2019 Week 1

Day 0 Arrival in Kagoshima Airport

Accommodation: Kagoshima Kuko (Airport Hotel)

Our flight from Vancouver landed in Narita a little behind schedule and we had a fairly tight connection onwards to Osaka with ANA. Immigration was a breeze and our luggage appeared quickly. There were a number of helpful staff in the baggage area, including one fellow who said he had 2 days off and would like to join us! After we cleared customs, we were ready to drop off our bags and run to catch our flight. But not so fast, ANA staff told us they couldn’t handle the big boxes, and we should go outside the connections area and head for domestic check-in. There wasn’t much of a queue, but the ANA gals quickly helped us and measured our bike boxes to ensure that they were not over-sized. Security was brought in and they asked us to open the cardboard bike boxes and he snooped around meticulously, especially keen on CO2 cylinders (we are the hand pump types). We re-taped the boxes up and then rushed off for our flight. On the Osaka leg, we flew over Fuji-san with a wonderful view of the iconic peak. We were feeling the long day and struggled to board our 4th flight, the Osaka to Kagoshima flight. It was raining cats and dogs at Kagoshima and miraculously, all our luggage reappeared after 4 flights, seemingly intact. We took a hotel van to the nearby airport hotel (not great, but convenient after a long day) and got to bed over-tired around 10pm, which in our local time would be about when we would normally be getting up in the morning.

Day 1 Kagoshima Airport to Kagoshima

71 km, 940m elevation gain: Day 1 gps map and profile

Accommodation: Gasthof Hotel

It was still raining when we got up but the forecast promised an end by 9:00 am. Everything in Japan works like clockwork, and the weather seemed to do so as well. The first order of business was to get some Japanese Yen. The ATM at Kagoshima airport did not accept foreign cards, but I had read that most 7-11’s had foreign bank card accepting ATM’s. We walked over to a nearby 7-11, withdrew ¥50,000, admired all the ready-made food and returned to an enthusiastic server for our hotel buffet breakfast. It took us a little while to scope out the various dishes on offer, many of which were unrecognizable before we dug in. Then we hauled out the bike boxes out of the hotel and reassembled our two bikes without incident. The hotel reception allowed us to leave the cardboard boxes for recycling/disposal. We fiddled a little with our gear, but by 10:00 am, we were cycling in Japan!

The Northern route above Kagoshima Bay was the more direct route to Kagoshima but we took the Southern route, which we figured would be quieter and more scenic. The main road to Kirishima quickly became a little busier with a narrow shoulder, but within a couple of kilometres, the route that I had designed kicked in, and before long, we were on tiny side roads and then riding the back roads of Kirishima. We live on a green island, but we couldn’t help saying how green Kyushu was.

In Kirishima, we rode through our first cherry blossoms. A number of people asked us if we were going to see the cherry blossoms, but we knew that we were going to be too late to catch them at their peak. They were good enough for me.

We held our collective breaths when we started out on the #220 highway, concerned about traffic that never materialized.

The weather slowly cleared and by early afternoon we arrived at our first “Michi no Eki” (road station), a national network of shops and restaurants that encourage and showcase regional food products. The restaurant overlooked the bay. The picture menu made ordering a snap and with encouragement from the server, we helped ourselves to green tea and cold water. Our first lunch was delicious and cost us a combined ¥1500 (about 14 USD); Japan was looking good!

We followed the coast a little longer and then crossed over onto Sakurajima and the undulating road around an active volcano. On the approach, we could often feel volcanic ash in our eyes. When we reached Sakurajima ferry terminal, I had one more trick up my sleeve; to visit the local dinosaur park and see the cherry blossoms. I knew it would involve a short uphill ride, but I didn’t think it was going to be quite that steep. The blossoms were largely past their prime, but the dinosaurs still looked large and mighty.

We zipped down to the ferry terminal and caught our first ferry over to Kagoshima. The 3 km ride to our hotel was a breeze because of the cycle lanes and wide sidewalks keeping us out of the city traffic. Our first impression of urban cyclists was that they are a little crazy. It was an easy check-in at the comfortable Gasthof Hotel. We parked our bikes across the street in a open garage across the street that was locked up at night.

