Japan 2024 Kyushu- Week II

With a forecast of rain developing later in the morning, we were motivated to start early and we were on the road by 7:15am. We got onto a bike path at the South end of Saito and followed paths and small roads along the Sanzai and Hitosuse rivers that brought us out to the coast. At first, the coastal path was covered in sand, but as we rode south, the trail was only littered by leaves and pine needles as it made its way over ancient sand dunes. There are a number of golf courses in the area and we stopped at the Miyazaki Seaside Park where a triathlon was under way. As we moved away from the coast, we moved into urbanization, then past the airport. With rain possible, we stuck to the #367, mostly on sidewalk, rather than quieter roads closer to the coast.

However, we had made such good progress that we opted to stop at another Joyfull for a second breakfast. It was an uneventful ride into Aoshima but we arrived early, at noon, so we opted to leave our bags at our hotel, the Aoshima Grand Hotel. Kamal, from Siberia, organized that and then we carried onto the Aoshima Shrine. We likely broke the rules, riding across the causeway, but with off and on drizzle, we figured the rules were relaxed.  The shrine was quiet for a Sunday, but the rain must have had something to do with that. We wandered the small Aoshima botanic gardens, grabbed a snack at the 7-11 convenience store before riding along the shoreline pathways.  It would have been nicer on a blue sky day but the surfers didn't seem to mind the drizzle. After we checked in and were impressed by our large room, we went up to the rooftop outdoor onsen. Even the onsen washing area was outside and it was nice to soak in the onsen and look at the beach from above.  The day's ride to the Grand Hotel was 51km, with less than 100m of ascent, though we rode an additional 15km along the seaside in the afternoon.

For dinner, we stopped in at the trendy Sanbarco restaurant and returned for a night time soak in the rainy night.

The Aoshima Grand put on a large breakfast buffet for us. Other than a school group, there didn't seem to be a lot of guests at the hotel.  Clouds from the rainfall lingered as we pushed out of town to reach the #220. Signage indicated that our first side trip onto the smaller #377 over Horikiri Pass was closed. The #220 featured mostly light traffic with a side pathway most of the way, but we would have preferred the small coastal section. Further along, we tried a couple more diversions around tunnels and two of them were closed for repairs. The tunnels on #220 had good sidewalks, but we weren't in Japan to ride tunnels and sidewalks. About 20kms into the day, the riding really improved.

Our first stop was at Sun Messe. I had seen photos of the attraction on Google Maps, and the big replica moai statues looked cheezy. Perfect. We were not even put off by the 1,000 Yen admission price (there was perhaps a wince). We had to see it. We parked our bikes by the rental golf carts and walked up the hill. The setting on the rugged Miyazaki coast on a sunny day was beautiful. We discovered that the Sun Messe moai statues are authorized replicas. A Japanese company lead the effort to put the Easter Island statues back in place after a 1960 earthquake, measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale,  had tossed them about.

4kms further along, we reached the parking lot of the Udo Jinga, a Shinto shrine in a rugged seaside setting.  We saw a a handful of foreign tourists at the shrine, and we didn't see any others for 4 days. We could have saved ourselves some additional walking if we had continued on our bikes to the shoreline and cycled to the second parking lot. The following section of riding on the coast was wonderful, and we had developed a hunger for lunch. As it happened, the first restaurant we came across was a Joyfull. By that time of day (close to 2:00pm), many of the guests were there for ice cream sundaes, but it is an all-day restaurant and we stuck to our guns and had lunch. Thereafter, we rode over to the Direx supermarket to pick up supplies for our two night stay in a nearby house. We had the feeling that Nichinan doesn't see many foreign visitors.

The house was central in Edo period style with a traditional garden. It had all kinds of large wood carvings throughout and we knocked on the neighbour's door for some help locating a couple of kitchen items. We slept on futons. Our daily distance of 54km with a tunnel  affected 1600m elevation gain. GPS devices measure tunnels incorrectly (they measure the elevation above the tunnel), so our actual ascent was nearer to 800m.

