Japan 2019: Week 2

Day 8 Kumamoto to Kikuchi (via Yamaga)

55 km, 580m elevation gain: Day 8 gps map and profile

Accommodation: Mochizuki Ryokan

We woke up in our posh room, opened the blinds for a view of the castle and I made a couple of origami coffees (filtered coffee with nifty folding filters that many hotels provided). At the bustling restaurant, we had a choice of Japanese or Western breakfast. Like the previous day, Sheila opted for Western and I went with Japanese. This time the Western breakfast was served with fork and knife, while I pressed on with chopsticks. More importantly, coffee was not served with the Japanese breakfast, so when Sheila asked for a refill, and the server brought and left a full coffee pot, we were all happy. When we checked out, there were no additional charges for our luxury upgrade. Yahoo!

We considered a trip to the Suizen-Ji gardens which were about 4 km from the hotel that would be slow going in the city. We knew the castle was closed for restoration of damages incurred in the 2016 earthquake. Instead, we opted to extend our ride to the small, historic city of Yamaga. The Yuuka Family cycle path starts close to the Kumamoto city centre. Although it was not initially very impressive, the surface and surroundings improved to a lovely, mostly flat ride through rural Kumamoto. There were not many cyclist on the path. There are quite a few people on bikes in Japan but they are mostly in town; school kids and and older people using them for errands such as buying groceries. In Kyushu, very few wore bike helmets. Most of the bikes are the "Mary Poppins" type, but if there was one thing that I could do for Japan, it would be to help them raise their bike seat heights as most people ride so cramped up.

The cycle way is on a disused railway bed, passing through agricultural properties (quite a number of wheat fields) and some beautiful shrines to reach Yamaga. In the historic centre, a Japanese tour group showered us with chocolates and presented Sheila with a small gift. Perhaps we should have taken a tour of the interior of the old Shibuki theatre, but it was pleasant enough from outside.

We retraced our route to leave Yamaga and we set off through agricultural lands and quiet, open roads, stopping at a couple of beautiful shrines/temples along the way. I planned the route to reach another Michi no Eki for lunch. This one was a busy buffet. We prepaid for our lunches (¥1090, $10) for a visit to the buffet. There was an array of dishes and we quickly ascertained that there was no single system among the other customers and filled our trays with food, heavy on the calamari for me, and finished it off with self-serve ice cream. As always, we ate too much at the buffet, so a lighter dinner was in our future.

More agricultural land greeted us. As we reached, the outskirts of Kikuchi, which isn’t particularly large, we headed for a supermarket and picked up a few items before reaching the end of my predetermined track and a slightly run down looking ryokan that wasn’t open. Hmmm. I hadn’t opted for a data plan in Japan, but managed to research places and locations ahead of time either at home or on hotel wifi’s. Most Japanese convenience stores offer free wifi, but in that case, I consulted with maps.me and realized that our ryokan was a couple of blocks away (note to self, pay more attention to the precise location of your accommodation next time). There it was, and my name was written on the welcome board outside.

I entered the ryokan with passports in hand. The inn was a variety that required you take your shoes off at the entrance. I seemed to get a somewhat cool reception at first, but later they warmed up to us and they were quite friendly and smiley. It was an interesting ryokan (in a good way), with a rabbit warren of hallways. There was a function going on in one of the halls, and our room was traditional Japanese tatami with our futon beds already made, waiting for us. Our room had a replica samurai helmet on one of the shelves. Most importantly, it had an Onsen which turned out to be rather splendid, so first things first, we put on our bath robes and went for a soak, obtaining approving looks from the staff in doing so.

All cleaned up, we wandered the quiet city park and even quieter temple and shrine. There were some interesting looking Izakaya’s (bar/restaurants), but as we had a big lunch, we picked out a small ramen restaurant for soup and gyoaza’s (dumplings) before calling it another rewarding day.

Day 9 Kikuchi to Kurokawa Onsen

67km, 1940m elevation gain: Day 9 gps map and profile

Accommodation: Kurasako Onsen Sakura

We were well rested for our climbing day. I had dropped Mt Aso from the itinerary due to lack of time, but included Kurokawa Onsen. I didn’t want to go around the hills as it would take a day longer and it is quite populated to the north, so we went over the mountains. Fittingly, the ryokan stoked us with a full protein breakfast including 2 eggs, tofu and some natto (fermented soybean) that didn’t sit well later. The staff wished us well, came outside to make sure we were really gone and the woman kept saying "sugoi" (amazing).

