Friday 25th October 2024
With not even an hour of sleep I arrived at Narita airport to the North East of Tokyo. Things seemed to go quite smoothly. I managed to book a train for the morning, inquired about potentially leaving luggage and at 4pm I was unpacking my bike that had survived the flight and putting bits and pieces together. Shortly before 5pm, as it was beginning to get dark, I began navigating the large busy roads leaving the airport. I quickly formed a strategy – don’t use the roads wherever possible – and so I stuck to the footpaths wherever possible.
My Air BnB, the closest I could find, was a little under 10km from the airport. It was also very rural and after stopping at a convenience store to grab some sushi and other bits and pieces, I found myself on much smaller roads. Google maps sent me along a dirt track past fields and then through some road works lit up like Christmas trees with flashing green and red lights. The accommodation was out amongst paddocks and was very basic. It had a bed though and that was the important thing. I organised my gear for the following day and tried to get some sleep, my body refused more than a couple of hours though and so it was going to be another day with very little rest.
Saturday 26th October 2024
As I hadn’t been sleeping anyway, I got up at 5:30am and set off at 6am through the fields. It was light enough already and the roads were much less busy. Everything went quite smoothly until one of my panniers leapt off my bike near the airport after I hit a bump. The carrier seemed to have taken a hit with a somewhat bent bit of metal. Oh dear, not the best start to a cycle touring trip.
I arrived at the airport and tried packing my bike into my AliExpress bag. I hadn’t tried it properly before and it was only moderately successful but I figured the trains would have ample room for oversized luggage. Moving around with little sleep and so much gear was frustrating but after some faff I was on a train heading towards Tokyo. There had of course not been much space for oversize luggage and my bike was sticking out into the isle such that the carriage doors tried continuously to close on it.
Later I had a transfer to the bullet train. My back and shoulder complained as I tried to shift so much stuff but I eventually made it to the correct platform. The bullet train slid in stopping in exactly the right place such that the correct door lined up with the sign on the platform. The rope barriers went up and I loaded my bike onto the train discovering another lack of space.
We whooooshed off heading South West towards Kyoto. The protocol was to continue to Fukuyama where I would jump on a local train to Onomichi on the southern coast. I met a friendly Japanese guy at one of the stops who also had a bike and was planning to cycle from Onomichi too. He helped me find the correct local train and by late afternoon we were in Onomichi.
I’d learned that, just by chance, there was an event for cyclists that runs every two years and they’d be doing what Katie and I planned to do. The idea was to meet Katie and then cycle across the collections of small islands joined by cycle friendly roads to Shikoku, a large island South of the mainland. The route is set up for cycling with a big reassuring blue line on the side of the road to guide you. It’s called the Shimanami Kaido.
I assembled my bike and crossed the road to catch the ferry to the first island (the first bridge doesn’t have a cycle way and isn’t recommended to be used by cyclists). A small ferry, already full of cyclists, was leaving and although they were just about to push off they saw me trotting down and waited. I rolled my bike onto the ferry and got out my credit card, all ready to pay. It turned out to be cash only but the friendly guy let me off either because he thought I was part of the cycling event the following day or because he thought I was a clueless tourist.
On the other side I checked in with Katie and we decided to meet at the big bridge that joins the island I was on with the following one. I cycled off into the evening enjoying the feeling of using my legs. There were other cyclists coming the other way that had been out for a little spin before the following day’s ride.
It began to get darker and there was a bit of colour in the sky near the horizon aside from the otherwise grey overcast sky. The road wound around the coast near the water and I watched my phone to check my and Katie’s locations. The road took a left and climbed via a small cycle way to the bridge and Katie was waiting at the top.
After hellos we continued across the bridge, back tracking for Katie towards our accommodation for the night. We stopped at a little convenience store along the way and bought bits of food wrapped in plastic to microwave up later. My bike carrier had a moment and a friendly Canadian guy who was outside the store helped me put it back together. We continued into the night stopping along the way to get a nut and washer from a motorbike service shop in the hope we’d be able to fix my cheap Aliexpress gear. The friendly owner laughed at us when I tried to offer him some cash for his efforts. Everyone is very friendly here.
It was still warm enough to be wearing a T-shirt and we cycled in the dark for a while before arriving at what Google said was our destination – a little hostel of sorts with a completely automated check in without any staff. Our room had four bunks and enough room for two bikes. We microwaved up our dinner that we’d collected earlier from the convenience store and chatted to some other cyclists who were also sharing the cycling friendly hostel.
Sunday 27th October 2024
We set off in the morning following the blue line on the left side of the road. It was warm and grey and we soon settled into a routine of bobbing our heads to greet the cyclists coming the other way and to the event marshals spread out along the route.
