Cycling in Kyushu, from Kagoshima to Nagasaki (Apr 29-May 7, 2022)
Since the border of Japan is still closed due to COVID-19, we decided to take another touring trip in southern Japan during our Spring holidays. This time we were more aggressive, planned about 500km trip in one week, and carried our tents & sleeping bags, camping most of the time along the way. We even did some stealth camping! Kushu really is a heaven for cycling & camping!
We took a night flight to Kagoshima airport, in order to save some bucks, so our trip actually started from Sushi as dinner at Haneda Airport before the flight. We were supposed to arrive Kagoshima airport at around 8PM, spent an hour assembling the bikes, then ride 17km to the closest camp site by the beach, which we had already made reservation.
This time, both of us went with our “new” used bikes, a Kona Sutra touring bike for my hubby, and a Merida Silex gravel bike for me, so it was quite exciting! He had 35kg including bike & tent, I had 25kg including bike. Thanks to ANA gold membership, we had 40kg allowance each, and free for the bikes (in carrier bags), perfect!
Unfortunately, we had a rough start. Soon after we rode out of the airport, the chain of my bike broke off. My chain has a removable link. This link was deformed, so kept falling off every 500m or so. We had spare links, but forgot to bring the special tool for the link. Since it was a long downhill from airport to town, I ended up simply took off the chain, and rode without chain! Actually, for downhill you only need a workable brake but not chain!
(As it turned out, we took off the Derailleur in order to fit into the carrier bag, but did not take off the chain, so the chain was twisted & the link was deformed.)
When the downhill ended, we were still a good 10km from the camp site, and it was already midnight. We googled that there was a bike shop nearby but closed at night, so we simply stealth camped under a bridge until morning. Fortunately, there was a convenience store nearby, so we could use its toilet. Cafe Latte from convenience store at middle of the night was really a comfort!
Next morning, rise & shine! We had to undo our camp as soon as it became bright. There we finally had a good look for the bridge that we spent the night. The same convenience store also provided us with our breakfast. The view was not bad at all. While we were were waiting for the bike shop to open, we even found an information center with free footbath! Free footbath is really common in Kushu, because they have hot springs everywhere, the footbath is simply a by-product of the hot springs and costs nothing.
Anyway, the bike shop finally opened up, but the elder owner only knew local bikes, had never seen and had no tool to fix the chain link. Luckily, in the end hubby walked to a nearby home center, found another tool to replace the link!
By then, we already had spent half a day fixing the bike, roughly 80km away from the free camp site that we planned to stay that night. Fortunately, it was sunny & dry, we just kept riding until we got hungry. We passed by many signs that told us, we were passing a town famous to produce “black vinegar”. In fact, there were not only many factories, shops selling black vinegars, even restaurants specialized for black vinegar cuisines, so we decided to try!
The restaurant that we visited is called “Kurosu Restaurant“, and it belongs to a brand called “Kakuida“. The restaurant was at 2nd floor, had a 180degree seaview, and great interior decoration. Their foods are a little pricy, but everything looked good & tasted good. Also, on the shop floor, you can try so many different kinds of vinegars (mostly different fruit favors) all you can drink. Outside there were endless big jars lining up storing the vinegar. They also painted the vinegar jars for decoration. It was really fun to visit.
After a very full lunch, we just kept riding at full speed to catch up with our schedule. However, we are very near Sakurajima, an active volcano which is also a symbol of Kagoshima, so wherever we go, it was always at the background. We passed by another footbath, which we could enjoy in front of Sakurajima. It was too hot, so we passed by a soy sauce shop and enjoyed “soy sauce ice-cream”. We also passed by some local shops selling Pumice trays and Pumice bonsai, which were so cool! They were made of pumices from Kagoshima, so they were sold really cheap, so bad that I could not carry them with my bike. (I did pick up some pumice stones from the beach as my own souvenir!)