We took a roundabout, back roads route at first, which was very nice but delayed the inevitable because we had to ride up to 1,000m of elevation. It didn’t look bad on the map and I wasn’t sure about traffic levels, but it ultimately was no cause for concern. The gradient was steady but not excessive and traffic was light. It was mostly forest with a few waterfalls. Once we reached our maximum elevation, we took a series of deserted and idyllic roads, mostly descending. The forest yielded briefly to grassland and Mt Aso was bellowing ash, before we returned to forests, later interspersed with tiny agricultural pockets and villages, then we reached Minamioguni town.

I expected both a Michi no Eki and a supermarket, however the Michi was only a store, and we weren’t overwhelmed by the limited restaurant choices. So knowing that we had more to do, opted for lunch at a convenience store, Family Mart. The lunch was actually pretty good, it’s always a good idea to eat before you go grocery shopping. When you are in a Japanese convenience store, the amount of small sizes and packaging is staggering, yet when you are on the road, you see very little roadside litter. In addition, there are very few public trash cans, so folks are great at hanging onto their garbage until they get home. We were heading to a self catering cabin, in the hills, and that was the closest supermarket. This was to be our first self catering accommodation and we opted for an Italian theme because pasta and sauce features in most Japanese supermarkets. I made sure that we had enough produce for two nights and we set off, with another more modest climb ahead.

The route that I had set up was on back roads, sometimes difficult to follow, but ultimately, the map was wrong (honestly) and the tiny dirt track stopped at a farm, so we were forced to make a strategic retreat back to the highway which turned out to be quiet anyways. We were both feeling the heat and were tired towards the end of the day and I reached our GPS destination, while Sheila waited below. It was entirely wrong. I had entered the wrong place (I had to go back and forth between Google maps and OSM at the time, and I obviously didn’t do a proper job). There wasn’t much around and I couldn’t figure out where we should go. There were some political campaigners going through the deserted streets, so I waved them down. The one English speaker, was persistent enough to reach the bungalow owner by phone.

The bungalow owner would come by to escort us there. I was most appreciative and thankful. Within a few minutes our white knight (a white car) pulled up and we followed it for about 4Kms to our cabin.

The owners were friendly and took great pride in their property which had 4 or 5 cabins, a campground and lots of hot water for the numerous hot pools that they had set up. Our 2 floor cabin had its own private pool and two communal pools which flipped between men and ladies on alternating days. I bought a couple of draft beers to celebrate reaching our destination. Afterwards, it was hot tubing, pasta and a bottle of the best red wine available in Minamioguni town (a cheap Chilean).

Day 10 Kurokawa Onsen, rest day

13km, 300m elevation gain: Day 10 gps map and profile

Accommodation: Kurasako Onsen Sakura

We woke up on our own time which was early anyways as we had been getting up fairly early. We did have a relaxed couple of coffees before starting on making breakfast. Poached eggs were on the menu as I had bought eggs and English muffins, of all things. We were able to wash and dry our laundry in the owner’s machines before we set out for a look around the area, but it was to be a rest day, so nothing strenuous.

Kurokawa Onsen is a conglomeration of hot spring resorts spread out over hilly country on a couple of small rivers. I had selected one of the onsen as worthy of us trundling up and down hills because it was outside, next to a river. Apparently, you can soak in the onsens for a nominal fee. When we arrived at Yamamizuki, the onsen itself was closed for cleaning, so we simply continued on to the village centre, pleasant enough, but quite touristy. So much so, that we even spotted a Caucasian family. We really saw very few foreign tourists in Kyushu, except for the odd few in cities. We had seen an interesting small restaurant on our way from our cabin and that turned out to be a good choice for lunch (friendly owners, yummy spiced soba soups). Then, we stopped at the only small shop near our cabin (a convenience store) for a few additional food items before relaxing for the remainder of the day. The afternoon was too warm to jump in a hot spring, but it cooled off nicely in the evening.

It was a nice contrast from our other accommodation. If a person wanted to spend real money, there are some very nice resorts in the area.

Day 11 Kurokawa Onsen to Hita

55km, 690m elevation gain: Day 11 gps map and profile

Accommodation: Hotel Route-Inn Hita Ekimae

It was expected to be a fairly easy day with a large drop on elevation and we somehow hit the road quite early at 7:30. We followed the quiet highway back into Minamioguni town. Thereafter, our route was largely on small roads that went off and on the #212. For a while, we biked on tiny roads right along the river and then through forest before rejoining the highway.

