Micha's Blog

Nikko to Yamagata

Weather: sunny then cloudy, 10C in the morning, reaching 29C during the day.
Distance: 474km

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Today was a day of many closed roads, and a lot of backtracking. But I also enjoyed some really nice scenery and even a bit of culture.

Woke up at 5 and was ready to go by 5:30! So I took the short detour to tag a BMW Mileage Rally spot which turned out to be a beautiful little lake and cascade waterfall just a bit up from Lake Chuzenji.

Then it was time to head along my planned route for the day. Unfortunately it was still too early for the Lake Chuzenji lookout, so I skipped that. At the bottom of the range I stopped at a konbini for a chocolate croissant and a cup of coffee.

Instead of tagging a new road I decided to enjoy the 169 again over the highlands, and to my first stop, the Ōzasa Farm which was, unfortunately, still closed. This was my planned breakfast stop, so just as well I had a little something a bit earlier.

Heading further up the 169 and the super pretty, albeit slow, 249, I hooked up to the 390, which I had tried to do before but it was closed. It was still closed today, but I tried to take the rindo instead and managed to get most of the way along it, despite a long section of muddy gravel, before I got stopped by a small landslide. With a smaller and lighter bike I might have tried to manhandle it over, but no chance with the Bumblebee.. so I had to backtrack all the way and take a huge detour.. which also meant having to skip a couple of waypoints.

Eventually I made it to Maezawa village which is famous for its “L-Shaped Farmhouses”. The village is still being actively lived in, but it’s slowly dying out as so many of the small remote farm villages in Japan are due to lack of young people interested in taking over. One of the farm houses has been converted into a small museum, showcasing how it might have looked like in its heyday. I tried chatting to the proprietess, but it’s a bit difficult with my limited japanese. I had a lovely soba lunch and then headed on my way..

My next stop was Tadami Dam, not that much further up the road, where I had an ice-cream sprinkled with flower dust while taking in the view. From the top dam you can get a fantastic view over the valley onto the lower dam, which has a small information centrer although it seems to be mostly aimed at kids with some interactive displays.

From there it was a farily long-haul to my next stop, which I didn’t reach until shortly before dark due to more closed roads, a fuel-stop, a lengthy stop at a hardware store to get some tools to adjust my new phone holder, and some slow traffic. The stop was supposed to be the Lake Shirakawa Submerged Forest, but I couldn’t really see it. The info center for it was already closed, and it was a bit too dark to make anything out. It actually almost looked as if it has been replaced with a camp ground. Certainly didn’t look anything like the pictures on Google Maps – but maybe I just need to try to go there again in daylight!

By now it was more or less dark, so there was nothing much to see until I got to my accommodation, which I reached just after 7pm. Very glad this bike has decent spotlights! I did sneak in a final stop at the Somiya Shrine in Nagai, which is a famous stop with bikers. But unfortunately most of it was all closed up and dark.

My stay for the night is the Daichi Farm and the hostess made me very welcome. I ended up chatting with the family while I had my dinner (a roll and a beer from a konbini) before having a quick shower and ready for bed! Fingers crossed the weather will hold tomorrow – a typhoon is supposed to be rolling in..

Dorogawa to Kameyama

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• Weather: Wet, then rainy, clearing by late afternoon
• Ride: 331km; nice windy roads down to Nachi, then an incredibly boring highway to Kameyama
• Stay: Tabist Kameyama Daiichi Hotel; just a business hotel with no undercover parking for bikes.

Woke up relatively early and moved back into my allotted room. Our original bedroom was very bright due to a hallway light, and Ben had already relocated into our sitting room, so I had snuck myself and my futon into the unused room next door, where I had a great night’s sleep. I did a bit of blogging and then a quick onsen before breakfast. We had decided to leave a bit later today to allow the rains to clear.

We set off around 8:30 and enjoyed some nice, albeit wet, roads. About an hour away from Nachi we parted ways as I decided I wanted to explore a more windy road while Ben preferred to stay on the main roads in the wet. Again, his decision was the correct one as the road I chose, while initially fantastic, soon turned into quite a challenge, being very narrow with lots of debris on it. It wasn’t quite one of the abandoned roads I’ve explored previously, but it was well on its way to becoming one. Still, there were some amazing views, amongst them a nice waterfall in a river bend with some rice fields in the foreground, an abandoned village with rice terraces now overgrown by trees, and some awesome views into the surrounding valleys.

