Japan: Kyushu - May 10-17, 2009 - solo

[colin]

Colin, great pictures of my favorite country other than the USA! Wish I could have been there again with you. Curious what software for mapping and for your GPS maps are you using? Appreciate your info, want to prepare for my next visit there. thanks

I use Garmin/Mapsource. On the zumo and when using mapsource for planning, I use the Japanese maps that came with the zumo I got in Japan.

For making the pics to post up, I switch to I think one of the free Japan maps. Maybe one of the ones I paid for, forget which is which. Helps readibility! I'll try to find the source and let you know.

 

[colin]

So the super-skinny roads w/o markings, like the bridge and the straight road through the forest... are those one-way? Or are they not as skinny as they seem to be?

It's basically all 2-way. Very little is one way.... Obviously only one at a time on the bridge tho. The rest of the roads get interesting when a big truck or bus wants to come through.

 

[colin]

That night I struggled to find a campsite at the bottom of the peninsula. There was also nothing open, no convenience stores or anything.

Came back up a bit to go to a site that was closed, but that I stayed at last year. It was super dark, very foggy, bugs everywhere. Not so fun. Starving. oh well.

morning:

Was starving, so had a double breakfast at one of my favorite family restaurants, Joyfull.

spent time planning out this awesome route....

 

[colin]

Heading up the coast was OK....standard crowded roads, fairly straight. Moderately scenic.

Coming on to Sakurajima (桜島) was pretty cool.

This apparently used to be an island, until it erupted and lava flow connected it to the peninsula. It smokes and ashes consistently now, one of the bigger (biggest?) active volcanos in Japan. In 1914, it erupted and killed a lot of people and caused a lot of damage. Many cameras are facing the peak now.

At the new visitor center, my bike left an imprint just parked there for 15 minutes.... !

 

[colin]

Did a lap around the mountain.

Here's a sign to read a bit more about the 1914 eruption....

Here is the gate that was buried. There should be about 2 meters below this part.... !

Still smokin'....

You can see the tracks that lava carves on the mountain....

Nearer the coast, the landscape all looks like this.

 

[colin]

Took the 15 minute ferry over to Kagoshima (鹿児島).

Then headed for the west coast to take the 226 all the way around. Great road, would recommend it.

I still get a kick out of these wave breaker things. They are huge....

 

[colin]

Thought this was pretty cool. Been a while since I've seen the movie, don't really recognize much. Maybe that small island/mountain thing?

 

[colin]

Figured I'd keep with the volcano theme and stay at the campsite on that volcano - Kaimondake (開門岳)

Almost totally empty there.... great campsite, nice facilities. However, I chose to find a nice onsen instead of use the halfway-decent showers there.

Off to the onsen now....

 

[colin]

Went to a famous onsen in the town of Ibusuki (指宿). They are famous for having a "sand bath" in the volcanic sand on the beach. The famous one near the station is called Tennen Sunamushi Kaikan (天然砂蒸し会館). You wear a Yukata and wander out in sandals to the beach. Then you lay down and get shoveled on.... pretty interesting experience. Sand is heavy, you can feel your heartbeat through your whole body as the sand shifts with each beat. Bizarre. And warm, get quite a sweat going in the 10-15 minutes you spend there. Afterwards, you rinse off the sand and then you can do the traditional onsen bath & shower.

 

[colin]

Looked for food around the onsen. Not a lot. Went into this one place which I was hoping was sushi, but was not. Didn't recognize anything on the menu (all in Japanese, of course). hmm. not sushi.

Got some tasty pan fried pork. Pretty yummy. Service ma-ma. I ordered a salad as well cuz I wanted some greens, wasn't told that it already came with a bunch. Oh well.

Coming back to the campsite, I'm greeted by this little monster outside my tent. yay. Centipede. not a small one. Glad my tent was all zipped up and my boots and everything in my closed up bag.

 

[colin]

Woke up in the a.m. to head towards the northwestern islands.

Not much to do, so up and out by 7:45a.m.

Did a loop around the volcano to get warmed up. Was a nice ride. Got strange at the end though where it is just one massive tunnel. Little skylights above had tree roots growing through and everything. Pretty creepy.

Just outside the tunnel, looked like this on the beach.

 

[colin]

Went back to Ibusuki to get some pics of the sand bath.

These folks on the way there....

Came back by this lake, Lake Ikeda. It is a very large crater lake, and apparently grows massive eels. I'm pretty sure I remember it being signposted as Lake Unagi coming from the west.... pretty sure.... (unagi means eel)

 

[colin]

Route for the day, go north. Plan was to get up into the Amakusa area.

 

[colin]

On the way up, I saw signs for the Chiran Peace Museum. Checked the guidebook.... This is a museum, similar in nature to the Hiroshima Peace park, dedicated to the Kamikaze pilots, who took off from Chiran during the end of WWII. It was actually well worth the detour, very interesting stuff to see. Neat to see the nationalistic side of things, from the other side, so to speak.

You couldn't take pics inside the museum, but their home page has a couple of pics. Several planes are there, a couple recovered ones. The whole place is lined with photographs of the pilots. Many other pics of pilots having their last meal, last drink of shochu, etc. before taking off. There was also a computer display gizmo which allowed you to read (in english and japanese) the last wills and notes from various pilots before they took off. Kinda messed up....moving place. Recommended.

Peace Museum site

Japanese site (more pics)

Outside they had a couple other planes and a shrine.

 

[colin]

The Ibusuki Skyline (指宿スカイライン) was a nice road. Similar to Izu Skyline I thought. Big sweepers, good road. Chiran was a detour off of it.

The end of the skyline going north is Kagoshima, road turns into a toll road. Took that to get around the city, and then off on 3 to connect to the recommended 328.

Starving, I found this sushi place further north.

Bridge across on 389, then ferried over from Nagashima (長島) to Amakusa (天草). 30 mins or so, ~1500JPY

First time I'd seen the blocks to hold the bike on the side....

 

[Jagermeister]

Awesome report & pictures!

 

[colin]

More great coastal roads as I went up the west coast of Amakusa. The road going around the west is the 389, aka the Sunset Line (サンセットライン)

What's funny about this picture??

Yup, Catholic church, in the middle of nowhere, Japan.

This area was where there was a big catholic settlement back in the day. This area was around where the Shimabara Rebellion occurred (I read this in the guidebook, wikipedia'ed here for your reading pleasure). This church is in Sakitsu (崎津)

 

[colin]

Lots of korean on signs. Fortunately English as well. Saw this and then parked and walked around a bit.

 

[fjrob1300]

Great report Colin!! Makes me want to hop over for a little ride.

 

[colin]

Found a campground (free) at the top of a small peninsula, Tomioka (富岡). Nice views.

Tried to go to the end of the peninsula and get some sunset pics....too bad it was a little too cloudy. oh well.

Tidal pool.

Went to the local onsen. I get the feeling people just use the onsen for showers, they are like a social hangout for locals. Sorta bizarre. Of course, nobody talks to me. Which is fine....

Went to the only thing that was open besides the conbini. Can't complain about hamburger steak!