There is usually map in every rest area/information center/park etc. Even if you may not able to read it, the RED LABEL always says HERE YOU ARE.
Obviously, we had to ride until evening that day… but it wasn’t bad at all. It was such a nice day, that we enjoyed riding during sunset, along the beautiful sea all the way.
We passed by “Kanoya Rose Garden“, but didn’t have time to enter, so we just enjoyed some roses and flowers at the roadside. It was good enough for us…
We passed a really interesting slight-seeing spot along the way. It is a rare shrine built one a small rocky area protruding into the sea, called “Arahira Tenjin“. It was built around 1532-1555. It looked amazing during sunset.
We finally arrived the free camp site just before dark, called “Kamikawa Camp Site”. It charges in July-August, but free to public other than July-August. Also, there is a “Kamikawa Otaki Falls Park” nearby, but again we didn’t have enough time to visit.
When we arrived the camp site, it was already full of tents and people due to public holidays. Also, the office was already closed, but there were applications forms outside of office, that people should fill in and put into the postbox. Although it was free, there were cooking area, toilet, even cold water shower room! As I was sweaty and it was a warm day around 20degreeC, I just brought my own soap/shampoo and took a cold water shower! At night, there were still plenty of people staying up. The camp site was busy like a festival. We were dead tired, so just put on our earplugs and slept early.
Next morning, we had a better look. Hey it was a pretty nice camp site next to the beach. We headed out. Not long, we already found some local shops with so many varieties of handmade foods and sweets. We bought some to go, as we knew that the when we headed south, there would not be any convenience stores, and we needed to make our own dinner at camp sites.
We were heading to the southernmost tip of Japan mainland — Sata Misaki (Cape Sata). As the southern part of Kagoshima is quite remote, we were not sure when we could stay for the night, so we were sort of looking for potential stealth camping spots on the way. However, to our surprise, there were many parks, one after the other, all empty, well-equipped with cooking area and toilet, as if they were built for camping? So, we thought we could just take the same way back, and stay at any of them. It looked like we could even see beautiful sunset from the parks!
Seaview eventually became mountain view. We were deep in the forest. There were endless of uphills and downhills. We were hot and tired, so ended up we just sat at roadside to eat our lunch, while cars passed us by. It seemed like we were the only ones riding bikes instead of driving to the Cape Sata.
There were many tunnels on the way that were half open to the seaside. I think they looked so cool. Also, I was impressed that at the middle of nowhere in the mountain/forest, there were suddenly a vending machine standing there! That’s Japan! They want to make sure nobody dies of thrist!
When I was looking for good hidden place to toilet in the wild, hubby said let’s ask the post office. Indeed, there was a post office in front, so we popped in, but some people were having lunch around a table in the “post office”. There was an unusual scene in Japan. We asked anyway. Then, a lady led me to the house behind the post office. It was actually her home! She invited me to use the toilet inside her home! Was it a family-owned post office? Then, they were curious and kept chatting to us… When we left, I joked to hubby that a 20-second toilet became a 20-min toilet!
No far from the entrance of Cape Sata, we passed by yet another beautiful park called “Fureai Park Sata“, with a great observatory overseeing the sea & Sakurajima. It relieves our tiredness a little bit. If we weren’t in hurry, I could have sat there all day!
We finally arrived Cape Sata!! Actually, there were so many motorcycles riding/parked around. It is definitely a popular destination for motorcyclists. Also, when we came close to Cape Sata, we met many road cyclists all dressed in yellow vest, carried next to nothing. We heard that there was an cycling race from Hokkaido (Cape Soya) to Kagoshima (Cape Sata) in 2 weeks or so, of course they stayed in accomodations and had support cars/people. Anyway, we arrived the southernmost tip of Japan mainland!! We even got certificate for it!!
From the information center/parking lot, it still requires about 15min walk to the Observatory, so we walked anyway, because we had already came that far! And, luckily we did! The way to Observatory was actually the best part! It was a very pleasant path and the best of Cape Sata, you won’t want to miss it!!