Our general food strategy was to take the hotel breakfasts (most were included in the room rate), lunch at available Michi no Eki’s and then opt for fairly light dinners in town. I selected a downtown ramen restaurant for dinner on our first night in Kagoshima. It was a classic setting, with friendly staff and a tipsy couple sitting at the counter. Each Japanese region has its own unique ramen style and the Kagoshima prefecture version features delicious roast “black” pork.

Our first day was a resounding success.

Day 2 Kagoshima

12 km, 110m elevation gain: Day 2 gps map and profile

Accommodation: Gasthof Hotel

I had put a day aside to acclimate to the time change and recover from the 20+ hours of travel. We had a full Japanese breakfast at the Gasthof and it was good to see that the Japanese make a pretty good cup of coffee.

We spent the morning riding east, first to see a number of stone bridges that had been relocated to a city park. Apparently, flood waters had destroyed a number of stone bridges, so surviving bridges had been moved to safer ground. We also went to visit Sengen-an gardens, which attracted a number of Japanese tourists.

On our return to the city centre, we dropped into our first supermarket to pick a few things up. Japan is a quiet country, so we were struck by the amount of annoying music in parts of the store. At the checkout counter, I hesitated with payment, and the cashier immediately rushed to coach me to put the cash into a separate payment machine beyond the cashier. Then the normal protocol for supermarkets was to go over to another counter and bag your purchases. We visited a bike shop for chain oil, found a terrific spot for lunch in the basement of a shopping mall (enjoying the action from our counter seats) and then rested for the balance of the day. We broke one of our guidelines by picking up a few salads for dinner at a 7-11 rather than eating in a restaurant. Jet lag tends to creep in on the second day after the journey, so the late afternoon and evening rest was much appreciated.

Day 3 Kagoshima to Ichikikushikino

55 km, 500m elevation gain: Day 3 gps map and profile

Accomodation: Axia Kushikino

We had a relatively light day ahead of us, so we opted to skip the Hotel Gasthof breakfast and make an early visit to the Kagoshima fish market. I didn’t have a lot of intel on the market other than tours were offered on Saturdays (it was a Friday), so we rode over in light traffic and had a look around. At one stage, a gentleman advised me that we had to wear hard hats so we made a strategic retreat to the main hall where the public seemed to be permitted. Then we went for sashimi at one of several restaurants on the edge of the market, which even had an English menu. We had much better sashimi later in our trip (it was a little tough/chewy), but we enjoyed the local atmosphere. The Masters golf tournament was underway and it seemed that most people in the restaurant were watching it on the TV.

We returned to the hotel, packed up and started out on our cycle journey, following the track that I had set up on my phone, knowing that we would have to do some climbing first thing. It started out well enough, with a separate cycle path, but that disappeared after a few kilometres. The road didn’t have much of a shoulder, and was sometimes quiet, and other sections collected dump trucks. The number of small garbage trucks increased as we approached the incinerator plant, then we finally pulled off onto smaller quiet roads. We dropped down into a river valley with rice paddies and discovered that the OSM (Open Streets Map) was fallible and clearly wrong in places. We were about to abandon the route and take a small track away from the river when we saw a vehicle arrive at a small construction site across the river, so we took the bridge across and pushed our bikes along a path and then continued our journey into Hita largely in the river valley.

When I was planning the route, I would review Google Maps for shrines, restaurants, etc so I intentionally set a track to pass by places of interest and particular restaurants that looked interesting. While we were riding along a riverside trail in Hita, I smelled curry and came to a full stop. That was the Shiva Restaurant, our intended lunch stop. The owner/manager was a Nepali from the terai and we enjoyed a fully, satisfying lunch for 900 ¥ (8USD).

We made a stop at a quiet shrine at the edge of town and then went along a series of gorgeous, quiet lanes (albeit up and down) over to the West coast of Kyushu (yes, more OSM inaccuracies). That section of the coastal highway was a little busier, but much of it had separate bike paths alongside. Our South to North route was generally into the wind and that day was no exception.

We stayed at a Japanese hotel/inn that was a little dated but nonetheless quite comfortable. It wasn’t very busy and every time we went by reception, the staff would bow to us (sometimes 3 of them at once). We had paid a little extra for a seaside room. At this particular establishment, you kept you shoes on until your room. I always thought it was peculiar that you can smoke in your room but shouldn’t wear shoes on the carpet. We developed a routine of putting on the kutakas (robes) and heading for the bath house on arrival for a scrub and a soak. Often, we were the only ones that early in the day, so I could fine tune my washing technique before hitting a busy bath house.

