Written by Nancy Aoshima to Kanoya –  (107k, 960m) After our relaxing day wandering around Aoshima and a fun dinner we came back to our hostel to find that there were another8 people staying in our building.  Normally that wouldn’t be an issue, but there is only one toilet in the building and that doesn’t … Continue reading Downwind riding, Day 21 – October 11

Written by Dave Aoshima rest day We’ve had a relaxing day here in Aoshima. We were still up early as it’s hard to break a habit and tomorrow we have an early start so no sense in over doing it today, right Nancy? This is how fast we moved today Our first stop was the … Continue reading Aoshima rest day, Day 20 – October 10

Written by Dave Hyuga to Aoshima –  (84k, 437m) Our Hyuga business hotel turned out just fine. It was quiet overnight, dinner last night was acceptable and Japanese brekkie this morning was more than adequate. Nancy almost went for the western set menu but then reverted back to the Japanese set menu. I was always … Continue reading Drying out in Aoshima, Day 19 – October 9

Written by Dave Hinokage to Hyuga –  (50k, 480m) Day 18 and boy what a day we had. Rain has been forecast for all of Kyushu for today for more than a week. I generally ignore the 7th day of a 7 day forecast because it so often changes. Well, 7 days ago they called … Continue reading Wet, wet, wet, Day 18 – October 8

Written by Dave Takamori (Kyukamura Autocamp) to Hinokage –  (58k, 726m) Our night glamping was a bust. We tried using our double sleeping bag over the provided deluxe air mattresses. There were two fundamental flaws with this strategy. First, they were inflated to different levels, meaning an uneven bed. Second, our sleeping bag put us … Continue reading Not lost in the gorge, Day 17 – October 7

Written by Dave Tenku-no-mori to Kyukamura Autocamp – Mt Aso (61k, 1,1310m) Our first night camping on this trip went well. We were in bed at 7PM, partly because of the darkness and partly because of being tired from yesterday’s ride. The camp site was ok. We paid for a powered site but we don’t … Continue reading Mt Aso, Day 16 – October 6

Written by Dave Beppu to Tenku-no-mori – Climbing towards Mt Aso (38k, 1,200m) We’ve made it half way to Mt Aso and boy there was some steep stuff today. Nancy studied, maybe over studied, the route but no matter which Komoot option she picked, they all showed kilometres 2 to 5 being very steep. And … Continue reading Climbing towards Mt Aso, Day 15 – October 5

Written by Dave Yawatahama to Beppu – Kyushu Island (5k, 10m) I’m almost embarrassed to write the mileage total for today. I mean 5k (3 miles) is barely worth getting out of bed for. But that’s the way it works on days when you are mostly taking a ferry and you have to get to/from … Continue reading Kyushu Island, Day 14 – October 4

Written by Dave Matsuyama to Yawatahama – Southern Shikoku (69k, 690m) Brekkie was big for us today. We’ve been here nearly two weeks and had quite a few Japanese brekkies. Today, the Dorny hotel buffet was mostly Japanese food that you had to pick out and arrange for yourself. We’ve been training hard so as … Continue reading Southern Shikoku, Day 13 – October 3

Written by Dave Hiroshima to Matsuyama – Back to Shikoku (16k, 70m) Our island hopping continues. Today we ferried back to Shikoku Island and to the port city of Matsuyama. Matsuyama has a population of about half a million people and we were thinking that stopping here might be a bit boring - well we … Continue reading Back to Shikoku, Day 12 – October 2