Day 27: Miyakonojo to Kagoshima, 39.7 miles

Kagoshima, end of the road. Tokyo here I come.

Had an early start this morning and ploughed through the first 16 or so miles so I could reach Kagoshima bay and the volcano Sakurajima. Had a very steep decent, 1400ft in 3 miles of winding road through forest into the Bay and on to Route 220 which took me across the lava flow bridge and around the volcano to the Kagoshima ferry. The road stops here. Trans-Canada Highway anyone?

1606.7 miles covered in 22 days of cycling out of 27 days. Average day consisted of 73 miles covered in 7 hours. I had 2 encounters with the Japanese police and 3 punctures. I broke 1 bus.

Coastal village under the shadow of Sakurajima, one of the World's most active volcanoes. The whole of Kagoshima Bay smells of sulphur.

Views of Kagoshima Bay from the East. You can see Sakurajima from a distance in the middle picture. It is f*cking beautiful here.

Photo taken from a bridge across to the lava flow from the 1906 erruption. This has to be the most alive place I've been to. The bay is packed full of fishing boats and every inch of land has trees, plants or moss growing on it.

What's with all the pictures of water? Ferry from Sakurajima to Kagoshima, which is in the background.

Day 26: Hyuga to Miyakonojo 76.4 miles

Welcome to Miyakonojo

Not a great day today. This part of Kyushu is a bit dull and it took me far too long navigating through Miyazaki so I only managed to cover 76 miles of the planned 120. It also feels a bit sinister round here, I feel like I'm on the set of Twin Peaks. Probably just paranoia brought on by fatigue; I'm feeling really run down. The girl at the hotel in Hyuga told me I looked tired.

Spooky mountains on the way up the hill to Miyakonojo

Day 25: Oita to Hyuna, 73.4 miles

Where I'm at: 120 miles to go.

Took it easy today and had a leisurely day in the mountains. Quite high though, I checked my GPS on the way down and I was at 1600ft. Have more mileage to do tomorrow though. not sure whether to go for it and do it all in one day of break it up into two. They'll be at least two 1600ft+ climbs through the mountains to do.

The tap water in Japan tastes like Evian. Might explain why there's little if any bottled water for sale in Japanese convenience stores.




Mornin. View from my hotel window in Oita.


One crazy town.

Outstanding natural beauty. Almost as nice as the women.

View from a road bridge down onto the forest.



Descended to the coast along side this river.

These signs look like Japanese patrolmen viewed from behind. They're meant to make drivers slow down on. Worked on me.

Day 24: Imbari to Oita, 110 miles by bike & 17 by ferry

Politics Misaki style. These modernising young guns were standing out in the rain shouting at passing cars.

longest day of the trip so far; cycled 95 miles from Imbari to Misakai Port then caught the ferry across to Kyushu, then another 15 the other side to Oita to get a hotel. I also had two major climbs. The highest was 1500ft from sea level in about 6 miles. It also rained heavily all afternoon.

Start of the climb up from Imbari through the mountains.




Lake outside of Imbari


Longest tunnel so far at just over a mile and a half and also the highest at 1500ft. I was in there so long that by the time I'd reached the exit I didn't want to leave and the Japanese authorities had to rehabilitate me.

Enormous dam on the descent down to Matsuyama.

The North Western coastline of Shikoku.



Pull yourself together man! My bike flakes out during the mad 50 mile dash along the Shikoku coast.



Up again.

Cycling an elevated road along the peninsula to Misaki Port. Please excuse the raindrop on the lens, it was chucking it down.

Misaki ferry. Not glam.

Day 23: Fukuyama to Imabari, 70.1 miles.

Start of the world's greatest cycle route: Gardeners glove shaped into victory sign by the entry gate. Call me Lance.

Cycled the 6 bridges of the Nishiseto Expressway today which means I'm done with Honshu and now on Shikoku, the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. This will mean that I'll have cycled on 11 of Japan's islands by the end of the trip. Guess I'll have to do the other 2,989 next time.

Bridge No. 1. You had to cycle along a gantry suspended beneath the road.



Bridge No. 2



Bridge No. 3 and it's view.


Now that's what I call a bike path. Exiting bridge 3.



I saved the navigator but the pilot was a goner.



Bridge No. 4



It's like Spring in this part of Japan.




Bridge No. 5 and it's view.




The big one: Bridge No. 6 and it's view. It's so high up that you feel like you're flying.




Shipbuilding? No, that was just a rumor that was spread around town. The Imabari shipyard from the Kurushima-Kaikyō Bridge.

Heaven & Hell: The weather's fantastic but cycling through Japanese road tunnels is like being punched in the face and then shouted at.

Days 21 & 22: Akashi to Fukuyama via __ , 48.8 & 75.1 miles

Interesting juxtaposition of image and text.

I've pooled two days together as there's not much going on along this stretch of Honshu's Southern coast. I've changed my planned route slightly as I want to cycle the 6 bridges that span the islands between Honshu and Shikoku rather than catch the ferry. It was one of the things that got me interested in cycling across Japan so it's worth putting in the extra miles.

The weather on Day 21 was appalling, torrential rain all day and visibility was getting really bad so I stopped at 3pm and found a hotel in a town I still can't work out the name of so I shall call it __ .

Another nuclear power station about 10 miles East of __ .

Fishing village along the coast of The Inland Sea

The weather on day 22 was much better. sunshine all day. The landscape is changing; the further West I get the more islands there are. This is making navigation quite difficult as there's a lot of toll road bridges (2 lanes of fast traffic, no bicycles allowed) so I have had to make quite a few detours.

Islands in The Inland Sea


600 metre long bridge for cyclists East of Okayama.