Although, the sidewalk and shoulder disappeared, traffic was light and scenery was good. However, I could see that we were going to merge with a busy road before Hita, so we pulled off the #212 and headed into the hills. A little ways along, we came across a small beautiful shrine that stalled our progress.

Eventually, we reached the outskirts of Hita, and we followed quiet lanes along the river, heading for a popular yakisoba (fried soba) restaurant. Alas, the sign indicating that it was closed. We reached the city centre (rail station, our hotel) by very early afternoon, not really knowing where we were going to have lunch. We must have looked quite distressed, because an English speaker approached us offering assistance. He looked up an alternative yakisoba restaurant on his phone and before long, we were sitting down in a busy restaurant enjoying lunch.

I had also read that there was an old town (Mameda) in Hita, so we peddled over there and had a look around. As it was a Saturday, there were quite a few Japanese visitors wandering about.

We got to our hotel before 3:00 and waited shortly for our room at Route Inn Hita. We either prepaid for ryokans, or in the case of hotels, I would pay by credit card on arrival. The receptionist typically passes you the card machine so that you can enter your "secret number" as it is known in Japan. I had figured out early in the game that you simply put in your PIN code in and push enter. In some countries, you first push "OK" (to the amount) and then your PIN number. I tried that once (the screens are all in Kanji) and almost brought down the Japanese banking system. I have to say that I was quite impressed with the Route-Inn. The room was not particularly large but it was new and well laid out. The yukata robe was replaced by nifty judo-like pyjamas. The hot pools were nice and ultra clean (washer dryers for guests in the change room). It was central, near the Aeon supermarket and a good choice of restaurants. I’m getting ahead of myself, but the breakfast buffet hit the mark too. The only blemish would be the lack of bike parking; we simply locked the two bikes together and leaned them on the hotel front wall.

I find foreign supermarkets to be strangely fascinating, perhaps because they are familiar but often so different than our own. Aeon is a chain of rather smart supermarkets so we wandered over to it and explored it before returning to the Route Inn with our spoils.

Later, we went over to the busy Main Station restaurant for an enjoyable dinner before calling it a night. We sometimes flipped on the TV in our hotel rooms. The base channels were typically limited to three, requiring additional payment for more programming. From what we saw, Japanese TV seemed silly, sometimes amateurish but mostly food obsessed.

Day 12 Hita to Usa

75km, 660m elevation gain: Day 12 gps map and profile

Accommodation: Nara Guest House

After an early buffet breakfast at the Route Inn, we struck out through quiet Sunday streets of Hita, then alongside a river before snaking our way to old friend, highway #212. Once again it had light traffic so we stayed on it, rather than take small detours off and on the highway. Before long, it started to climb and we stayed with it, mostly on sidewalk/bike path to the top of a small pass.

The traffic increased slightly and the bike path disappeared, but we knew that once we dropped down a little, we could get on the Maple Yaba Cycleway. It started without much ado but we did encounter a few cyclists. The paved cycleway sits an old railway bed and mostly travels in a scenic river valley. It therefore has its own bridges and tunnels.

The first milestone was the cycling terminal which seemed to be mostly a place where people can rent bikes. As it was a Sunday, there were a number of families doing just that. It got a little busier with Sunday cyclists north of the terminal.

Further along, the cycleway became more of a sidewalk and bike path, then we left it as our destination of Usa laid to the East. Of course, I had spotted another busy Michi no Eki, that required a minor detour.

There was a steady flow of motorists arriving as we studied the pictured menu on the outside wall. Once we had made our selections, I pulled out my iPad mini and took photos of our choices. When we walked in, we hit a roadblock and we could see that a vending machine stood in our way of a terrific lunch. You had to purchase vouchers based on meal descriptions in kanji script without pictures. Hmmmm, the Japanese couple behind us were our saviours, we showed them the photos of our selections and they found the buttons for us. When we dropped off our vouchers at the counter the staff gave us a gizmo that would vibrate when our order was ready. We had a delicious lunch and lived happily ever after.

Navigating the fields, hills and back roads to Usa was like child’s play (except for a couple of sharp hills) after lunch and we cruised into the rather quiet, small city to our guest house, much earlier than check-in time. As luck would have it, our hosts were in front and after a friendly exchange in English, we left our panniers with them and we continued on to the Usa shrine. We were in for a treat. The ride from town was mostly on sidewalk and largely uninspiring. There were still a number of Sunday visitors at the Usa shrine when we arrived, which made it more animated in contrast to what it would be like mid-week. The grounds are spacious and the vibrant red colours of the various buildings and structures will stand out out in my mind for many years to come.