In the middle the road suddenly became better and I encountered a group of work trucks and some people repairing a power line. I have no idea how the trucks got there because the road soon turned pretty bad again, and I’m sure all approaches were not suitable for truck traffic. I guess they must have managed somehow.. Nearly at Nachi I crested one last rise and unexpectedly found a lookout, shrouded in mist, where a couple of British tourists had hiked their way to. Poor buggers – they found the same conditions that they had left behind, cold and rain..

I ended up arriving nearly an hour after Ben at Nachi due to the much worse than expected roads and we quickly went up to see the waterfall. It is the highest free-falling waterfall in Japan, at 133m drop. It is also considered to enshrine the local deity. All up very impressive. We spent some time just admiring the sheer spectacle.

After a quick lunch we jumped back on our bikes for the stretch up to Kameyama, which we did mostly via expressways and highways. For what it’s worth, the E42 is dreadful – don’t get me wrong, it’s a good quality road, but about 80% is tunnels and dual-way with little to no overtaking opportunities, so rather unsuited for motorbike touring. Still, it’s a way to get from A to B relatively quickly by Japan standards.

Notwithstanding a minor routing mishap, we arrived at our accommodation in good time, checked in, and then had a conveyor-sushi dinner.

Time for bed.. Ben and I will split ways tomorrow as he wants to get up very early and highway it home as quickly as possible, whereas I will take the more scenic option at least until Mt Fuji.

From Awaji to Dorogawa

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• Weather: Started overcast, then rainy, but warm-ish
• Ride: an hour or so of highway to get past Kobe, then nice windy forest roads.
• Stay: Hot Spring Hotel Marubun; very nice! Owner let us park bikes in a shed next door.

Set the alarm for 5am, but didn’t really get going till nearly 6:30. Quickly went across the road from the accommodation to check out the local shrine while sipping a coffee. It wasn’t too far down the road until we got onto the highway, which was mostly clear except for a small section through Kobe which had heavy traffic. Some interesting views of industrial facilities, harbours, and a couple of big bridges.

Once off the highway we stopped at a conbini for breakfast and a second coffee and then fueled up ready for the twisties. The roads were still dry so we could enjoy the first stretches of roads with our first stop being a shrine and waterfall. The complex was a lot larger and varied than expected and we spent a bit of time wandering about. The top waterfall had a couple of chains dangling in it, presumably for monks to climb up into the waterfall for mediation.

The next stop was a lookout tower, but prior to reaching it there was another one which we quickly stopped off at for a picture, but then turned into a coffee-stop was well. I had thought the top was just a lookout, but it was a tiny restaurant and the people in it were very friendly and chatty, offered to let me take some pictures and gave me some local wild cherries. So I ordered a coffee and sat down for a few minutes. One of the ladies in the restaurant rides a 125cc super-cub and showed me a picture of her on a local rindo.

We missed the next lookout tower – I was trying to be sneaky and went past the stairs leading up to it hoping that there would be another path to it further up the road. But the next path off the road just lead to another shrine. This one to a rain god, so I asked him not to bless us too much today!

Then it was just more stunning roads through beautiful scenery, but unfortunately the rain slowly started to come in, as Ben had predicted. We reached a town called Koya by lunchtime, where Ben had picked out a restaurant, and it turned out to be the seat of a particular sect of buddism, so there were tons of shrines and temples and impressive gate houses all over town. After lunch (katsu-don for me) we walked around a bit checking out the various sights.

By the time we finished it was a lot later than we thought and the rain had really started to settled in, no very heavy yet, but enough to make us abandon our plans for an extended loop of roads, so we headed straight to the accommodation in a place called Dorogawa.

The accommodation, the Hot Spring Hotel Marubun, is a really nice onsen hotel and the proprietor let us park our bikes undercover in a nearby shed/garage. After checking in we had a cup of tea in our rooms and now I’m heading off to sight-see a local cave.

As the weather was a bit meh I took an umbrella and headed out in my trusty Birkenstock’s to where Google Maps said the cave was. Ben reckoned it was a 10 minute walk or so. I took my time, checking out some local shrines, and then I got to the cave. Or rather, the bottom of the mountain! As Google had already predicted, the little monorail leading up to the cave was already closed for the day, so up up up I went, climbing the many stairs up the side of the mountain.