Ichiki is a somewhat industrial seaside town and there didn’t seem to be a lot of restaurants within walking distance of our hotel and we were lazy, so we rode anyways. We probably should have gone up closer to the main road where there were more places to eat, but we went to a place a block away from the harbour. In some countries you would call it a greasy spoon, and when we opened the door, we could smell the fat, but we couldn’t be bothered to turn around and look for an alternative. The family running the restaurant were nice enough, there were other customers, but our dinner looked much better than it was. Not all food in Japan is fantastic.

Notwithstanding the mediocre dinner, it was another great day.

Day 4.Ichiki to Akune

62 km, 1300m elevation gain: Day 4 gps map and profile

Accommodation: Iwashi Building Hostel

The day started with a Japanese breakfast on “TV tray” in the hotel restaurant with the help-yourself to drinks (water, juice, tea and fine coffee). I was still working out how to eat the breakfasts and no one watched to see our ineptitude. Initially, I was wrapping the fish with nori (seaweed sheets), but later in the trip I became almost competent in grasping the nori with chopsticks and folding it over the rice. I never figured out how we were supposed to eat the peeled, soft-boiled eggs with chopsticks. We found that one aspect of Japan was that although people see you, they never watch you. We could pull into a quiet, out of the way town, and no one would look at us. We could wander around a Japanese supermarket wearing bright cycle jackets and no one would look at us. We were almost invisible.

It took us a little while to get out of town, mainly because we hit a red light. You could read a short book between changes of Japanese traffic lights. There seems to be either yield signs or traffic lights in Japan, we didn't see very many stop signs. Once we got through the traffic light, we had a beautiful morning ride on good coastal roads, and over headlands with very light traffic. We passed a nuclear plant, but there wasn’t much to see. We stopped in at a busy, lovely regional shop, bursting with fresh local seafood and produce (no one looked at us there either) and bought something to drink, then carried along nice quiet roads. However, we ended up on a busier highway without much of a shoulder, so we headed for the hills (on my prepared route) through small villages but more to the point up and down steep hills on narrow, mostly paved, forestry tracks.

The Michi no Eki that I had picked out was closed for renovations, so we continued on the steep forestry tracks until we got hungry. There wasn’t much to choose from, so we picked up a couple of bento boxes of sushi at a produce shop for lunch. We made a small detour to check out the coast area before pulling into Akune.

We arrived a little early (before check-in time) so we cruised the town. The old commercial centre and the harbour area seemed very quiet for a Saturday afternoon. We checked into the guest house, which was upstairs from a shop and small factory. It was all quite new and it turned out that we were the only guests that night. Our room was quite small, you had to crawl through a small door to enter it, but we had the run of the whole place including lounge. We got our laundry done in the washer/dryer for ¥200. It turns out that most of the places that we stayed at, had washer/dryers for guests, sometimes in the bath house area, which seems pragmatic and civilized.

We made a habit of picking up a couple of beers from a local convenience store, either just before check-in or just after. The guest house didn’t have a bath house, but the showers were spot on. I wasn’t overly impressed with the restaurant offerings nearby, so we walked a couple of blocks for dinner at a “Joyful”, which is a Japanese family restaurant serving a variety of middle of the road food. We did figure out that when you want someone to take your food order, you ring a bell and then a server appears in an instant. A bill is almost always left at your table so when you are finished, you go to the cash and pay your bill. There is no tipping in Japan and we found restaurant prices to be very reasonable and noticeably less than in Canada, US or Western Europe.

The afternoon had been tiring, but once again, it was a terrific day.

Day 5 Akune to Amuri (Amakusa)

63 km, 670m elevation gain: Day 5 gps map and profile

Accommodation: Ryokan Amuri

We had requested the optional ¥600 breakfast at the guest house for 7:30am. I felt a little guilty that one of the gals had to come in for 7:00am to prepare it for us. We could have bought something at a convenience store or the nearby supermarket but when the delicious breakfast and matching coffee were served, the guilt evaporated.

The roads seemed quiet that Sunday morning, but we stayed on the back roads nonetheless. It was easy riding to bridge to Nagoshima island. The terrain began to rise up and down, till we reached the ferry terminal for Amakusa island. A couple of staff members directed us to park our bikes and purchase tickets inside. We had about an hour wait and but only a few cars appeared after us. In total, 6 cars took the ferry. Most of the time, bicycles load first, and ferry attendants fastened the bikes with rope and they use blankets for padding.