We rode back to the guest house, which was a ryokan in a previous life. The Guesthouse owners (Aki & Mika) had done some traveling themselves and made splendid hosts. Once we had showered and settled in, Mika offered to guide us to a local restaurant that served the regional speciality of marinated, fried chicken. It turned out to be a bit of a “goose chase” because the sit-in restaurant was closed, so we then opted for a take-out version of the same, supplemented with salad purchased at a Family Mart convenience store that we ate in the guesthouse dining area. I tried a glass of souchu (distilled sweet potatoes), which I preferred over sake. Our room was a traditional tatami version and we slept on roll-out futon mattresses.

Day 13 Usa to Kunisaki town

74km, 850m elevation gain: Day 13 gps map and profile

Accommodation: Kaikasou Ryokan (booked on Expedia)

After a non traditional breakfast (a nice sandwich), we left our guesthouse hosts, retraced our route passed the Usa shrine then onto back roads onto Bungo-takada.

In my original route, we were to make a sizeable detour up to visit the Fuji-ji shrine, one of Japan’s oldest buildings. We decided to skip it. We found that that 60-70km was just about the right daily distance in Japan with the hill climbing, navigation, stopping to look at things, a couple of panniers on the back, ageing bodies all cut into our average speed. And this was a holiday, not some sort of a challenge to cross the country. Central Bungo-takada was a Showa or retro town with a 50’s theme. While the other USA was in their own “Happy Days” or “Grease” period, Japan was doing its own thing back then as evidenced by Bungo-takada.

We scooted out of Bungo-takada, and rather than ride the highway, we transited a vast, flat agricultural area near the sea. Onions were far and away the main crop; at times onions smells were stronger than the smell of the sea. I had chosen the seaside route around the Kuniaki peninsula rather than going over the top and you are never quite sure how busy the roads may be. In this case the main coastal road to Kuniaki (#213) had light traffic and sidewalks/ bike paths for the most part. The small coastal villages were not fishing villages and they didn’t make easy detours, so we mostly kept on the main road. The sea and hill views were nice enough, but the most outstanding feature of the road were the tunnels. We didn’t count them, but there were as many as 20 tunnels. The coolest thing about the tunnels were there were often separate ones for cyclists. When they expanded the road, they must have built new tunnels and kept the old ones open for cyclists. They were well surfaced and lit. We came across a couple of unmaintained, closed tunnels and gave them a try too (dark with poor surfaces), not recommended, but what the heck.

And yes, there was a Michi no Eki placed conveniently for a lunch break, this one with an octopus theme. Thereafter we passed a few more tunnels and then we picked up a dedicated coastal multi use path to bring us into the sleepy town of Kuniaki.

I had booked two nights at the Kaikisou ryokan and we pulled in just after 3:00 pm. Although there wasn’t much English spoken there, it was not a problem. With shoes off at the entrance, we were guided to our fabulous room. We had a living area, small balcony overlooking the traditional garden, separate bedroom with twin beds, bathroom and access to the communal baths. Good choice, Glenn. This was our highlight accommodation of the trip. They brought tea in the late afternoons too.

Later, we strolled to the Kuniaki shrine for a short visit, then went to a small sushi restaurant for dinner. There was a 7-11 not far away, so we also picked up a couple of ice cream bars before returning to our amazing room for the night.

Day 14 Kunisaki day ride to Futago-ji temple

42km, 560m elevation gain: Day 14 gps map and profile

Accommodation: Kaikasou Ryokan

The uplands area of the Kunisaki peninsula looked intriguing on Google Earth so I had allocated an extra day in Kunisaki (which could also have been used if we had any scheduling issues). We were ready for the 7:00 am breakfast seating and I asked in my polite Japanese whether coffee might be possible. I think that threw things out of balance, and now I know to drink tea during breakfast (it cleanses the palate) and to drink coffee after breakfast. We had our coffee during our meal and they weren’t sure how much we were going to drink so they put on another pot but we excused ourselves before it was ready. Crazy foreigners!

The ride up Futago mountain was enjoyable, up a valley and small villages, up to and around a reservoir and past the Kunisaki golf course, which turned out to be a “play golf” set up. Play golf looks like a miniaturized par 3 course played with oversized balls. Judging by their accessories, the players all looked like regulars and made careful notation of their scores. It seemed very serious indeed.