I finally reached the top, slightly out of breath, not really believing the cave would still be open, but it was. There were no more guided tours for the day, but, despite looking a bit askance at my choice of footwear, they let me buy a ticket and go into the cave.

It was a fairly standard japanese limestone cave. On the small side, with some stalactites and stalacmites, all lit up with differently coloured lights. Due to the constant lighting and damp conditions it’s quite overgrown with mosses, which is a shame. As I got out I chatted to a girl who had also been in the cave. We ended up going into the cafeteria to get out of the storm and tried the local cider, which was very nice. She was waiting for a couple of her friends who were, presumably, making their way up the mountain in what was rapidly becoming a full-on storm.

I eventually excused myself and headed back down the mountain, declining the very nice offer of the cave staff to give me a ride down in the monorail. I made it back down quite a bit quicker than up, did a bit more sight-seeing around town, and headed back to our accommodation for a well-deserved onsen and dinner. After dinner we took another short stroll around town to check it out lit up with traditional lanterns.

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.

Hiroshima – Shikoku

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The day dawned gorgeous and sunny. Somewhat slow getting going and getting out of Hiroshima to the breakfast-conbini was an excercise in frustration. However, we soon met up and got onto the highway to get to Shikoku Island. The highway was, apart from a brief section, relatively free of traffic and we could mostly do 100kmh. Eventually we peeled off onto the E76, the Shimanami Expressway connecting 5 of the Geiyo Islands just east of Hiroshima. Despite being a highway it was very scenic, and we stopped off at a viewpoint of one of the bridges to stretch our legs and take some pictures.

Eventually we reached Shikoku and stopped at a conbini, where, as well as having another coffee, we chatted with a german girl called Laura who was doing the second half of a pilgrimage walk around Shikoku. Crazy! But in an awesome way. She’s mostly camping, including staying at shrines, which I didn’t even know was a thing.

After the coffee break we headed off up the 494, also called the Ishizuchi Skyline, which is an epic ride circling the southern half of the tallest mountain on Shikoku. It starts of two-laned with great tarmac and fantastic sweeping bends but then narrows and climbs steeply up to its highest altitude of 985m through mostly pine forests, on the way giving some great views onto the surrounding valleys.

Route 439 followed, again, absolutely stunning roads and we were very lucky to have almost no traffic. It was a bit sad to see that most of the area seems to be in a bit of a decline, with many villages looking semi-abandoned. In fact, our lunchtime stop was closed and there was nothing around for nearly an hour in every direction. We did eventually find a little cafe/restaurant in a small village called Ikegawa and had a great Nanban chicken lunch. I spoiled myself and had a custard-cream puff and a coffee for dessert.

Of course now that we’d had lunch there were quite a few places on the continuing route. After Ikegawa the roads generally were wider and also a little bit busier. Our next stop was a Nikobuchi, a very deep rock pool fed by a waterfall. Very stunning. I was very tempted to go for a swim, but firstly we did not have that much time and secondly it’s not allowed as the pool is considered sacred.

This was pretty much our last planned stop for the day, now it was just a stretch to our accommodation in Oboke Gorge. Enroute we passed a large reservoir and when I spotted a small suspension bridge over it I parted ways with Ben, did a quick U-turn, and went back for a couple of pictures. I then tried to catch up again, but after doing some mental arithmetic, I gave up, figuring the 10 minutes spent at the bridge during which time Ben was doing 50-60kmh would have given him too much of a lead. So I continued on, stopping for petrol, and eventually got to our hotel, the Sunriver Oboke onsen hotel. Again, the roads and scenery leading up to it were just breathtaking. This area must get even more picturesque during autumn!

While checking in I asked if my friend had already arrived, and just as I did I got a message from him – he was still 40 minutes or so away and was just taking a breather. So I hopped into the onsen to wait for him before dinner. By the time I finished with onsen Ben had arrived, so we went down to have dinner at the hotel restaurant. While the hotel is very nice, the restaurant was offering up fairly standard meals at surprisingly affordable prices. I ended up having a tonkatsu set meal which wasn’t anything special but something I always enjoy.

Now it’s time for second onsen, and bed. Oyasumi!

Drive: X km

Stay: Sunriver Oboke onsen hotel; no undercover parking for the bikes, but set very nicely in Oboke gorge next to the river and a railway bridge. Very picturesque view from the window, and a nice onsen and sauna.