We knew that rain was expected sometime during the day, but on arrival on Amakusa island, it was still dry. We wandered to a Michi no Eki, but decided to eat in the sleepy town and spotted a Chinese restaurant and had a couple of delicious noodle soups before continuing onward. We always paid cash at restaurants as many don't accept credit cards. The smallest bill in Japan is ¥1,000, so you get to know your coins quickly and use them, otherwise you can quickly find yourself carrying a lot of extra weight on the bike!

It was still dry, and we took a quiet series of incredibly beautiful roads as light rain developed, but not enough for rain jackets. As we approached our destination, we stopped for ice creams at a convenience store and peeked in a small shrine.

As we pulled into the parking lot of the Amuri Onsen, the receptionist came out to show us where to park our bikes (outside but under cover). We always locked our bikes overnight, but often were required to leave them outside. At this Onsen, guests take off their shoes at the front door which was about the same time that the rain started to kick in, so once again, we seemed to have dodged the bullet. The receptionist spoke some simple English and brought us to our room, a Japanese classic. Fabulous.

First things, first, we headed straight to the bath house which was bursting with activity on a Sunday afternoon (open to the public). There were a number of baths including outdoor baths, sauna and cold pools. Once we were squeaky clean, we polished off beer, watched the rain fall and then we dug into a standard dinner that was included in the room rate. We really enjoyed the immersion into a backwater Onsen. If I could have changed one thing on our trip, I would have booked the Amuri Onsen for 2 nights and used it as a base to ride the east coast of Amakusa and popped over to the tiny islands off the east coast.

Day 6 Amuri to Amakusa City

72 km, 960m elevation gain: Day 6 gps map and profile

Accommodation: Amakusa Princess

When I developed our route, I hadn’t seen any blog entries about the western coast of Amakusa but it sure looked good on the map and on Google Earth. We were in for a treat. We did some great rides on Kyushu, but the ride from Amuri to Amakusa City stands out as one our best bike rides in Japan. It was the combination of a forest ride at elevation, then a beautiful coastal ride followed by a agricultural ride that was tough to beat.

We had a fairly standard Japanese breakfast at 7:00am and we were out by 8:00am under clear blue skies. The plan was to start with an inland section rather than following the coast at first (it also had some serious elevation), and follow the #280 to the west coast. It was quiet to start and then we began to have our doubts about the road as the leaf litter on the road increased, but we pushed on. At some points, the road was covered in moss, indicating that it was very lightly traveled, but we continued and hoped that after all the effort we put into it, that it didn’t suddenly come to an end. After the climb, we dropped down sharply and then we could see a few buildings below us and the road widened, and we arrived onto #389, the west coast road.

The #389 was a great ride along the coast. It started as a fairly quiet road and then as it picked up a little more traffic, more “sidewalks” (bike paths) appeared. I had scoped out a small noodle restaurant for lunch and we had champon noodles (no picture menu there!). We pushed on through rice paddies and along the coast. We stopped at a beautiful shrine before reaching the bridge to Tsuji island. We rode over and observed the fairly busy fishing port (uni, that is sea urchins were in season) and watched some retirees playing gameball (related to croquet). Tsuji had a charm that far exceeded its tiny size.

Soon after, we left the coast to follow the Uchino river, going off and on #47, on small farm roads and watched farmers transplanting rice by hand. We passed the Amakusa airport and stayed on the wide sidewalk on the outskirts of town. Sheila had read about the 7-11 cheesecake, so we tried one out to give us a sugar lift for the last few kilometres. Darn good, though we didn’t make a habit of them.

My GPS track led us to our ryokan along the harbour, where my name was on the outside welcome board. They were expecting us. The Amakusa Princess was a pleasant surprise; reception was friendly and helpful, our room overlooked the small harbour and the bath house was splendid and quiet. Most of the other guests had arranged for meals in their rooms, but we went out for dinner. My first choice was to try out the Japanese version of Italian food, but it was closed. I had selected a back-up choice and we went out for smoked eel, in a restaurant with no other customers. We enjoyed the salad bar followed by a smoked eel on rice. We stopped by a convenience store for ice creams before calling it a night.