The quiet road simply got quieter by the time that we reached Futago-ji. It was a weekday and there was forecast of rain beginning later in the day, but the 1300 year old temple seemed absurdly quiet with so few visitors. It was serene and atmospheric but we imagined a few drops of rain that encouraged us to carry on.

Rather than descend back the same way, we “contoured “ (there were some up and downs) around Mt Futago along a beautiful road with amazing infrastructure to keep the road intact from heavy rains. We did not see any vehicles.

We dropped down in to another gorgeous valley with pretty villages and shrines.

A few more rain drops and clouds moving in pushed us on to another Michi no Eki, just south of Kunisaki town. Afterwards, we wandered another supermarket and picked up a few snacks and beer for the afternoon. We found from earlier trips, that the Asian diet was a little light in fibre, so we’d have a couple of prunes each evening and that they were available in most Japanese supermarkets.

By the time that we had returned to the ryokan, the rain began and set in. It was perfect weather for a soak in an Onsen. We weren’t overjoyed with the obvious nearby restaurants so we went to our second “Joyfull” of the trip in the drizzle, followed up by an ice cream at the local 7-11.

Day 15 Kunisaki to Beppu

58km, 600m elevation gain: Day 15 gps map and profile

Accommodation: Kamenoi Hotel

The wind blew hard through the night and it was still raining at breakfast. We were served coffee at breakfast, and they didn’t have to worry about a second pot. Rain levels fluctuated back and forth between heavy, light and none. The forecast indicated that it would stop raining by mid-morning so we delayed our departure to 9:00 am and we got a warm send-off including “see you again!”.

The ride from Kuniaki to Beppu was the least inspiring of all our Kyushu rides, so it may as well have been raining, though the fine drizzle did finish right on schedule. We more or less followed the main road through the day as there were few obvious alternatives without adding too much mileage. Thankfully, there was “sidewalk” (path) for most of the way as we pushed into a headwind (southerly) most of the day. Kitsuki has a nice old town with some historic Samurai houses and reputedly Japan’s smallest castle, so we had a look around the town. We met our very first touring cyclist in Japan in Kitsuki; Catherine, an Australian heading for her flight home, via Beppu airport.

We took one more detour to the coast and a small fishing centre, otherwise the traffic seemed to increase as we progressed. I had picked out a sushi conveyor belt restaurant for lunch and by the time we got there, around 2:00pm, it wasn’t too busy. People talk about the Japanese tea ceremony but surely, it wouldn’t have anything over a sushi conveyor belt experience. We sat in a booth and watched the dishes go by (yes, ¥100 a plate with 2 pieces on each). There was an electronic screen that you can special order on, with the dishes brought right to your table via a toy Shinkansen running on a separate track. We were happy enough eating the available dishes but the couple across from us had multiple Shinkansen deliveries. Once we were finished, we knew we were to push a button for a server who would count up the plates. Yes, 12 dishes for ¥1200 plus tax, so a whopping $12 lunch for 2! Fun experience, I made a note to look for more conveyor belt restaurants on our remaining route.

The last part of our ride was largely urban and we had quite a nice parallel path to follow. We rode past the ferry terminal and stopped at a small seaside park and toilets. There seemed to be many public conveniences in Japanese towns and parks. There was a tap nearby at this one, so we stopped and rinsed down our bikes from some of the grit that we had picked up on the damp day. We then rode through a sizeable restaurant district before arriving at our hotel. There was covered bike parking available and I got to reception just before a bus full of Korean women arrived. Room 1325 of the Kamenoi hotel had a huge window with a good view of overcast north Beppu.

I went across the street and grabbed a couple of beers for the fridge and saw the Koreans were still working through the check-in process. We put on our yukatas and headed for the bathhouse on the 3rd floor. The men’s bath house was moderately busy (hence no photo) and quite pleasant, especially sitting in the outside pool. Sheila found the woman’s bath house was full-on as the Korean busload headed straight there after check-in, transforming the normal quiet environment into an adult water park atmosphere.

I had scoped out an evening restaurant towards the waterfront so we headed that way on foot, early evening. Toyotsune had changed location but we managed to figure that out and we had a great meal at this popular restaurant. It looked like a number of people were eating the tempura dish, so we went with the flow. Good choice. Best tempura of the trip.

The Kamenoi Hotel does not include breakfast in its room rate and they wanted something over ¥2,000 for breakfast, so we opted for self catering and stopped in at a nearby city supermarket for breakfast materials. The cashier seemed noticeably friendlier than normal, and she spoke English. The Japanese are helpful and polite, but not really friendly as they value privacy. It turned out she was Vietnamese.