It was a rest day, and it was the first house that we had rented since the beginning of the trip. We had a pleasant ride along the Sakatani River up to the old Samurai town Obi. We had a look around the old streets and castle grounds and returned to Nichinan with a stop at the Tomura supermarket for dinner supplies. As we rode past the Hama Sushi restaurant just before 12:00, we came to a stop and piled in for a rewarding conveyor belt lunch. We were old hands at ordering sushi from a tablet and we went for a couple of soups, plenty of squid nigiri and tempura for a bill under 2,000 Yen (13USD). We cruised the town, checked out the canals and returned home. We cleaned the bikes and took the afternoon off, as it was a rest day. We caught the November Sumo Grand Tounament (Fukuoko) on the television in the early evening. We followed the sumo tournament on TV right through to the end of our Kyushu tour. We cycled 30km that day.

We rode out of Nichinan, followed the Hiroto River then veered west on a small forest road that paralleled the #30. I wasn't sure if the leaf littered road would dead-end, but we rode it through to the beginning of the #33. The #33 didn't look busy on Google Street View, and we were rewarded with a quiet, seemingly overbuilt road that climbed steadily to reach a tunnel that no doubt saved us further climbing. Along the way, we came across the strange ghoulish dolls near the road and we stopped to walk around the eerie site. After the tunnel, we had the opportunity to ride on small roads, then rejoined the #33. When we reached the outskirts of Miyakonojo after 50km, my planned lunch stop (Dazzle Cafe) was closed on Wednesdays, so we continued on into the city. 57kms into our ride, we reached the junction of #10 and #108 and opted to eat at the Yayoi restaurant. We had to order and pay for our meal at a machine and then we handed the order slip to the server. The food was simple but quite good.

We were ahead of "schedule", so we rode over to the Kirishimi (shochu) Factory. I had made a reservation for the free tour the next day and we thought we may be able to do so that afternoon instead. However, the tours were booked out. We rode the Okimuzu River paths and small roads onto Hayamizu Park, that was not all that interesting. Finally, we approached check-in time and rode the back roads into the Vessel Hotel, home for two nights. The hotel got good reviews and we enjoyed our stay there. The hotel was on busy #10. For dinner, we walked to a  Ra Ra Tei ramen house. The restaurant is part of a chain and we had eaten at a Ra Ra Tei on our previous cycle trip and on both occasions enjoyed the food and atmosphere.  The day's ride total was 77km with 1845m ascent. There would be a tunnel adjustment to bring it back to about 1500m and even that seems a little high.

We liked Miyakonojo. One of the appeals of Kyushu is that it seems to have fewer tourist attractions compared to the other Japan islands and takes more time and effort to reach from Tokyo. That means fewer foreign tourists but there are still lesser points of interest that attract domestic tourists. Kyushu sweet potatoes are a key ingredient in the production of shochu, an alcohol drink that is more popular than sake.  The free Kirishima Shochu Factory tour is a polished, professional set-up. When we checked in, we were asked who was the designated driver. The legal allowable blood alcohol concentration for driving or cycling is extremely low. The guest passes were colour coded to identify the designated drivers. The tour was entirely in Japanese but there are enough English captions and subtitles on films for us. When it came to the shochu sampling, the designated drivers suddenly stood out. I had a small taste and didn't feel like I was shamed. My pro tip for cyclists would be to say that you arrived by bus when checking in, if you wanted to participate in the tasting.

I had selected yummy looking Temasa tempura restaurant for lunch, but when we arrived there was a hand written note on the door,  apologizing for the unscheduled closure (to attend a funeral). So we opted to beetle back to the Kirishima Factory to eat in their restaurant. We had to wait about 10 minutes, while they opened up another section.  To order, you had to use a QR code and we made our lunch selection on a phone. It was set up so the QR code automatically identified which table we were sitting at, and our food was delivered by a server who also left us with the bill, to be paid for at the cash when we departed. There was a group of 4 domestic tourists who couldn't figure out how it worked and they ended up calling the  server to make their order the old fashioned way.  It made us smile. The food was delicious and it made for a fine overall outing. 

The next stop on  our magical mystery tour was the Shimazu Residence, an historic house and garden. The family who built it must have had some importance because the Emperor and Empress Showa stayed there in 1973. We pulled into the nearly empty parking lot and wondered if it was going to be a dud. On the contrary, we had a wonderful time. When we entered the grounds, an energetic woman greeted us and she proceeded to lead us around the various buildings. She didn't speak English but that didn't dampen her enthusiasm. Before long, she had me dressed up in a cardboard Samurai outfit and later walked us through the large house. We all had a fun time and we  thanked her for making the visit so enjoyable.

