Kyushu, Japan

[RonS]

Hi all.
 
 On April 10 I headed off to Kyushu, Japan’s most southern main island, for one month. I have finally sorted through the photos enough to post a few here so I'll let you know about my trip. I did not post a journal on any of the major sites but I did do a short Instagram post with a few photos every day so that friends and family could tag along, My Instagram name is cycles_for_food. If any of you would like to check it out you're welcome to have a look without clicking the follow button.

 How was the trip? In a word, fantastic. The people were as gracious as ever. In fact, on my first riding day, it was a whole 1/2 hour before I was given my first gift of an iced coffee, and I don’t think a day went by where I was not gifted something like a bottled water or tea while sitting in front of a convenience store.
 
Getting there was easier this time, partly because I’m getting more experienced with packing the bike, and partly from scoring a business class ticket, with a 2X32kg luggage allowance, for less than the price of economy.

The weather was much more pleasant for cycling this time around. Daytime highs were in low to mid 20s compared to 30 plus every day last time. There were more cloudy days and rain this time, but only once did I ride in torrential rain for more than half an hour, and never did it rain an entire day.

Last year I used my phone and GoogleMaps-AppleMaps for navigation. It was frustrating, to say the least.  This time around I added a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt GPS, and used Komoot for routing.  Let’s just say that Japan still presents a challenge to navigation programs. Or perhaps it’s just user error.

Here are some random photos showing some of the varied terrain. Next post I’ll get in to the trip itself.

1  Along the Arita river near Imari. The National Highway is across the river. The path on this side was used by local farmers and their Kei-tora (mini pick up trucks)

2  All the blind corners in Japan have these convex mirrors. They really work once you get used to them.

3  A lovely tiny road running through small villages, just 50m from the busy National Highway. It went on for many kilometers.

4  Kyushu is very mountainous, and I spent a lot of time on roads like this.

[in4]

Great share. Is that a bicycle registration plate?
I don’t do social media out of choice but I was able to look at some of your photos on instagram. Great to see and gets my legs twitching for a tour.

[John Saxby]

Wonderful, Ron -- soooo green!!

[RonS]

Is that a bicycle registration plate?

Japanese bicycles need to be registered, but foreign visitors are exempt.
It's just a sign I made up (the same one as last trip, with the year changed) that says "Japan 2024" on the left and the right side said "day number XX' that I would fill in with a whiteboard marker in the morning. At the bottom I added "Hello. I'm Ron"
Interestingly, after having this on the bike for two trips totalling 11 weeks in length, and having talked to hundreds of people, on the last week, someone i was talking with looked at the sign and said "You spelled your name wrong". And he was right! In all my interactions, no one had mentioned it. I think most Japanese are too polite to point out such a thing.

soooo green!!

I don't think that Japan has a large problem with wildfires because the hottest part of the year is also the wettest. And when it rains, it really rains. There were two mornings when the weather app was showing expected rainfall of 20mm per hour. Luckily all I had to do was hole up in a warm restaurant for a few hours and wait for it to pass.

[Andre Jute]

From the other green island, thanks for sharing, Ron.

[RonS]

That "other green isle" is on my list of future rides. I know where to go for advice!

 To the trip!

After a 22hr layover in Seoul, where I had booked an airport hotel to sleep, and a full day in Fukuoka to buy the things on the no fly list and get used to the 8hr time difference, I was off.

Starting my ride in Fukuoka, the first week saw me ending just north of Miyazaki, by way of Aso, Takachihio Gorge, and Nobeoka.
I travelled open valleys and forests, coastal roads and mountains, and crossed the 2nd biggest volcanic caldera in Japan (the biggest is a lake). I had bright sun and the worst rain of the trip.

 Oh, right. And a magnitude 6.4 earthquake.

1 Clear of the urban sprawl of Fukuoka on day one. Yes, I had to go over those mountains.

2  Nabegataki waterfall near Oguni. At 9m high and 20 across it’s no Niagara, but the rock has been carved out over the millennia making it possible to walk behind the falls.

3  Grinding up and out of the Aso volcanic caldera. The scorched earth is not the result of wildfire, but Noyaki, controlled burning every spring to keep trees from overtaking the grassland. It has been practised in this area for 1000 years. By the end of April the hillside is green once again.

