Japan 2024 Kyushu Week 1

Our journey started in Kyoto where we took a Hankyu line train to Osaka-Umeda and then a longish transfer walk to the subway and took it to Suminoekōen Station, South Osaka. We reached XB planning and met cheerful Shinya who runs the operation, as far as we can tell as a one-man operation. We had booked a couple of Yamaha e-bikes. We gave them a quick spin, made a few sizing adjustments and fitted Sheila's rear panniers to the rack and we were ready to roll. We had lunch around the corner from where we picked up the rental bikes at Siotsu Restaurant; Katsudon with egg sauce. Once we had filled our bellies, we headed for the Sunflower Ferry terminal. Typhoon Kong-rey had blasted through Taiwan and the tropical storm was expected to reach Osaka sometime during the afternoon, so rather than riding around South Osaka, we figured that heading straight to the port was prudent.  It was a 11km ride, first on back streets and then we rode the wide sidewalks on larger boulevards and a large bridge. It wasn't scenic, but it got us to the Osaka Convention Centre. Once we had scouted the Sunflower terminal, we had time to kill. We opted to eat before boarding for the 8:05pm departure and had a chicken yakitori (bar food) in the convention centre. Our bikes were under cover from the rain that had developed and we joined them in the boarding area. The motorbikes and bicycles were the last to board. The overnight ferry base fare for each of us was 15,000Yen (95 USD) included a private bed. We could have disassembled the bikes and put them in rinko bags as carry-on luggage, but we opted to ride them on, but that incurred an additional charge.

The Sunflower ferries are quite new and the vessel felt more like a cruise ship than a ferry. We hadn't realized that it was some sort of a long week-end, so the ferry was quite full but it didn't really matter except the dining area had a line-up to enter. We dropped our bags at our berth and went straight for the public bath houses to freshen up. After that we sat in the lounge and later watched some of the on-board live entertainment (a belly dancer), before settling into our beds for the night. The residual typhoon was a non-event at sea as the Japan Inland sea is well protected from the open ocean.

I had determined a small road out of the northern part of Beppu to Yufuin and I knew there would be some steep sections. We didn't find out how steep they were, because we opted to take the train rather than ride through the typhoon remnants. We made the  short ride from the ferry terminal to Beppu Station, between periods of rain, We changed trains at Oita and the Yufuin Local on the Kyudai line brought us to Yufuin at 11:42am. It looked like it had just stopped pouring rain when we arrived and we opted for hamburgers at the Yufuin Burger House. It comes as no surprise that Japanese make real good burgers.

We were well ahead of check-in time, but we opted to drop our bags off at our accommodation, Sanso Tanaka,  and then go for a ride and a look around town. We rode above town and the through the busy small commercial area that was buzzing with the week-end crowd. In all, our first day on Kyushu was a little under 20km with 200m ascent. 

Sanso Tanaka was an inn or ryokan that did not serve dinner but it had 3 onsens; two indoors and one outside. They were the private type, and we tried out one of the indoor baths but the outdoor bath was really nice. The ryokan was on the edge of town and rather than ride in the dark, we walked to a nearby ramen restaurant that was affiliated with Hotel Shuhokan. Sheila couldn't resist and went for another soak in the outdoor onsen later on.

We woke up to clear skies. The inn provided really nifty & tasty bento box breakfasts in a traditional dining setting.  It seemed that many cycle tourists ride on the north side of the Kuju mountains, but when I developed the route, I didn't like the look of the traffic volumes on #11.  So, I selected a route that went on the south side of the Kuju mountains. Keeping with the small road philosophy, we went up a paved unnumbered forestry road rather than #210. There was more elevation involved and after we had gained about 200m, we reached a full wash-out. We didn't want to surrender, so we unloaded the bikes and we carried our gear down a creek embankment, through the woods and back out onto the road. It was no wonder that there hadn't been any traffic. Our reward was a lovely descent into the Yufu valley.

