Japan Kii Peninsula 2023

We arrived at the Wakayama Port from Tokushima, Shikoku late afternoon and reassembled the bikes that we had carried onto the ferry in rinko bags. We had a short 4km ride to central Wakayama and the Daiwa Roynet Hotel.  Reception was on the 5th floor and it took us a little while to figure out where to park the bikes (in a nearby bike parkade).  The room and hotel were splendid.

In the evening, we walked by a Sri Lankan restaurant that smelled good, so we had a tasty South Asian dinner.

Wakayama to Yuasa, 62km (450m of ascent).

We had a full breakfast at the Daiwa Roynet Hotel in Wakayama. Getting out of the city went well on the wide boulevard pathways and to the edge of the city. However, the traffic levels were high on #42 when we were forced to return to the main road. The steep side roads and traffic on #42 seem to spoil the ocean views.

We made a small detour to visit the Choho-Ji Temple and then over another hill, we reached Ainan City. We opted for conveyor-belt sushi and stayed on a while because we met an Australian couple there. We had one further headland to climb and a steep last slope to the Yuasa Castle Onsen. The hotel was inside a mock castle and it was shoes off right at the entrance; slippers were waiting for us. 

For dinner, we ate at an  okonomiyaki restaurant. It was a little strange because we don’t have much experience with them. The ingredients were dropped in front of us. We didn't realize that we should have mixed the ingredients up and poured them all out on the grill. Instead, we cooked the meat and slowly added the other ingredients. 

Yuasa town day, 30 km.

After breakfast, we headed east with the plan to ride along the Arita River, however the roads to reach it had more traffic including large trucks, so we aborted the inland ride and we spent the morning wandering the historic section of Yuasa. Japanese soya sauce was apparently invented in Yuasa and we visited the soya sauce museum and an old public bath house museum. We found a good udon & tempura restaurant for lunch. That was followed by more onsen time and we opted for take-away food at the Hotto Motto (a chain bento box outfit) that was quite delicious..

Yuasa to Kii-Tanabe, 55km (550m of ascent) + a train journey.

The weather forecast was for some early drizzle, so we dressed accordingly and rode by lots of Yuasa school kids heading for class. 

We had some good coastal riding with negligible traffic but masses of infrastructure. It was all cruising good along the dockyards of Yura and then we encountered a traffic flagman who did not want to enter into negotiations, so we took a hilly interior detour of about 6km (admittedly nice scenery) and picked up a bit of traffic going to a coastal village. The road went up and over a couple more headlands before reaching Gobo Bay and its extensive shingle beach. A ramen restaurant had caught our attention and it made a fun lunch stop. 

With approaching rain, we had opted to skip one of our planned sections, and we proceeded to the Gobo rail station. The original plan was to stay in Gobo and ride inland the following day and then back out to the coast, but a fair amount of rain was in the forecast  We knew we should use smart cards on the train, so I asked about tickets at the ticket office, but the attendant waived us through. The Gobo-Tanabe local train allows for uncovered bikes and we rolled onto the 13:15 train with a few minutes to spare. When we disembarked, we were able to pay the train driver but the payment process may have thrown the Japan Rail system into chaos as it took her a little while to sort us out (¥680 for 40 minute train ride). We rolled our bikes out at Haya, stopped at a Lawson convenience store, then arrived at our posh onsen hotel, a little early for check-in.

My guy at reception(with a long name beginning with T, let’s call him T-san) sorted us all out with lots of Google translate going back and forth.  We settled into a beautiful room, had a dip in the upstairs onsen  and ate at a local simple restaurant in the evening. The food was pretty good and it set us back ¥1300 (10USD) for the two of us.

Kii-Tanabe, rain morning, town tour in the afternoon, 15km.

We had changed our schedule anticipating a rainy day, so we had two bookings for the two nights. We had to change rooms, and discovered why the first night was a little more expensive; it was a better room. My guy T-san at reception, made sure the room change went smoothly. He didn’t speak English, but he was quick with Google translate. The Kamenoi was busy with domestic tourists for good reason; it really is a nice hotel/onsen. 

After our room change, we got on our bikes and rode the coast road into Tanabe town. We stopped at a Family Mart, convenience store for a snack and then visited a couple of shrines/temples (Tokei Shrine and KozanjiTemple). We opted for a supermarket lunch (sushi & salad) back at our posh room.

