The Ramen Run in Kyushu: The End

To review our trip :

The bikes worked well and lightweight touring is easier.  No tents to erect and take down nor our heavy duty bikes to lug around.  

Credit card touring is of course more expensive but that hot bath or hot shower is worth the cost.

The Japanese are massive cyclists but mainly to and from work or school.  It's organised with secure bike parking at stations, offices, etc.  We left our bikes outside buildings.  In the UK or Italy, they would have gone in seconds.  Not so in Japan.  Cyclists can ride with care on pavements and most main roads have segregated bike lanes.

The island of Kyushu has an amazing coastline.  All the small ports were busy with fishing, seaweed collection and market gardening.  Very few young people around.  They must have left for the cities.  The old folk seem to work forever; ladies bent double from their work.  The next generation will have found machines and robots to work the fields.  

Southern Kyushu has an early spring.  We were not too cold with the right cycling gear.

It would have been better with a tougher puncture proof set of tyres.  We may consider moving up to 700 x 28C

There is no need to carry much clothing as there are laundry facilities in most hotels or nearby.  Fast and cheap.

Prices of hotels were not cheap but of a high standard.

Food was excellent, fresh and well-presented.

The Japanese are great hosts - polite and considerate.  We fell into their way of lowering our voice, bowing to everyone and smiling.

Japan works.  Discipline and dedication are the key qualities of their society.

All in all, it has been a great trip.  Thank you, Kyushu!

The Ramen Run in Kyushu: In Search of Kabuki

28 February 2017 (44 km)

Cycling is additive.  We decided we still needed to cycle some more!!  Irene researched the town of Yamaga at the end of a 34-km cycle track from Kumamoto (the Yuka Family Road).  Yamaga is famous for its kabuki theatre (the first to be built in Kyushu in 1910) which has undergone extensive renovation.  

It was our last day and since we had to set aside time to pack up the bikes, we decided to take the train to Ueki station.  There we found the path, a disused rail trail with a good tarmac surface.  The ride was fine, winding though bamboo groves, rice fields and garden allotments.  Unburdened by baggage, the bikes just flew.

Arriving at Yamaga, we found the Yachiyoza theatre and were in time for a guided visit as well as a short performance of traditional Japanese dance.  The theatre is magnificent and adorned with decorative advertisements from sponsors of that period.  Many famous Kabuki actors, including the present day celebrated onnagata Bandō Tamasaburō V have performed there.

That evening, we re-visited the local restaurant, Utanoki, from last night.  Found our favourite 9-year-old Amakusa shochu and had the best squid ink spaghetti ever.  The chef came out from the kitchen to accept our thanks.

 The Yachiyoza theatre was built by local residents in 1910

Odori, a form of Japanese traditional dance from the Kabuki, was created in the Edo period

The Yuka Cycling Road connecting Kumamoto and Yamaga is about 34km long.
This was previously the rail  track for the Yamaga Onsen train.

The Ramen Run in Kyushu: Day out in the Shimabara Peninsula

27 February 2017

We hired a car to explore the hilly Shimabara peninsula.  The fast ferry crossing took 30 minutes.  

First, we drove through Shimabara city centre and its castle.  Visited the well-preserved samurai street.  Three of the bukeyashiki (samurai houses) are open to the public, and the rest are inhabited.  Between the houses ran a pretty gravel road with a stream down the middle.

The drive in the Unzen-Amakusa National Park took us through woods amidst volcanic landscape.  A whiff of sulphur emanating from mineral hot spring fields greeted our arrival in the village of Unzen.  We visited the bubbling jigoku ('Hell') where hot water and gases spout out of the earth.  During the Edo period when Christians were persecuted, these hells were used to execute Christian rebels after the failed Shimbara rebellion.

After a quick foot-bath and and some delicious speciality local biscuits, we headed back to Kumamoto.

It was a pleasant break in glorious weather.

Feeding the gulls on the ferry 

Shimabara Samurai Street

Unzen Hell

The Ramen Run in Kyushu: Back to Kumamoto via Misumi

26 February 2017 (50 km) 

Today was to be the last day of cycling. Target was to cross the islands and get to Misumi for the train into Kumamoto.  The first part along the coast was quick, but the traffic was building.  Then the exit to the toll road and we lost them all. The cars rejoined later and we kept off the road as much as possible.