We stopped and bought some fresh fruit from a small shop at the side of the road, which I later learned was quite a treat really, it being fruit and fresh. Our route took us from island-to-island via huge bridges each with a large cycleway separated from the traffic.
Later on we crossed the last bridge to the large Southern island of Shikoku where we’d spend the following days. Every few hundred metres there was a marshal or police man/woman and it seemed unlikely we’d be able to get off the route. I felt bad for not paying for the event despite the fact we hadn’t intended to ride it and were only riding the same route by chance. The marshals didn’t know though and many of them waved as we passed.
Finally, at a set of traffic lights we took a right instead of going straight and headed to the Uwajima station. The plan was to take the train further South so as to see more of the southern part of the island. It took us some time to disassemble our bikes though and we missed the first train. Later on we were bouncing along in a loud local train with no space for our bikes heading to Sumoko.
Arriving in the dark, we bought more plastic food and found our way to our hotel. The receptionist excitedly greeted us and gave her best spiel in English only stopping once to check her phone. I spied Google translate and was impressed to see that she’d translated the whole lot into English and was repeating it from memory.
Monday 28th October 2024 – Uwajima to Sumoko
It had rained in the night. We headed off to get food and to find some sunglasses for me after mine had broken the day before. I turned down some expensive ones and instead located some very cheap ones. I bought two pairs and we named them the dudes due to the way I looked while wearing them. Given the price they probably didn’t do much to protect my eyes.
We followed some big roads out of town until we found some much nicer smaller ones. There was forest on either side. Our route took us out to the west coast and we followed the coastal road south. We stopped for more plastic food and ate lunch at a small shelter for the pilgrims that walk the route. It seemed like a pretty unpleasant road to walk along.
The day turned to evening and we opted to take a smaller road around the coast to our accommodation. It started with a steep climb and then we followed a nice small curvy road up and down above the sea. It was time for bike lights. Finally in the dark we rolled into another Lawson Station, a popular chain of convenience stores, for more plastic food and then headed to Sumoko Box, our accommodation for the evening.
It was odd. There was nobody there. The door was open. The lights were on. We made ourselves at home and found two mattresses upstairs that were set up for us on tatami mats – the unusual smelling traditional plant mats. It was all really quite nice. We showered and ate our food at one of the big tables in the crowded kitchen.
Tuesday 29th October 2024
It was raining in the morning as we set of from Sumoko box. The road was wide with many trucks but luckily through a navigational error we ended up on a smaller road that leaves the coast and goes inland. We’d discarded the road while planning but it turned out to be very nice. It took us away from the coast and up. We climbed through damp forest and at some point reached the highest point before rolling back down the other side. The weather was improving and it was quite warm and dry. Reaching the coast, we continued and finally after a long tunnel we followed a small road up through the forest to an empty hotel, empty except for an old and somewhat grumpy Japanese man and his wife. We ate a cold dinner as there didn’t seem to be a microwave available for our convenience store feast. No matter. We also bathed in the onsen in the hotel, the traditional Japanese bath house, washing ourselves first while crouching on little stools before getting into the very hot water of the large bath and cooking slowly.
I worked in the evening and we tried to plan alternative cycling routes with the limited remaining time we had. We failed and at about 1 am we gave up and went to bed.
Wednesday 30th October 2024
We left the hotel in the morning feeling tired from the late night and rolled down the narrow road back to the main road following it around the coast towards the cape. The weather was the best it had been so far with real blue sky somewhere off in the distance. The pilgrims were present on the road again and I snapped a photo of two of them getting drinks from a coke vending machine, one of the many that are splattered around the island. Even pilgrims need coke.
We had only gone a couple of kilometres before we found a spot to stop at, one of the lay-bys set up for pilgrims. We rested in the wooden shelter and I ate some of the assorted rice things that I’d bought at our last Lawson convenience store. Katie did as the pilgrims do and got herself a drink from one the omnipresent coke machines. Continuing again it wasn’t long before we found another good place to stop, this time some shrines, one on a large rock pillar down by the sea under which was a large rock arch. On the path not far from the arch was a helpful sign showing that this was in fact a beloved spot for instagrammers and that if you took a photo just right you would capture the arch in such a way that it would like a heart. How lovely.
We continued back up the stairs to a lighthouse, passing a sign noting the possible presence of turtles on the way. The path was surrounded by dense trees, that you might expect to find in an area that gets a lot of wind. It reminded me a bit of the pancake rocks at Punakaiki in New Zealand. Another shrine that was large and shriney and quite pretty was discovered on the way back. Many photos later and we returned to our bikes continuing along the narrow road enclosed by branches above us.
We continued around the cape and back up North. The weather was improving further. Taking a right we continued along a very narrow vehicle free road that was again very pretty before finding our way back to the main road. Not too much later on we found a beach and ate lunch there watching Japanese surfers trying to catch waves.
