From Shikoku to Awaji Island
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The day dawned cloudy, but it turned out to just be a layer of fog at the top of the mountains. We set off in the cool morning light and by the time we reached an overlook the sun was already starting to break through the fog layer and shortly afterwards we enjoyed bright sunshine for the rest of the day.
As we were in the middle of nowhere there was no opportunity for our customary combini breakfast. Ben had grabbed a drink from the hotel vending machine, and I managed to bum a hot coffee from the breakfast room staff, which was enough to get me going.
The plan for today was mostly just mountain roads and scenery, the various stops were primarily to set the route. Nevertheless some of the stops were interesting and/or nice, such as our first stop which was the status of the peeing boy on route 32. Ben said there was a very famous peeing boy statue in Belgium as well. The first waterfall stop also had a vine bridge, which I crossed (for 550yen) and as it had just gone 9 a nearby cafe opened. So we enjoyed a french toast for breakfast sweetened with local honey. The cafe also attracted some local finches (or something) and tourists can feed them with some sunflower seeds, which I did.
After breakfast it was just epic road after epic road. We barely got any traffic all day and mostly followed the 439/492. One interesting place we stopped off at was the “scarecrow village” – a village with many scarecrows. A local lady started off making one in the likeness of her dad and then made more and more to make the village look more lived-in again. Later the village gained renown after a traveller posted an article about it and it went viral. Sadly many regional areas of Japan are suffering from depopulation as younger people move into the cities, leaving the older people behind.
The last spot I had picked out on the 439 was just a “scenic spot” but turned out to be a small shrine to a mountain pass god. As we were still pretty remote and it was getting on towards lunchtime I found a place on our route and, fingers crossed, it would be open unlike yesterday.. it also had some pretty good menu items listed, I was pretty keen on the grilled local fish.
When we got to the restaurant it was actually open, hurray! But it turned out that most of the listed menu items were from quite a few years ago. These days there was some takeaway sushi and soba or udon bowls with wild mountain vegetables, which is what we ended up having. Nevertheless it was pretty good and the lady running the place is lovely. All the other diners seemed to be locals and helped clear a table for us and offered us water.
Shortly after lunch we parted ways – I wanted to ride the 16, and Ben wanted to head to our accommodation on more main roads. I’m glad I chose the 16 – just for a change it was an epic road with no closures or dirt. Right at the start there were some nice waterfalls right next to the road and great views over the surrounding valleys. It eventually came out in Katsuura where I stopped at a little roadside station for an icecream. From here on the road was larger and smoother and I could go at a good pace, eventually getting onto the expressway to get through the urban conglomeration at the east end of the island and to get over the bridge to the next island. From the bridge I could see the whirlpools in the waters underneath, which are a local attraction. There must be some pretty strong currents between the islands.
I took the first exit from the highway and then hugged the coast to Sumoto, which was another absolutely amazing road. I had practically no traffic and made great time to the Sumoto castle ruins, where I stopped for a quick look-see. It must have been a pretty big castle in its day but these days only the massive foundations are left, although there is a replica castle tower built on the highest point. There are some great views from the top over Sumoto and the surrounding seas.
From Sumoto it was just a run to the accommodation, but still pretty nice crossing the island through some suburbs and farmlands. People were burning off brush or grass and there was a haze of smoke everywhere. On the other side of the island the sun was just setting as I reached the accommodation. Ben arrived only a few minutes later, we checked in, then went to the beach for a burger dinner out in the open.
What an amazing day!!
Drive: X km
Stay: Sakia Stay, basically an overpriced hostel, but with clean and modern individual rooms. No undercover parking for the bikes, just a big gravel parking lot.
Amazing to recognize some of the more remote spots in Shikoku that I’ve been to! My brother taught with JET in the middle of Shikoku many years ago, and I had the chance to visit him there. That pee-boy is so ridiculous – the original one is silly enough, but the fact that someone stuck a copy of it on a mountain in Japan is just wonderful!!
Cool, thanks for your comment and anecdote! It’s wild what kind of stuff resonates with people – and that pee-boy statue caused raised eyebrows by my riding buddy as well as he’s from Belgium. I hadn’t really heard of the original before.