We were weaving our way through the Yufu valley and rode with a guy who told us there was something going on at the Country Park. We made a small detour and looked through the fence at a performance on a large grandstand and the grassy area filling up with spectators. We had some riding to do, and carried on. We parked the bikes and went for a short walk to  see the Ryuushou Falls. We wanted to avoid the main road #30, and kept to small hilly roads on both side of the Seri River. Then we encountered a road closure, that was just fallen boulders, but further along reached a serious looking sign indicating that the road was closed to the end of 2027. Heck, it was a Sunday, so rather than go up to the #30 and a 1.6km tunnel (no sidewalk), we pressed on without issue. We later rode the #30 a short distance, without much traffic, we peeled off again onto small roads and eventually reached Nagayu-onsen. There weren't many restaurant options in the town, but we had a late lunch at a simple riverside place. #30 traffic was not significant, but we kept with the less direct, small road theme to our accommodation. Reality didn't match up with the Open Source map and a helpful woman on a motorbike helped us find our way to Minshuku Shiroyama. We covered a modest 52km, but with 960m of ascent.

We enjoyed the on-site onsen and then prepared for the on-site dinner. There weren't many nearby dining options and we had prearranged for a "kaiseki" (traditional multi-course meal). We had our own private dining room and staff brought out various courses. It had the usual unrecognizable dishes, and it included shabu-shabu and some tempura. It was all quite fun.

Breakfast at Minshuku Shiroyama involved a lot of little dishes and we were treated so well by the staff.  We got going by 8:15am and kept with the program of riding little roads, keeping the Kuju Mountain range on our right. We followed the Okubungo Green Road for some time and then veered off of it on some tiny roads. We wondered if they would go through, and they did. We eventually joined the #131 that looked like a real road except it carried very little traffic. We crossed the #40 and rode up a scenic unnumbered road that emerged out onto grassland and marvelous views of the Kuju Mountains. We reached the #11 and had to put up with moderate traffic for 2km until we turned onto the #45 for a further kilometre. We were on the northern edge of the caldera at around 800m and we descended 300m down another lovely tiny road. We stopped at a spring to refill our water bottles before reaching the caldera floor.  The Aso Caldera is roughly 18km east-west and 25km north-south, formed by a series of massive explosions. The last major explosion took place about 100,000 years ago was a big one and it left ash of 15cm on Hokkaido. Nowadays, they grow rice in the caldera and there were plenty of small roads going through the rice paddies. The Aso-Jinja shrine was buzzing with visitors when we arrived. November 4 was Culture Day, a national holiday. We mostly found shrines and temples to be more interesting on busy week-ends and this was no exception. 

After the shrine, we pressed on towards the #57 and pulled up at the Nagomi Shokudo Aka lava grilled restaurant around 1:00pm for lunch. Further along, we kept to side roads and made stops at Cosmos drug store and further along at the Ebisupano supermarket before reaching the Aso train station.  Our accommodation did not have dining facilities, so we bought cereal, bananas and milk for our upcoming breakfasts. We had a look around the Michi-no-eki (road station) before checking in at the Aso Fairfield Hotel. It turned out to be quite luxurious. We kept the day's distance to just below 50km with 600m of ascent.

In the evening, we had grilled steak donburi at Coffee Plaza East, a short walk away. We liked it so much that we ate there the next day. The nearby Lawson convenience store offered ice creams for dessert.

We had two nights in Aso and the weather looked good for a visit to the Aso volcano. Sheila opted to take the bus up, for a rest day off the saddle. I was on the road by 7:40am and rode up to the volcano. Less than 5 vehicles passed me on the hour and half ride up. When I reached the base of the Aso cone at Asosanjo, I found the access to the crater rim was closed due to high levels of noxious gases. I returned to the visitor's centre & museum and contacted Sheila to get off the bus there, as there were few options at Asosanjo. She was on the first bus from Aso Station 9:55am (timed for the first train from Kumamato). 