4  Leaving Takachihio Gorge. Thanks to a new highway, far up the hillside, and a washout that blocked the road for cars but not bikes, I followed the Gokase River for 30km without seeing a single car. Riding bliss.

[Andyb1]

A silly question, do you speak Japanese?
Or do enough people in Japan speak English?

Looks a great ride.  Did you have prior knowledge about your route or was it all new to you?

AndyB1

[RonS]

A silly question, do you speak Japanese?

Hi, Andy

That’s not a silly question at all. Feel free to ask as many as you need.

 My Japanese proficiency is very limited. I have learned enough to tell people about myself and about my trip, where I’m going and where I’m from. Simple things. I can ask directions, although I don’t always understand the answer. I can order food and ferry tickets  My grammar is probably painful for people to hear, but I usually get my point across. When that failed, there was Google translate.

Or do enough people in Japan speak English?

The level of English speakers in Japan varied. Usually in the larger cities that have a  tourist base most people in the service industry either could speak a little bit of English, or were very familiar with using Google translate.  In the hinterlands the amount of English dropped to almost zero. Again, store staff were comfortable with Translate apps.  The only time there was a real communication problem, though, would be with the older folks that wanted to talk to me, who could not speak any English and were also uncomfortable with talking to a phone to use Google translate.
Many restaurants have picture menus and english menus, and you can just point to what you want. When there was neither, I would use the phone to translate, then order in Japanese. A lot of restaurants have a menu board and a ticket machine to order. i would usually just ask the person beside me in line which button corresponded to the picture. Everyone was always happy to assist.

I would say anyone who learns a few basic phrases like good morning, please, thank you, and most importantly, I'm sorry I don't speak/read Japanese, do you speak English? will not have any problem

Did you have prior knowledge about your route or was it all new to you?

Two of the places I visited, Aso and Goto,  as well as Fukuoka, where I started and ended the trip, I had been to last September. The rest of it was all new to me. I had sketched out a rough route, using Google and Komoot, before I left.

[Andyb1]

Thanks for the reply Ron.
Google translate - I had not thought of that - a very useful tool, although on the rare occasions I have used it I have tried to be careful to speak using simple words as there is a lot of ambiguity in the English language.  As you say, wherever you go it is sensible to learn a few basic sentences in the local language - rather than playing the role of a Colonial English Officer abroad.
And once you gain a toehold in a country it does allow you to explore other areas on future trips (I don’t know how Google translate would cope with that sentence!).

AndB1

[Moronic]

Thanks for the post. Sounds fascinating. How much motor traffic did you meet on those roads, and how courteous were the drivers? Your comment about the 30km of no-car bliss suggests there were enough cars elsewhere to get your attention.

It's easy to imagine the bliss though, whether or not things got sketchy in other parts.

Interesting on making yourself understood. On my one Japan visit, a brief work-related trip 30 years ago, I met a Japanese couple on my flight home who wanted to practise their English but said they could read and write the language quite well, since like most Japanese they had learned it in school.

I didn't get to test that, and had found it easy to order food and the like where I was staying in Tokyo, but I wondered afterwards whether resorting to writing might help sometimes when travelling.

[RonS]

How much motor traffic did you meet on those roads, and how courteous were the drivers?

Once I was away from the larger urban areas, I was mostly able to plot a course that avoided the busier roads. There are a lot of roads to choose from. Sometimes it was a balancing act, because getting off the main highway meant meandering through a maze of back alleys with stop signs every block, or climbing a hundred meters up a 20% slope to avoid the highway following the river valley. A lot of times though, even on the main road there would only be a one car passing every couple of minutes. I would say in 26 days of riding there were only about 30km where I thought to myself “this sucks”. 

The level of courtesy shown by Japanese drivers is almost incomprehensible to someone coming from North America. On the few occasions that my route planning was less than stellar and I found myself on the side of a busy, shoulderless highway, I was never passed “too close for comfort”. Most cars were small enough to pass without crossing the centre line, although most moved over when possible. Every one of the trucks would wait patiently for a break in oncoming traffic to give me a wide berth, even when I was grinding uphill at 6km/h. Leaving Kagoshima, on a particularly busy stretch, trucks would be stuck behind me for a minute or more before there was a break, or I could find a place to pull off and let them pass. No horns, no crowding, no drama, just patiently waiting. I always gave them a thank you wave, which was always returned with a friendly tap of the horn.

