Hiroshima to Nagasaki

My last leg in Japan was between the two A-Bomb cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It involved 400+km of riding, 3 ferries and a mix of weather!

I took the ferry from Hiroshima to Matsuyama, which is back on Shikoku (the third time I’d been on the island!). I stayed in a great guesthouse there called the Sen Guesthouse, the hosts were very interested in my trip and bike!

There was a Super Typhoon coming across the south of Japan at the time. The forecast had it staying far enough away from where I was riding that I wouldn’t get the wind, but I would get the rain. I was hoping it would hold off long enough for me to ride the 80km to the ferry at Yawatahama. It didn’t.

Here’s one of the golf driving ranges in Japan, identifiable by their huge nets. This was just before the rain started.

I rode through some great countryside that day, but didn’t get any photos because of the rain. Parts of it felt like an industrialised Bullar Gorge in NZ! There were some pretty dirty tunnels to ride through, including a relatively narrow one. Good thing I’m not too worried about making vehicles wait and hold my own on the lane! I’m not going to get crushed between a tunnel wall and the side of a truck!

I made it to the ferry on time and was frustrated again by the ferry staff who think they know how to strap down my bike better than I do and won’t let me do it! Grrr.

I stayed in Beppu for a couple of nights to sit out the very heavy rain. At night the rain through the open window sounded like someone had left a shower running in the room next door! Beppu is an onsen town, and seems to be very popular with Japanese people coming to soak. The hostel I stayed in was the cheapest I’ve seen in Japan, but it was still more than adequate for my needs!

Riding out of Beppu I followed the coast for a bit to Oita, then headed inland to Taketa and on to Mt Aso. It was great landscape, and was a brilliant day’s riding. It included over 1000m of climbing, but was through some of the nicest countryside I’ve seen in Japan so far.




I almost ran over this guy:

I eventually arrived at the edge of the Aso Caldera, a huge volcanic crater 10-20km across with a town and volcano in the middle. It was such a cool geographic feature! I stayed at a backpackers that was the nicest of the trip! So well maintained, nice people, organised clean kitchen, really good. It was a bit more expensive than some of the others, but still. It’s called Aso Base if anyone’s passing through.




Part of the road was washed out by landslides so they replaced it with this bridge on scaffolding!

The following day was a long one trying to get all the way to Nagasaki. I was on the road at 7am, and had an awesome descent from the caldera (which was at ~550m) through a slot in the caldera wall down a valley to the sea.

I hopped another ferry to Shimabara, and rode around the coast towards Nagasaki. It was typical coastal riding, with lots of hills to climb and descend for no apparent reason! It culminated in a long, reasonably dirty tunnel, but at least there was a footpath for bikes. All that was left was a descent down into Nagasaki and my hostel!

Indie outside a 7-Eleven convenience store!



 
So that completes my riding in Japan, I’ll write another post about my time in Nagasaki soon!