Last year's bike trip to Japan was so much fun I decided to do it again this year. This year's destination was the Southern most island of Kyushu. Here's a map of the route I rode. Well, there's a couple of sections where I took a train. Who can pass up an opportunity to ride the Shinkansen bullet train, the fastest train in the world? More about that later.
I think I ended up riding in the neighborhood of 450 or so miles.
Just like last year I boxed up the bike in a cardboard box and hopped on a flight to Fukuoka the largest city in Kyushu. Population is about 1.5 million. Twice the population of SF. Before I purchased the ticket I checked the average temps for September. Usually temps are around 80. Considerably warmer than last year's trip to Hokkaido but the prospect of a sort of tropical trip seemed appealing. I figured if things got hot I could just hit the beach to cool off. Little did I know that Japan would have a heat wave the ten days that I was there and temps would be more like 97. What can you do?
Landed in Fukuoka early in the afternoon. I booked a hotel a few blocks from the airport. Turned out the hotel was a few blocks from the domestic terminal. To get to the domestic terminal I would need to take a shuttle bus. The line was long and people were packed on the bus. Did I mention it was hot? My chances of getting a large cardboard box on the shuttle bus did not look good. I decided to go ahead and put the bike together and somehow ride to the hotel with a massive bike box.
Putting the bike together at the airport
Somehow over the course of an hour I did a combination of riding and pushing with the box on top of the bike and made it to the hotel. Once I got there I then partially disassembled the bike and put it in the bike bag. This trip every time I stayed in a hotel I would just put the bike in the bag like luggage. This reduced a lot of stress for the hotel desk clerks. By the end of the trip I got pretty fast at doing it. About 20 mins or so. Every time it requires removing the handle bars, seat, front wheel and all of the bike bags.
DAY 1 FUKUOKA to SAGA 65 kilometers
Had a good nights sleep woke up around 5;30 and hit the free Japanese style breakfast at 6. By the time I hit the road around 8 it was already getting warm. For most of the trip it never dropped below 80 at night. Started riding towards the mountains to the West of town. Fukuoka is a pretty large city. I planned on spending a couple of days there at the end of the trip. There are quite a few canals that run through the city.
Fukuoka in the morning
It took about 45 minutes or so to get out of the city and start the climb up the mountain. After a 1/2 hour of so I saw this thing on the side of the road.
This trip did not disappoint in the department of wacky roadside stuff and strangely 400 something miles later I would encounter another identical statue of liberty.
Got to the top of the mountain and somehow missed the turn that would keep me on the highway across the top of the range. By the time I realized I missed the turn I had already descended back into flat land. Oops. After consulting the map I decided to do another hill climb and check out a waterfall. It was past 10 a.m. and it was warming up. Usually by this time of day the temp would already be about 90. By noon it would be about 98 and would stay like that until 4 or so. According to the forecast with the humidity thrown in it would feel like 108.
I think people in Kyushu are accustomed to warm weather but this was definitely a heat wave and most folks were staying indoors during the peak hours. Between the hours of 12-4 I would get some strange looks especially if I was hill climbing. Here's a funny thing that happened on the way to the waterfall. I was riding of a bike path on the side of the road. Totally off of the road. There were three cars going down the mountain in the opposite direction. All three of the drivers were rubbernecking getting a good look at the crazy Gaijin (foreigner) riding up a mountain in a heat wave. The first driver braked hard and the other two cars rear ended the first car and each other. I did not stop.
The waterfall was on a side road which required a lot of steep climbing for a couple of miles but at least it was in the shade. About half way there I jumped in a creek on the side of the road. Eventually I made it to the waterfall.
View looking back down the mountain
There were quite a few people at the waterfall. I guess it is a place to beat the heat. Kind of like Whitney Portal. Just like Whitney Portal there were people fishing in the pools below the falls. There was a little concession stand where you could buy grilled salted trout on a stick. I got one and it was tasty!
There was also an option to rent a fishing pole catch your own fish and the guy at the grill would cook it up for you. Very cool thing to do with little kids
And for the people looking for food options to cool down there were somen noodles that travel down water in bamboo chutes. Each family stands around a the chute and helps themselves to the river of noodles. Then you dip them in cold broth. I wanted to try it but a little weird to do by yourself.
After finishing my fish and chilling in the waterfall mist it was time to hit the road. The rest of the climb up the mountain was hot but still nice. The road narrowed down and there was little traffic. Seems like most people going up the mountain only go as far as the waterfall. After about an hour of riding I reached the summit and started to descend towards the next major city Saga. I eventually arrived at a reservoir. Turned out that weekend was the Saga games which is kind of like Olympic style competitions for Japan. The rowing event was being held at the reservoir. It was now about 3 o'clock so I would need to make a decision about lodging soon. Judging from the amount of people attending the rowing event trying to find a hotel in Saga with the games going on might not be a good prospect. I decided to head towards another reservoir that had a campground about 20 miles away. This required another mountain pass and it was hot. It was so hot that this frog even wanted cold drinks.
This vending machine was in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. I was hanging out with the frog when this old guy rode up on one of those scamp things that old folks ride in the super market. I tried to make small talk with him in my limited Japanese but he told me he can't hear and that he was 98 years old. He also only had 3 teeth so it was a brief conversation but we both agreed it was freakin' hot or so they say in Japanese totemo atsui!
Made it to the campground and set up camp. The campground was part of a park below a dam. There was a couple of guys swimming in the pools below the flood gates. There was a sign that said if you heard an alarm or there was a rain storm to get out of the river. The alarm went off a couple of times but the dudes swimming were not phased. Strange. I went for a swim and rinsed out my bike shorts and jersey.
All of the water spigots for the park had the tap handles removed. As if the park was closed for the season. Luckily there was a shrine in the parking lot with a natural spring. A gallon of water was 40yen. There were quite a few locals showing up filling multiple gallons. Must be where they get their drinking water. I had neglected to stock up on food so all I had was a box of chocolate covered almonds. I ate them while I watched the sun set and then went to bed.
Swimming Hole
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