We elected to walk up one of the nearby cones for views of the smoking volcano. The Mt Eboshi hike took about an hour and a half (4kms). When we were on Eboshi, we could see that buses were proceeding up the Aso crater road. We returned to the museum area and I carried on back to Asosanjo on my bike and then up to the crater rim at 1600m. Sheila tried unsuccessfully to hitch a ride, but took the bus instead. Up at the rim, there are a number of emergency shelters. There were roughly 50 people at the crater rim at any given time. When the wind changed, the gases moved towards the visitor platforms, the alarms sounded. I could feel my eyes stinging and the wardens herded us away from the crater. That happened on two occasions when we were there.

The ride down was easier, with more vehicles than on the ride up. Riding distance for the day was 40km with 800m of ascent.  Most Japanese hotels have laundry machines for use and the Fairfield was no exception. However, it required the use of a phone app to pay for and operate the machine. It worked fine, but it was the one and only use for the app, and I have since deleted it from my phone. That evening, we were back at the nearby cafe. As we had enjoyed the steak dinner the previous night, that we both ordered the same item on our second time around.

 Although the Fairfield Hotel did not serve breakfast, it did offer good coffee in the lounge. We finished off our breakfast cereal and we were out the door by a little after 7:30am. We worked our way east on the caldera floor to the #265, our ticket out. We experienced very light traffic and excellent views of the various peaks in the Aso complex. Before we knew it, we were out of the caldera (almost a 400m climb),  cruising on super quiet roads including the #218 that passed the Aso Sky Blue Golf Resort. I had to make some adjustments to the planned route. I must have made the route in the "walking mode" and one of the roads was private and another was non-existent. We backtracked and then descended to the larger #325, not a small road. It turned out that the #325 was surprisingly quiet and it offered a large sidewalk/path. So we continued along the #325 with a minor detour to the small grocery store in Kawachi for a snack.  Although there are all kinds of rugged side roads off of the #325, we kept with it right into Takachiho town. The restaurant at the Takachiho Michi-no-Eki served up good food.

We made a small tour around town before descending into the Takachiho Gorge. We were struck with the large number of tourists. We locked the bikes and walked the gorge. Normally, visitors rent rowboats and get near the scenic waterfalls, but apparently the water was too high that day for that to take place.  I'm not sure that I would categorize the gorge as a "must see".  We cycled back up the steep gorge walls to town and onto the lovely, but somewhat overpriced,  Solest Takachiho Hotel .The staff were helpful and they allowed us to park our bikes overnight somewhere behind reception. The daily distance was 74km with 980m of ascent

Reception had warned us that many restaurants require reservations, and they were kind enough to call the Takeshin sushi restaurant to reserve us a couple of counter seats. The customer reviews of Takeshin are magnanimous. We had sashimi, sushi and tempura. The sushi master & owner was a friendly, colourful character, but neither of us were particularly impressed with the food. We are just as happy with supermarket sushi. But, it was fun.

We had a self-catered breakfast and we were rolling a little after 8:00am. We were taking our time because the day's route was mostly descending along the Gokase River. It turned out to be more complicated than that. Once we cleared eastern Takachiho, we contoured along and then down the Iwato River to reach the Gokase River.  We had to turn around after 6km, because the small road was blocked and appeared overgrown.  We rode up steep slopes to #237 to make progress to the #218. At km11, we dropped down to the Gokase River at the Tensho Bridge, an architectural marvel. We followed an unnumbered small road that merged with the #237along the river. The riding was sublime, and I marvelled that it was "too good to be true". 

10km along the river, just past the village of Hinokage, we encountered a set back in the form of a road block. The Japanese seem to be in a constant state of building, improving or repairing roads. However, in the case of little roads, they often close them and have traffic detour, rather than allowing intermittent traffic. In that instance, the road was open during lunch hour, but we didn't wish to wait and hour and a half. So, we rode up to the upper level #218 and rode the sidewalks for 8km before we could drop down again to the #237.

We reached the #237 and we were greeted by yet another closure sign. We pressed on to reach a dude who turned us back. Up again to the #218 we went, and then a further 7km of sidewalk to reach Kitakata Yocchimiroya Michi-no-eki for lunch.  Just after the next bridge, the highway split and virtually all the traffic went to the left and we followed the quiet old #218  along side the Gokase River and we later picked up a canal road that brought us into Nobeoka.  We stayed at the APA Hotel and we tried Chicken Nanbing for dinner. The particular dish was invented in Nobeoka. It was a battered chicken filet with a sweet and tangy sauce, but it didn't bowl us over.  Our daily distance was 72km with 650m of ascent (and 960m of descent).

