Written by Dave

Mojiko to Ohama – Back to Honshu – (74k, 683M)

Today we crossed back into Honshu, the largest of Japan’s islands and one referred to as the “mainland”most often. We had about 3k to ride from our apartment to reach the entrance of the pedestrian tunnel under the Kanmon Straights. On the way there, we had some nice views of the bridge that for the last time, we are not riding across – bridges and gates make nice photos. Sorry, photo overdose follows.

The Kanmon tunnel was fun. It is quite deep if the lights in the lift taking you from sea-level to the tunnel level are an accurate indication – our ears were popping so there’s something. The tunnel was constructed in 1958 and has car traffic in a separate layer, directly over the pedestrian level – we couldn’t hear anything. There were quite a few folks walking it this morning, I think mostly for exercise. There is a center-line in the path and for some reason signs directed us to the right side, even though Japan drives on the left. There are a lot rules and signs telling you the rules but we didn’t see any cameras. Still, we walked, even though riding slowly would have been more than safe.

Once through the tunnel, we got stuck into today’s ride, basically around the peninsula to the “top”side of this part of the Honshu coast. We had to cross the city of Shimonoseki but traffic was pretty tame. We made it through with minimal fuss using mostly the route Komoot suggested. We eventually found ourselves on Highway 191 which basically rides the edge of the peninsula. We started ignoring Komoot when it suggested we divert off the 191 as traffic was not an issue. We made the mistake of taking Komoot’s advice at one point because it looked like it would have been a nice section of country riding. It was until the road turned to dirt, and then abruptly ended. We had to back track a little, then bushwack across a road (path, really) not our map to get back to the 191 – woops.

As we reached the coast and started making our way out the peninsula, we had two options, one over the peninsula and the other, out to the end and around. We were at sixes on what to do so instead we stopped for an early lunch. It was only 11:00 but we were hungry and needed time to work out the route. Lunch was in a brand new restaurant where I had a stunning salmon sashimi set and Nancy had really good prawn tempura.

Fortified, we agreed to ride to the cut-off point and make a decision. So much for food clearing our thoughts. At the cut-off, we opted for the longer, slightly hillier round the peninsula option. The views of the Sea of Japan were just too nice not to ride that way. Plus, there was a michi-no-eki on that route where we had matcha ice cream so we clearly made the right call.

At the michi-no-eki, today I managed to get a photo of an Eastern Buzzard. We’ve had them as constant companions along the shoreline we’ve ridden here in Japan. We thought they were hawks at first but we looked it up – buzzards. They don’t bother us but sometimes the hover right near you, until you get your camera out that is. It is obvious that there is some issue with them though, as the michi-no-eki was full of warning signs about them.

From our ice cream break we had more coastal riding and about 20k to reach our campsite for the night. It is not wilderness here but there are clearly smaller villages. Our campsite is at a camping ground next to a surf shop, which is closed today, right by a formal state bathing beach. We set-up our tent right by the camp kitchen as it doesn’t appear there are many folks here right now. We spent a while relaxing on the surf shop’s front deck as there doesn’t appear to be anyone there either.

There are showers here, a camp  kitchen, bathrooms and water. And it’s free, except the showers at $1.40 (200 yen) for 3 minutes. The weather is nice but it may get a little cool overnight. Fall is in the air but it does come late here as we are around the latitude of San Diego. Locals say it snows in January – we don’t have any weather threats on that level for the rest of our stay though we may have to deal with a little bit of rain.