Rather than eat at our hotel dining room, we walked to a nearby yakinuka restaurant (grilled meat) and managed to order a few things via the tablet at our table. We had an assorted platter and rib meat plate with a couple of orders of fries with beer. It cost ¥4,200 (30 USD or $15 each), all up, for a fun experience. Other than meals that were imbedded in hotel bills, the beef bbq dinner was our most expensive meal of the trip, not too expensive.

Tanabe to Shirarahama , 45km (350m ascent, via inland route).

The direct route would have been quite short, so we tacked on an inland loop up a small river (off and on #199), then onto tiny, sometimes very steep #30 and then out on still fairly quiet #29 and a gorge into Tanabe.

We rode through Tanabe and onto busy #31 (kept somewhat to sidewalks) out to a fun Tempura restaurant for lunch. The menu got a little complicated but we managed through it with our patient server. After a full feed, we kept close to the coastline but sometimes rode the pathway alongside busy #33 into Shirarahama. 

We were an hour early for check-in, but left our bikes at the hotel for a walk along the white sand beach. Later, we had a soak in the hotel onsen and walked to the rather grand sounding Gourmet City supermarket for dinner materials. We wanted to eat light after two large meals.  The Shirahamakan Hotel is a little worn, but we grew to like it with a spacious room and all kinds of under utilized facilities such as a common kitchen. 

Shirarahama beach, chill day, 10km.

The beach gets busy in summer but it was very quiet during our visit. It was so quiet at the Shirahamakan Hotel , that it felt like we were on the set for the movie "The Shining".  The sea water temperature was 14C, a little chilly for swimming. We first rode south and wandered around the Senjojiki Rock Plateau, then rode north around the north shore of the peninsula before heading back for lunch at a friendly ramen house and a relaxing afternoon.  We caught up on laundry and self-catered dinner.

Shirarahama beach to Hiki, 40km (400m ascent).

With the shorter day in store for us, we had a relaxed start to the day. We rode off and on the main roads with little detours and on the old #801. The Wakayama prefecture has  a series of blue line bike routes called the Wakayama 800. They are mostly blue lines without full consideration to cyclists, sometimes bringing riders out onto narrow busy roads. On that section, we went off and on the blue line route, opting for tiny roads whenever we could.

We had an excellent sashimi lunch a few doors down from where we were staying. We self-checked in, bought groceries at the Okuwo supermarket and settled in for the night. The rain started before 4:00pm.

Day ride from Hiki, 60km (600m ascent). Hiki, Shiro and Susami rivers. It rained overnight and stopped by about 8:30am.

We were now into Golden Week (three holidays packed into one week) and our strategy was to rent houses and make a few day trips. Although the Hiki rental house was not one the best, the riding up the Hiki River was excellent. Once we left Hiki and went under the expressway, the light traffic disappeared. The Hiki River is beautiful and then we turned up the even quieter Shiro River road. There were a few steep sections and the last half kilometre made up for the relaxed climb. We topped out at 375m. 

The Susami side was steeper and seemed less interesting until we reached Shizuku Falls. We didn’t stop in Susami and took the coastal road to Hiki. We stopped at the Hiki Okuwo Supermarket and then returned home for the evening.

Hiki to Shimosato, 80km (800m ascent), via Koza River.

We made an early start. We rode 10km of coastline to ride another 10km of very light traffic on #42, continuing with undulations over headlands with outstanding coastal scenery. At Esumi, the traffic flow increased substantially for 5 km until we turned onto the #39. It got steep near the top of a small pass, but it lead us through some lovely quiet river roads, to reach the Koza River.

We rode the fairly quiet #38 along the beautiful Koza River, stopping for lunch at “the Monolith” and continued downstream another 10km, sometimes on small roads. This section away from the blue line the busy south coast road turned out to be a winner.

That was followed by an uphill ride on the #227 and down the #234. It seemed warmer than 23C at times. Then we toughed out 4 km on busy #42 to reach our home for two nights.