It had been a splendid day!

Day 7 Amakusa City to Kumamoto

72 km, 830m elevation gain: Day 7 gps map and profile

Accommodation: Kumamoto Hotel Castle

It was another sunny morning at the Princess hotel and we had opted for a 7:00 am breakfast. As it was a more traditional hotel, we sat on tatami in the dining room, but we did have a choice of Japanese or Western breakfast. Sheila opted for the bacon and eggs, while I went with the notion that you don’t have Japanese breakfasts every day. I was starting to make some progress on wrapping nori around rice with my chopsticks while Sheila had to eat her egg with chopsticks. Some of the Japanese packaging can be challenging and it took her a while to open up single serving of butter and jam. We were guided to the lounge after breakfast for coffee.

We had left our bikes inside the lobby area, and we rolled them out the hotel front doors and loaded them with our rear panniers. I think the hotel reception was being friendly, but he could have been making sure we were gone, because he came to see us off.

The ride out of Amakusa City was straight forward and the ride up to Oniike was largely uneventful, a little ways back from the coastline. We had plenty of time to catch the 9:00 am ferry over to mainland Kyushu.

We had a full ride ahead of us and a second ferry to catch, so we didn’t diddle much and rode off and on the main road, but mostly on smaller roads through housing. I had included the ruins of the Hara castle on our route, and that led us to a nice seaside section. The air seemed hazy, with pollution that turned out to be fine ash from Mt Aso that had been erupting over the last couple of days.

The main road seemed to get busier and we opted to leave it and gain some elevation. I had made such a route, but if I had to do it over again, I would have kept closer to the sea, because the high ground was not particularly interesting. We ended up going on narrow, very steep tracks which were not particularly good riding, and then I opted for a road that went higher than my original plan (more unnecessary effort). It was mostly cabbage and tobacco fields and quite a few plastic greenhouses, but not particularly scenic. It started to improve as we descended and then we made our next milestone, a nice Michi no Eki for lunch. We didn’t get there till around 1:00pm, but service was perfunctory and by the time we had finished, most of the others diners had cleared out. Nearby, were the remains of homes that had been buried in lava from the Mt Unzen volcano in 1991. Mt Unzen has a temperamental past; back in 1792 it triggered a tsunami that killed almost 15,000 people.

When I was planning the trip, I had considered staying somewhere on the Nagasaki peninsula and visiting Nagasaki by bus for the day, but we didn’t have quite enough days, nor the appetite for another city. So, after lunch, we had a little more energy and although we were a little tight on time, we went to see the exterior of the Shambala castle. We had just enough time to see it and then scoot back to the ferry terminal to catch the 14:50 ferry to Kumamoto but didn’t get a chance to have a good look around the old Samurai buildings. We went inside the terminal to purchase our tickets and then waited outside to load. On most ferries, the bikes went on first, but in that case, we loaded last. The one hour ferry was about half full. There were a number of announcements on the ferry PA system in Japanese and English, one of which was to be quiet. About half the passengers promptly fell asleep. The gulls were the highlight of the passage. A few of the passengers bought crackers to feed to the gulls, so they followed the ship until their food source was exhausted.

The Kumamoto ferry terminal is about 15km west of the city centre, but it is nearly flat. We had a nice bike path to follow and then we headed for a a river and followed that pretty well into the city, mostly on a bike path until we were with 2 km of the castle and our hotel. Once again, city riding is easy, following bike lanes and sidewalks deep into the city to our swanky hotel, the Kumamoto Castle Hotel. With the 2 ferry crossings and 70 odd kilometres, we finished riding just after 4:00pm. We were advised to park our bikes in the car parking garage by the helpful staff. Our room looked good, but it was quite warm. I went to reception to inquire how we might cool it off, and was advised to wait a while for the central AC to kick in. After showers, we went out for dinner. Following our pattern of a larger lunch, we ate at a very good ramen restaurant, returning to a still rather warm room. We looked across the street into an office where they appeared to be working well past 7:00pm. I went downstairs for something from my bike and the reception asked how our room was. Well, it lead to a room change, actually an upgrade. The staff kindly put us in a large bridal suite that had all kinds of furnishings, several air conditioners, a fancy toilet and three TV’s including one over the bathtub!

Once again, the day had offered pleasant surprises ending with one of the nicest hotel rooms we have ever ever stayed in.