We followed the now very sunny coast further until we came across another Lawson Station. After a little junk food we decided to continue on the main road rather than the more windy coastal road towards Shimanto City to the hotel we’d booked. The last 20km were now sunny with plenty of blue sky, except of course in the 2km tunnel we cycled through. I kept feeling I was on the west coast of the South Island of NZ. It reminded me again of areas around Punakaiki. During the last few km we cycled up a river in the sunshine and then we arrived at our hotel, just in time for me to switch on my tablet and join a work meeting. Now that’s work life balance.
Thursday 31 October 2024
It had gone back to grey and it was a little cold as we rolled away from our hotel in the morning. The plan was to ride up the river doing a big arc inland and ending up back near-ish the coast at what we’ve been referring to as Northern Shimanto. There seems to be many Shimantos around here. Possibly we were in Shimanto City and were then biking to Shimanto Town. Hard to say really. It could also be Kubokawa where we’ve ended up for the evening. Our route was of course very inefficient as we could have cycled straight up the coast but we’d heard that it’s quite pretty up the river. It was.
The sun came out and it became warm. The road had a fair few trucks on it but as we continued the traffic reduced. We came to the first of a series of submergible bridges across the wide green river we’d been following. They’re presumably called this because they’re designed to withstand a flood but I noted while riding across one that they wouldn’t be up to standard in many countries as they had absolutely no guardrails. We cycled carefully across the bridge sticking to the middle. Four cyclists came the other way and we chatted to them.
We continued on a dinky little road through the forest on the other side above the river before returning to the water and another bridge. The Australian cyclists were there again on their clapped out bikes and they decided they’d head up the main road in search of a coffee shop. We continued in the same direction. No shops presented themselves, in fact it felt quite rural. The road was great though and it became very narrow as it continued along and above the river on the true left.
The day passed and we stopped for lunch. I found a supermarket and splashed out on some fresh things buying some expensive grapes and a cucumber. Special treat! Fresh produce is very expensive here. We ate at a layby further up the road.
The blue began to dissipate and the grey started to creep back in. My seat wasn’t getting any more comfortable and I was looking forward to getting to our destination. Continuing for another couple of hours, we stopped at a Lawson convenience store for too much packaged food shortly before arriving at our accommodation for the evening.
Katie had booked us into a Japanese Inn which is typically a traditional Japanese style lodging. It looked very pretty from the outside as we arrived. We weren’t sure where to put our bikes so started wheeling them around to the carpark before a friendly Japanese woman came running out to greet us. They found a room for us to store the bikes and we headed in to check in. We were shown our room, a spacious thing with a large table, two beds, and a little spot for drinking green tea, which our host offered us immediately. The room was filled with ornamental Japanese nick-nacks and framed pictures of Japanese script.
We were told the bath would be ready shortly and sure enough we soon found ourselves in a traditional bathroom. We scrubbed ourselves down on two little stools and showered before climbing into a large bath full of very hot cloudy water.
Later in the evening we lowered the class by eating our food from the convenience store from our hobo plastic bags.
Friday 1st November 2024
It was time to head back towards Tokyo to meet Ari. We left our pretty inn before 8pm and cycled the short distance to the train station. We then did our best to make our bikes as small as possible so as to minimise stress on the trains. It’s worth doing. The most stressful moment so far have been on the trains. We had more fun in the trains again. There was no space in the first local train and the woman on the train said we’d have to get off if we couldn’t store the bikes somewhere out of the way. She let us load them into the little room usually used to make phone calls and we packed them on top of each other. Our route took us through dense forest complete with mist and rain.
We had one more local train and then the bullet train. We’d been watching a typhoon approaching over the last couple of days and after it had ripped through Taiwan it made it almost to Shanghai. This was causing problems for Ari and her flight kept being delayed further and further until it was clear she wouldn’t be able to catch the last train to Yugawara to meet us. We arrived at the coastal town of Yugawara in the evening and put our bikes back together before cycling the small distance to our Air BnB. While having dinner, we booked Ari a hotel at Narita airport for the night and she managed to get that far.
Saturday 2nd November 2024
We went to the supermarket, a minute walk from the apartment in the morning and bought lots of fresh stuff which was quite the treat. The rain began again and for the rest of the day it rained and rained. Ari arrived at some point after lunch and we hung about inside. Later on our phones went off with an emergency alert about possible landslides in the area. Good times.