The APA served up a solid breakfast but well short of those served by the rival Route Inn chain. We were out the door a little after 7:00am and rode 10km through concrete. Cyclists are well catered for in Japanese urban environments, with paths protected from traffic. People were going to work and school but we didn't find it inspiring until we stopped for a coffee at a Lawson convenience store. The convenience stores offered fresh coffee, each cup made individually, for a song (110 Yen/ 0.70USD for a small coffee). The next 7km were less urban, and then we turned away from the coast on the #388.  I had read a few cycling blogs that indicated that riding the north Miyazaki coast was forgettable (other than detouring to some of the small capes). So, I had concocted a couple of inland sections to add interest. Traffic dropped off quickly on the #388 as we followed the Isuzu River and we passed a wild boar warning sign. We turned south on the #255 and passed a monkey warning sign. Traffic along the small Sagase River road went from scarce to non-existent as we pedalled on a steep section over a pass (a little under 400m of elevation) and then down along the Sakononai River. Small farms appeared and we crossed over the #327 and into exotic sounding Zaikoji. The main highway #10 was well equipped with wide sidewalks where we checked Google Maps for a restaurant. There was a vote for a break from Japanese food, so we rode the sidewalks to Jolly Pasta for a surprisingly good lunch.

We had a 10km ride to the Fuego Cafe/Hostel and we managed to keep off the #10 for the most part. We were warmly greeted at the Fuego Guesthouse. It turned out that the charming couple's daughter Yuki spoke English fluently (she had lived in Florida and Alaska).  Foreigners are required to provide their passport details when registering at Japanese accommodations; dad noticed that my birth date almost coincided with his.  After we settled into the hostel style guesthouse, we had some beach time and Sheila jumped into the water that must have been around 21C. The guest house operated a cafe restaurant and that made for an easy restaurant choice. The daily ride was 61km with 550m of ascent.

We were on our own for breakfast, so we made use of the Guest House kitchen. We had a longer day ahead of us, and we were on the road just before 7:00am. After 2km, we left the coast on the #51 and we followed the Mimi River with light traffic. The #51 T-boned at the #327 and we rode a short distance to the Togo Bridge,  at 17km into our day, and we were on small roads. We worked our west through the Tsuboya River valley on little roads, going on and off the #446 to reach the #22, 33km into our day. After our Gokase River experience, we were more sensitive to road closures and we were greeted by a construction notice that indicated rotating openings. If we hustled, we might make an opening, otherwise we'd have to wait an hour for it to reopen. By the time we reached the first flagman, the opening window had closed.  He allowed us to proceed but only to another flagman. While we waited, the flagman gave us a bag of cookies but he wouldn't allow us to reciprocate. 40 minutes later, we were waved on. The #22 was a beautiful ride without settlements and just two vehicles passed, going in the opposite direction on the 25km section to Kujo.

Kujo, was a small village but it had a Soba noodle restaurant that hit the spot for lunch. After Kujo, the #22 picked up a few more vehicles on the 7km to #40. We rode south on quiet #40 west and then we veered south-east to follow the Hitotsuse River. We crossed the river  to the edge of Saito and had a bit more hill climbing to reach the park lands above the city. There are all kinds of ancient burial mounds in the park area just west of Saito and the locals were out to enjoy the Sunday afternoon. Our first choice accommodation of a farm stay wasn’t possible so we stayed in a container hotel, part of the "R9 The Yard" chain. Although it was well equipped, it was small, and we felt it was more of a last resort than a first choice hotel. On that day, we rode 87km with 625m of ascent.

It rained that night and the Joyfull restaurant was a short walk from our hotel. I discovered the beef yakinuku was really good. Naturally, we made an ice cream stop at the Family Mart convenience store on the way back to "The Yard".