Tokyo to Kyoto (mainly via ships!)

It’s been great to get back on the bike, even if it’s only been a couple of hundred kilometres.. I’m settling into Japan nicely, and having a really good time! Here’s Tokyo to Kyoto!

Before I go further, here’s some music to listen to whilst reading.. It’s by Rhian Sheehan who’s an awesome NZ musician, and I know he’s been inspired by Japan a lot. His album Standing in Silence is amazing (and I see you can listen to most of it on youtube).. My favourite songs are either Part 2 or Part 3..

So I wanted to spend most of my time in the West/South of Japan, and rather than riding there from Toyko I decided to take the overnight ferry to Tokushima on Japan’s 4th largest island, Shikoku. As you’ll see on the map, this meant having to sort of double back north a bit to get to Osaka and Kyoto, but that’s ok. I didn’t take the train as you have to largely dismantle and bag your bike to take them on the trains here, which I couldn’t be bothered with.

Here’s the ferry as I was riding to it:

As usual I had to line up with some motorbikes/scooters!

Instead of a restaurant on board they had an amazing range of vending machines!

It was an 18 hour ferry- leaving at 7pm and getting in at 1pm the following day. I got a bunk in a quiet room (only one Japanese guy who completely ignored me).

I had a great sleep on the calm ocean, and because I had nothing to do until having to get off the ship after 1pm I could sleep in!

Here’s the view heading towards Shikoku:

After getting off in Tokushima (to more hot weather), I rode the flat, hot 20km to the cheap guesthouse I was staying in. Here’s a river I crossed.

And some rice I passed:

Shikoku has a pilgram trail around 88 Temples on the island, and the guesthouse was about 100m from one of them. The other guest staying was an Aussie guy who was going to spend a couple of months walking it.

The next morning required getting up at 5.30am to ride the 20km back to Tokushima to get a 2 hour ferry back to the main island of Honshu at Wakayama. It goes reasonably frequently, but I had to get the 8am one as I still had 80km to ride after that to get to Osaka that day, and it was going to be another hot day (up to 33ºC).

After the ferry the ride started as a nice ride around the coast:

But it quickly turned into urban sprawl for about 60km into Osaka.

I stayed at a hostel in town, and was hoping to stay longer there but they were booked up for the weekend. So I moved on the next day, 50km inland to Kyoto, the old capital of Japan.
It was good riding alongside a river. Unfortunately they had ridiculous infrastructure in place to stop motorbikes using the paths (unfortunately I didn’t take any photos). This is ok for most cyclists as they could negotiate them without too much trouble, but I had to get off my bike every couple of kilometres and lift the bike about 20cm over these barriers as the panniers wouldn’t fit through easily. Very frustrating.

I eventually got up towards some hills, but it was still really hot!

So I’m spending 3 nights in Kyoto. When I arrived, I spent the first day trying to cool down a bit, hanging pretty close to the hostel and enjoying their free tea and coffee, internet and airconditioning! Again it was a good hostel, with actual backpackers who I enjoyed chatting with and talking crap with. Quite a change from the HI Hostel I stayed in in Tokyo which seemed to be mainly Japanese men who didn’t really want to chat (and where we were kicked out from 10-4 each day).

The first full day in Kyoto I spent cruising around on my unladen bike, which was a whole heap of fun! I’d forgotten how enjoyable it is to ride a bike that isn’t laden down with 30+kg of gear! I was able to accelerate quickly away from traffic lights, and climb up some small hills easy. I’m already looking forward to doing some unladen riding after this trip finishes! :-D

So I spent most of the day over in the west of the city- the Arashiyama district. This is an area with a heap of temples and tombstones, as well as a cool bamboo forest.

On the way there I passed some more rice.

There’s a bit of a lake for boating on..

They love their statues here

Riding through some quiet forest roads

I visited a big temple with a lot of tombstones

There was a nice view over the city

Some more of the temple:

This area’s pretty popular with domestic tourists, and there were a few rickshaws around.

Then I headed to the bamboo forest!
(This first photo isn’t of bamboo)

There were some dogs wearing nappies and dresses there too….

Proof that I was there (and proof that the guy taking the photo doesn’t know how to focus properly):

The hostel I stayed in the first night was full the next couple (because I hadn’t booked far enough in advance). Unfortunately the place I found a bed at didn’t start check-in till 6.30pm! So I had a few hours to kill after that, and I went and checked out the Kyoto National Garden.

I went back to my old hostel and hung out in the cafe/bar there where I met some nice people and it turns out the bartender worked in Australia for a couple of years so could make a flat white!! I raced across to the new hostel just on dark and had another fun evening hanging out having some beers with the backpackers there!

Today I’ve been hanging around again, processing photos, writing this post and trying to do some work to pay the bills. Japan is a pretty expensive country, especially because I’m still finding it too hot to sleep in my tent. The food isn’t too expensive, it’s just the accommodation.

Still working out where I’ll go from here and when, but it’ll be via Kobe and probably back across to Shikoku before going to Hiroshima. I still haven’t decided on whether I’ll head to Korea or straight to China.. Some more time on the road might help make up my mind!

I hope you’re all enjoying the blog posts and photos! Remember I’ve got a facebook page that you can like here. I tend to put more regular updates on that rather than the fully-blown blog posts..