Japan also has a 60km/h highway speed limit everywhere but on limited access expressways where bikes are forbidden. Even though this seems to be a “guideline” rather than a rule, it meant even on highways most vehicles were going 70ish, compared to here in Canada and USA where everyone on two lane highways passes at 100 to 120 without slowing down or moving over.

[RonS]

On to the second week. I made it to the southern tip of mainland Japan, then headed up the west coast.

 One of the highlights was pulling out from the 7-11 one morning into the middle of a 300 strong organized ride. It was a steady stream of  “Hello, Ron!”,  “Ganbatte!” (go for it)  and about twenty requests for selfies.
 On another day, near the end of my ride, I got within 200m of the onsen, but neither Google nor Komoot could quite figure out just exactly where it was. There just happened to be a high school student, in his uniform, walking by. I asked him for directions, and he proceeded to run through the maze of tiny streets, leading me there!

1  No, I didn’t make a side trip to Easter Island. Sun Messe Nichinan is the only authorized reproduction of the Moai statues. Japanese archaeologists had helped with restoration work of the originals.

2  Sata Misaki, the southernmost point of mainland Japan. At 31 degrees latitude, the sign shows that it’s even with Cairo and New Orleans. The happy mascot is welcoming everyone to Minamiosumi Town. The date ( April 24, 2024) is shown as 6-4-24.  The Japanese often use the period based on the reign of the emperor to indicate the year. The current emperor, Naruhito, ascended the throne May 1, 2019, marking the beginning of the Reiwa era (Reiwa 1) . That makes 2024 Reiwa 6.

3  Sakurajima, one of the most active volcanoes in Japan. Riding around the base, I passed many “fallout shelters” where one can hide from flying ash and rock during an eruption.

4  Carp streamers, or Koinobori, are flown in April and early May to wish for the health and prosperity of children. When the wind is blowing they look like they’re swimming. I was happy to see them tails down, though, as it made for easier riding.

[Danneaux]

Absolutely wonderful photos and narratives, Ron; so enjoyable...educational, too!

Many thanks for favoring us with your trip account.

Best, Dan.

[Moronic]

Thanks so much for the detail on traffic, along with the rest. Interesting and fun. 

[RonS]

You're welcome, Dan and Moronic

 I know that not everyone is comfortable with, or able to make such a trip. In fact, it's too far out of the comfort zone for my best riding buddy to join me. I'm happy that you can enjoy the trip vicariously. And if my ramblings should make someone interested enough to actually go there, all the better.


 Week 3 was spent ferry riding and island hopping. After riding across the islands of Nagashima and Shimoshima, I took a ferry across the east China Sea, which cut off 60 km of mostly urban riding around the Shimabara peninsula and droped me off only 7 1/2 km from downtown Nagasaki. After a day off the bike in  Nagasaki, it was back on a ferry to the Goto Islands where I spent the better part of the next six days doing day rides and visiting with friends, old and new found. (more on that in the next post.)

 1  Catching the first ferry from Kuranomoto to Ushibuka. Adorning the front of the ship is Kumamon, the mascot of Kumamoto prefecture. Prefectures are the next lower level of government after national, like a US state or Canadian province. Mascots are ubiquitous in Japan. Kumamon is probably the most successful of all Japanese mascots. Sales of Kumamon merchandise are now upwards of USD 2 billion per year.

 2 and 3  The Japanese are masters at  taming the topography with tunnels. On Shimoshima, there was an 11 km stretch where I went through 18 tunnels, the longest of  which was over 1 km. The longest tunnel I went through on this trip was 3.5km. The majority of tunnels have a wide sidewalk to ride on. Of the few where I had to ride in the roadway, including the 3.5km one,  I just made sure the light rear light was on and felt secure in the fact that as mentioned previously, Japanese drivers are extremely courteous and respectful of cyclists. It's a good idea to have earplugs though.

 4  Along with the onsen at the end of the day, I would occasionally come across a “foot onsen” which is exactly it sounds,  an open pool of hot spring water where you can just take off your shoes and socks and dip your feet. 20 minutes of this and my feet felt as good as if they had had a massage. At this particular one, shortly after I took this picture, a young family came by, and proceeded to share their picnic lunch with me.