We were early and our host was still cleaning and preparing the house, so we made a short ride to the local Hati Supermarket (small but with all we needed) and then our house was ready. Tamanoura Sea House in Shimosato became our favourite house of the trip so far (玉の浦sea reserved on Booking.com). Our host briefed us and we marvelled the spacious 100 year old house (¥9,000 / night).

Taiji, 20km. The whale and dolphins of Taiji.

We had relaxing breakfast (croissant, pancakes, cereal, juice & coffee) at the house. The ride was 20 km, sometimes quite hilly around Taiji Peninsula was more taxing than the distance indicates. It is a beautiful area.

Taiji features in “The Cove”, a disturbing movie about killing and capturing dolphins. There is a whale museum where you can watch dolphin and small whales perform and there are a number of nearby restaurants where you can eat them.  We steered clear of the 'attractions" as we had  difficulty with the dolphin capturing and the "scientific" whale slaughtering that underlined the aquarium and some of the nearby restaurants. 

We headed home for the afternoon to enjoy our amazing house and check out the nearby seashore. We enjoyed staying in the house and could have stayed there for a few more days.

Shimosato to Shingu via Nachi Falls and our first encounter with Golden Week 2023 crowds; 55km (900m ascent).

We started early, as we knew that we had some climbing to do. After about 5km, #235 had a stiff climb up to about 200m. Thereafter, the road followed a ridge line gradually reaching 350m and the #43, without giving up elevation. It was superb, though the views were largely peekaboo. We left #43 for a steep 3km to a pass at about 725m, that required mostly hike-a-bike with the loaded bikes. There was a spacious park (Nachikogen Park ) up at the pass. We followed the #43, holding our elevation to reach Myohosan Amida Temple at 800m. We had a wander around the temple grounds and were surprised to be the only visitors. 

Thereafter the #43 dropped down to the large temple complex and the tourist haven at Nachi Falls. Our quiet morning came to an abrupt end when we hit the heaving parking lots. The Golden Week people were everywhere. We had a good look around the Shinto Kumano-Nachi Taisha Temple and the ancient Buddhist Seigantoji Temple, followed by a few photos of the 3 tiered pagoda & Nachi Falls. We rode through slow traffic to the area below Nachi Falls and then got out on the slow moving #43, then we slipped out onto backroads. 

At the bottom of the hill, we opted for a Lawson convenience store lunch to avoid the Golden Week restaurant crowds. We popped out at Kii-Sano and bought a coffee cone at the Daiso as some of the rental houses were not coffee friendly. We managed to stay mostly off our old friend, #42 by riding old roads until we approached Shingu where a large pathway appeared. Ditto for the coastal #231 and we rolled into the Gran Hotel lobby. We gave two thumbs up for the Gran. After cold drinks from the across the street Family Mart, we walked over to the Aeon Mall, did some food shopping and ate Indian in the unexciting food court. We were a little gun shy with Golden Week and later realized that we could have done much better as Shingu seemed to have many appealing looking restaurants without wait lines.

Shingu to Hongo, 55km (350m ascent).

We were pleased with our stay at the Gran and the early 6:30am breakfast start. We were surprised to see the dining area busy at 6:40am; many Kamano Kodo walkers were keen for early starts. We rode a couple of kilometres to the colourful Kumano Hayatama Taisha Grand Shrine.

We crossed over the river and rode the north side of the Kamano River and it didn’t take long before the river road shrunk to a single lane, with moss sometimes appearing in the middle. After we passed a nice, slightly busy campground, complete with a waterfall , we started to wonder if the road was going to dead-end on us. We rode on and later we made a detour up a side tributary river. When we crossed the river and rode the busy #168 for five kilometres, we ran into western day riders. Once we returned to the quiet north side, we ran into some of the the cyclists and it turned out there were about 200 of them doing ship based cycling around Japan.

Once we reached Hongu, the ship cyclists stopped to buy bento boxes and we ducked into a fabulous restaurant for a tempura lunch on a busy Golden Week day. We wandered the busy Shinto Kumano Hongu Taisha Temple and the huge Tori gate, Oyunohara. Then it was a warm ride to our house for three nights.

We had the combination for the door key; the house was a slight letdown, particularly after the previous house rental. However, there was a good small supermarket nearby and our host arrived after we had eaten dinner. He was a super energetic guy with his two kids in tow.