For dinner, we walked to the Yayoi restaurant, where we had eaten lunch the day before. We rode 30kms on our cultural day in Miyakonojo.

The Vessel Hotel offered  an above average breakfast buffet, with an emphasis on local specialities. We didn't see anyone attempt to make a temaki, or Sushi hand roll the previous day. However on our second morning, a group of visitors, who we had encountered at the Kirishima Factory Tour, made good attempts at making the cone shaped rolls, so I took a stab at it too. The result was not restaurant quality, but it passed my low bar. I had been keeping an eye on a rainy weather system in the forecast and it materialized on our ride to to Kirishima Onsen. We didn't have a train option, but it didn't live up to earlier abominable forecasts. We had periods of drizzle spread out over two days.

Although Miyakonojo has a large urban footprint, we were riding on small agricultural roads within 5kms. We passed large sacks of sweet potatoes that were most likely destined for shochu distilleries. We essentially rode the #31 and #223 to Kirishima Onsen. However, we stuck to small roads till km12 and then we were able to go off and on the main road a few times. The #31 carried light traffic volumes, and the #223 wasn't much busier. Our first stop of the day was at Kirishima Jingu. It may have been the light drizzle, but most visitors went straight to the main alter, made their wishes and retreated to their vehicles. I'm sure the atmosphere would be more interesting on a sunny day. 

We reached the Kirishima Jingu michi-no-eki (road station) a little after 12:00 for lunch. It didn't take take too long to reach the Kirishima Onsen area, well ahead of our check-in time, so we had a look around town and then dropped down to the nearby Hoshi no Sato Hotel. The owner was very kind and checked us in before the appointed hour and we could park the bikes under cover.  The simple hotel has a nice private onsen that we used a few times over the course of our two night stay. In the evening, we rode the 1km to town and ate at the Wakimoto steak house. Yakinuku involves cooking your own meat pieces, but it was accompanied by a couple of trips to the small salad bar. After our education at the shochu factory tour, I ordered shochu at dinner, but lost interest in continuing the practise after a few days. Our ride distance for the day was a modest 45km with 700m of ascent.

I had read glowing reports of the Kirishima National Park, so I was naturally disappointed with the low clouds and periodic drizzle but we were still hopeful to see something of the park.  After a simple breakfast at the hotel, we were riding before 8:00am and we cycled by all kinds of roadside steam. There were some steep sections up the #1 as we climbed 500m in 10km to the Onami Pond trail head. The walk around the highest crater lake in Japan gets many accolades. The trail to the crater goes up about 250mto reach 1300m of elevation with an option to continue on to Mt Karakuni at 1700m. We managed to get a look at the lake before clouds dropped and obscured views of even the water. We went along the crater rim a short ways in thick cloud before turning back and returning to our bikes. 

It was another 4km to the Ebino Plateau visitor's centre and an udon restaurant (Shun sho-bi ya ma-tei) that made a perfect lunch stop. The drizzle came in again and Sheila opted to return to the hotel, while I opted to see a few more crater lakes that were at lower elevations than Onami-Ike. The walking areas near the nearby Mt Io were closed due to unstable conditions, but the road was open. I rode past Mt Io and lots of steam and stopped to look at Fudo pond before proceeding to the trail head for Rokkannanmi Pond. Partly because of the marginal weather, but mainly the Mt Io closure, I didn't encounter any people on the walk to Rokkannanmi Pond. I pressed on a little further for the fourth crater lake of the day,  Byakushi Pond. Then I turned around back to the road and the quick ride back to the hotel. The riding amounted to 30km with 730m of ascent. The walking distance was about 10km with 500m of ascent. We didn't get any big views, but we saw some autumn colours and four lakes. It was nice, but based on what I saw,  I would not rave about Kirishima NP.

Kirishima Onsen is stretched out and even though it was a week-end, some of the restaurants were not open. We ate dinner at the Satsuma-ji Restaurant. Google Translate is a powerful tool when used properly. We both ordered chicken, and missed the sashimi (raw) part of the description. We have had it before, including in our kaiseki dinner at Minshuku Shiroyama on our Kyushu tour. We ate it, but we prefer our chicken cooked.