We popped into the small coffee house and met the couple who were so kind on our first day.  Good coffee and a slice of cheesecake helped us fly across the last bridge.

The station manager did not seem too fussed about the bikes which we had just dropped our bags across without removing the wheels.  We sat next to the driver and a little girl (probably 5/6 on her own taking the train). 

Checked back into our hotel and they had already put our left luggage in our room.  Now thinking how we shall fill the next two days.

Similar huts are scattered around the islands.  They dispense rice.

Lovely couple from coffee shop on Oyano Island.  They roast their own coffee.

The Ramen Run in Kyushu: Izumi to Hondo

25 February 2017 (62 km)

It was a day of island-hopping.  The first section to Kuranoseto Bridge was very busy.  After that, it went smoothly, less hilly than expected.

We arrived at the ferry point well in advance and had hoped that there would be a place for some lunch or a snack. "Nushing", said the chap selling tickets, so we had to content ourselves with the vending machine.  One thing about Japan is that you are never too far from a Lawson, Family Mart, or 7-11.  All of them are spotlessly clean with a good selection of bits and pieces.  They also have bathrooms.  When these are not around, there is always a drinks vending machine with a vast selection of hot and cold canned drinks.

 Ferry ride was short but a delightful crossing of the Indigo bay which has fish farming and more than 120 islands.  The villages are small and cling to the coastline, a very isolated existence.

The ride to Hondo was short and fast.  We made use of the onsen and went out in search of early dinner (we had no lunch).  Found a young sushi chef and his mother who opened up for us - first class nigiri sushi made on the spot  by him and served on the lacquer counter.  Perfection!

This is our last night on the cycling part of the tour. Tomorrow we retrace our tracks to Misumi for catch the train back to Kumamoto.

Satsumas are everywhere 

Shimenawa are lengths of rice straw or hemp rope, frequently encountered strung across torii, Shinto gateways and are used to demarcate the boundary between the sacred and the profane.

The islanders of Nagashima have developed a unique art of making giant statues out of straw, cans or styrofoam.

Fish farming and drying of seaweed

Fisherman's trousers, Japanese style, worn with split toe shoes

Interesting juxtaposition and colours in the ferry

The Ramen Run in Kyushu: Kagoshima to Izumi

25 February 2017

We had few hours to spare and decided to potter around, pavement cycling the waterfront in order to view the volcano which we were able to do with our feet in a public hot spring foot-bath.  Then a visit to the small  but very impressive modern art collection at the city museum.  There were works from Matisse, Picasso, Dufy, Derain, Warhol, Kandinsky and other 20th-century European artists.  There was even old Mrs Bonnard in the bath once again.

Following a light lunch, we made our way to the station.  This was a bit of a trial and stress as to how to load and unload the bikes onto the Shinkansen within the very brief time it was in the station.  We were lucky the train wasn't too full, with no Americans or Chinese with their massive suitcases. Talking of foreigners, we have only seen one non-Asian in our whole trip and that was for a brief second, he was getting into a car.  

We arrived in Izumi and found our hotel within just a few metres of the station. With the train running at over 300km/h, it took less than half an hour, a journey which would have taken us a day on bicycle.

Mt Sakurajima

Having a foot bath while admiring Mt Sakurajima 

Japanese purity

A rare portrait of Mrs Matisse in Villa Le Rêve

Bicycle safely stowed away in the Shinkansen

The Ramen Run in Kyushu: Birthday in Kagoshima

23 February 2017

It was David's birthday and an overcast day. So we decided to take it easy.

We went early to the Fish Market which is second to the one in Tokyo.  Massive tunas and loads of busy men with massive sharp knives.  We took an early breakfast there of sashimi and rice.  It was full of workers coming off shift.

We then took the ferry to the volcanic island of Sakurajima in Kinko Bay.  Cloudy, so no real view of this active volcano.  Maybe better luck tomorrow. 

The rest of the day, we walked around the town and had an early supper.  The speciality, in fact it only sold, unagi - eel which is sweetened and grilled on an open charcoal grill.  Washed down with an excellent sake.  The day was complete!

Now to pack up the gear and prepare for the shinkansen train journey tomorrow.  Bikes must be packed up in a bag.

Birthday breakfast

Tuna and Tako at the Fish Market

Roadsides honesty box on Satsumajima.
The Satsumajima mikan is the smallest mandarin orange. We bought a bag and they were  very sweet.

Unagi for supper