Kyushu, Japan

[RonS]

 I’ll finish off my trip report with some more photos, and a tale of something that happened near the end.

 After disembarking the ferry between Fukue Island and Nakadori  Island, I checked Google maps for a place to eat, as it was lunchtime. It did show a place that was only a few hundred metres away, so off I went.  Arriving at the restaurant, I could not tell if it was open, so I decided to just try the door. It was open, with two customers at the counter.  When I sat down I was given a Japanese menu so I gave them my usual that I couldn't read Japanese,  please give me a moment to translate it on my phone. One of the customers at the counter got up and asked “Do you speak English?”  When I replied in the affirmative,, he said “I speak English. I'll help you with the menu”.  He told me he and his friend were dentists that have known each other for 50 years and he had grown up on this small island and still had a house here. We got chatting, and when he asked where I was going to spend the night,  I told him I was just going to go until I found a good spot and was going to set up camp. He then said  “I would like you to be my guest tonight.”  Well, there was an offer I couldn’t refuse! I told him to give me his address and I would ride there.  “Nonsense” he said.  “We will go in my car.”  I wanted to say “Have you seen my bike?”  I also should've asked about his car. It was truly tiny,  But he was not to be deterred. We wound up putting the bike on his roof rack with all the bags in the back, and off we went. I then spent the next two days as his guest,  thanks to a large storm the next day cancelling ferries. After the storm cleared, I bid my farewell to my new friends and made my way back to Fukuoka, where the trip had begun 28 days previously.

1  Night view of Nagasaki harbour from Inasayama Park lookout

2  On Fukue Island. The water really looked that turquoise.

3   The bridge between Nakadori and Wakamatsu Islands

4   How you get a big bike onto a tiny car.

That’s another tour in the books! Hope you enjoyed it!  Stay tuned for the next one!

[Moronic]

Fabulous, and thanks again. I love that closing anecdote. It contains so much of what cycle touring is about, for me anyway.

[in4]

Really enjoyed reading about your tour. Nice to be on the receiving end of some Japanese generosity.
Thinking you’re riding a Raven, has it handled your load well?

[Andre Jute]

A superb report, Ron, just a nice balance between text and photographs, an engaging read. Good on you for sharing.

+1 for Moronic's remark.

[Andyb1]

Thanks for taking the time to share your trip with us - superb report.

[RonS]

 Everyone, you’re welcome. I had fun doing it.

 I’ll never be doing a “live” journal anywhere, with daily updates.  This is because I spent my career in an industry that only entered the computer era kicking and screaming. Until the last few years, everything was pen to paper, then, when we finally got tablets, it was just checking off the boxes. As a result, my keyboarding skills are truly glacial, so a blog post that would take the average computer savvy person 10 minutes to write takes me an hour or more. I would really prefer spending that hour soaking in an onsen, or chatting with someone in a pub! Reliving my tour by going over my paper journal though is something I find enjoyable. Then I can do these reports at my leisure.

 Yes, Ian, that’s the Raven ( which I have named, story to follow!). I’m still experimenting with loading patterns. Last trip was rear panniers only plus bar bag. I went for 4 panniers plus bar bag this time as I had trouble fitting everything in last time. The Raven handled it just fine, and I had lots of room, but I wound up with an even heavier bike. Part of that weight was things specific to a trip to Japan.  I had with me a “rinko bag” for covering the bike to travel by train, and “omiyage”, small gifts to give to people. I had packed a dozen 50ml bottles of Ontario maple syrup in decorative bottles. I thought “ thats only 50g of syrup per bottle. Yup. But the bottles themselves were 150g! Next time (yes, there’ll be a next time) it’ll be Canada flag key rings at 30g each.  The plan for next trip (not Japan)  is to get out the scale and be ruthless. I’m going to try going back to 2 panniers and just bring less. I am going to add an Arkel frame bag that only weighs 180g and gives me 4L of space.

And the name of my bike is now………..Nozomi.

I can hear the heads scratching from here, so I’ll explain.

The Tokaido Shinkansen, the main bullet train line in Japan, running between Tokyo and Osaka, has three levels of speed. Not the speed of the trains themselves, they all go just under  300 km/h between stations. Some trains make more stops though.
 
Kodama  trains stop at every station.

Hikari trains stop at only the larger stations.

Nozomi trains make the 515km journey from Tokyo Station to Shin-Osaka Station in 2hr31min, making only 4 intermediate stops.

So…..I have named my bike after the fastest train in Japan.