Sunday 3rd November 2024
The rain caused by the typhoon had cleared and it was great weather. Ari and I went and picked up the rental car in Atami, the next town, one stop from Yugawara. We were supposed to collect the car the day before but we couldn’t as the trains were cancelled due to the danger of landslides. We bundled Katie into the car and drove to Lake Isha, which turned out to be quite the tourist trap. Still we walked around for a bit and took some tourist photos amongst the crowds. Katie wanted to be back by 4pm and we left the lake before 3pm with plenty of time, we thought. The drive turned into a big mission though when we found that the toll road back down to Yugawara was closed. We spent literally hours driving along tiny winding roads that seemed to have no clear direction and shortly before we got back we took a “faster route” suggested by Google that turned into a huge traffic jam on tiny roads after many other people also took the same “faster” route.
Monday 4th November 2024
We went for a drive in the hills again finding more tiny steep and very pretty roads. In the afternoon we checked out a bunch of shrines until I was all shrined out. Then in the evening we had dinner in Atami at a traditional (possibly) restaurant. Nobody spoke English but we managed to order something.
Tuesday 5th November 2024
We travelled to Kyoto by train and went walking along the rive near our apartment in the evening. The city had a good vibe and there were lots of young people along the river chatting and some dancing to music. We found a restaurant and had a tasty dinner.
Wednesday 6th November 2024
We had a nice day of touristing around Kyoto and I decided I quite liked the place despite the busy tourist areas. There are hills not too far from the city and they’d probably be quite good for trail running. Perhaps there’s even mountain biking. I’m not sure whether the Japanese are big of that or not.
We started by visiting a big park of shrines. Ari took the train and I arrived by bike riding along the river to avoid the traffic as much as possible. I’m not sure park is the right word for the area. It was a large area in the forest with tracks running all over the place. It was very busy near the entrance but later on the tourists thinned out a little. We went to visit another tourist spot later in the day, a castle over the other side of town. I cycled and met Ari as she arrived by train.
Thursday 7th November 2024
We travelled to Onomichi where I’d been with Katie a few days earlier. In the evening we went for a walk up the hill behind the town and looked out over the sea.
Friday 8th November 2024
It was a sunny but fairly cold day. I was disappointed that there seemed to be less blue sky than yesterday, however it was still ok. The wind was cold though. We took the ferry across the short stretch of water to the first island and started to repeat what I’d done some days ago when I went to meet Katie. I was keen to try something different so we headed towards a bit of the island that looked a little less touristy and had some nice pictures on google maps. It wasn’t long before we decided that the wind was too cold though and we retreated to the more sheltered side of the island and continued along the standard route.
We dawdled along for a few hours before getting lunch somewhere and then heading back in the afternoon. We covered about 70km all-in-all and arrived back just before sun down.
Saturday 9th November 2024
We left Onomichi in the morning. I took note of the warmer temperature and bluer sky than yesterday and made disapproving sounds. Our tight schedule meant we had to keep moving though so we took the train to Hiroshima and transferred to a local train that took us further along the coast to Miyajimaguchi Station. Ari made the decision to send her luggage to Tokyo and while she was arranging that I put my bike back together. We then dropped the remainder of our gear at our accommodation up in the hills before walking back down to the ferry and boarding along with a bazillion other tourists. It took us over the Miyajima island, about 15 minutes away from the mainland. On the island we found something to eat before meeting a Japanese woman who would take us sea kayaking. I was a little disappointed to see the wide sit on top tub that they’d arranged for us but despite this we had a nice couple of hours kayaking around near the island. In Japan, it seems difficult to get a rental kayak without a guide but at least it meant we could chat to a local for a while. We took some photos under the big red gate (torii) in the sea, the same red gates that were everywhere in Kyoto.
The sun set as we were on the water but it was relatively cloudy and there was not much colour in the clouds. We kayaked back to shore and went for a walk in the dark taking a look at the things that we’d missed by the water. The island is full of deer, introduced for the tourists at some point in the past. They’ve not heard of birth control though and they’ve completely taken over the island. They are everywhere and aren’t shy to come up to you in the streets and try and take your food.
Sunday 10th November 2024
We left our apartment up on the hill in the morning. Ari walked down to catch the train and I piled everything onto my bike again and cycled off towards Hiroshima. The roads weren’t as busy as I expected and there was generally either a cycle way on the road or a footpath for cyclists and pedestrians. It was a cool morning but I warmed up as I cycled. I navigated through the streets to the Hiroshima peace memorial park where I briefly saw Ari disappearing into the museum. I had a look around the park and rode up and down the river a bit, checked out the Hiroshima castle from the outside before meeting her at the atomic bomb dome. We had something to eat and then went in search of mochis before heading to the train station and taking the train back to Tokyo.
Monday 11th November 2024
We did some touristing in Tokyo, visiting another shrine and later a park.
Tuesday 12th November 2024
I headed to Narita Airport around midday after first cycling a little way out of the centre of Tokyo. Then it was off to Brisbane for a 12 hour stop over and then on to New Zealand.