After visiting Cape Sata, we needed to head back and find a place to camp. Since we were tired of the long uphills and downhills, we took another shorter route (which we thought would be more steep), but to our surprise, 2 hours of uphills and downhills suddenly reduced to a short very steep uphills, and 20min to downhill and flat road along the coastline… It was like a joke. We also passed by a free campsite called Oodomari yaei campsite. It is old and windy, but next to the beach and have free cold water shower. 5min ride from it is another free campsite, Sata Misaki campsite, which is newly built and the grass there was newly paved, so beautiful like fake, but no shower there. We ended up staying at Sata Misaki campsite, and rode to Oodomari yaei campsite for shower!
Next day we were to take Ferry Nankyu across the sea to the other side of Kagoshima, and then ride north towards Nagasaki. Unfortunately, we arrived around 12:00 noon. It happened to a weekday that there was no 13:00 ferry. The last one was 11:00 and the next one was 15:00. So, although it was a 50min ferry ride, we waited 3 hours for it! Anyway, my solar panel was not working well, so I just spent that time charging my power bank at the restaurant and the ferry office…
After the ferry, we arrived Ibusuki! Ibusuki is a popular town in Kagoshima for hot springs! As soon as we arrived, the scenery changed to tropical, palm trees everywhere. The roads were flat and along the coast. We arrived Ibusuki Eco Campsite around 3pm, which is located inside a huge beautiful park, thinking that we should be able to get a spot, but the office told us the campsite was fully booked!! Of course, all the hotels in Ibusuki are expensive, so the campsite is a cheap alternative near the popular town. And, with COVID-19 measures, they must have reduced the camps allowed. We joked that we could have stealth camp anywhere in this huge green park… Anyway, we decided to wait until dark and find somewhere…
Since we were in Ibusuki, we must not missed the HOT SPRING!! Hubby found a local hot spring which was built since 1895 and very cheap (JPY300)! We parked our bikes and went in. It was really a simple hot spring, nothing fancy, only super hot bath, shower and locker, but I love it. I do no want to spend 3 times the price for a well-equipped hot spring that looked like hotel. This is all we need, and the hot bath really relieved our muscleache! After hot spring, we proceeded to a local chicken restaurant. Again, cheap & tasted good!!
After dinner, we rode north from Ibusuki, trying to reduce the distance that we had to ride next day. About 10km away, we found a rest area with big parking lot & park, full of camping cars, so we simply camped at a hidden corner of it.
Next morning, as soon as we opened our eyes, we had to undo our camp in 15min, as we already started to see fishing people coming. As it turned out, where we camped was right next to the sunrise, and a popular fishing spot. It was amazing view…. such a beautiful “camping spot”! It was below long stairs, so really well hidden.
It was such a long hot day, so we took plenty of coffee break on the way, resting in the parks in convenience stores whenever we saw one. Nevertheless, it always feels great to just ride & eat & sleep, think of nothing else!!
Tonight we were to camp at another free campsite by the dam (on the hill), so before that, we visited yet another local cheap hot spring, local restaurant, even coin laundry, before heading up the hill. But we were too spontaneous, it was pitch dark on the hill/inside the forest. We could hardly see ahead, even with high beam headlamp. We went too far, and had to head back… finally found the campsite. Despite it was already late, full of tents and people still barbecuing.
It was a great campsite in the woods, just that the office and toilet was a few km away uphill! I guess people can only get to the toilet by car, so just outside of the campsite in the woods became people’s natural toilet…
As always, we only saw where we camped the next morning, a nice campsite in the woods, with cooking & sitting area, even a river next to it, just no toilet. haha.
Next day, still sunny & hot, we continued to eat along the way, takoyaski (octopus dumpings) and green tea ice-cream…
These are my favorite spots. Some interesting landscapes & an unknown train station next to the sea, beautiful view. There was even cute little Kumamoto character train running from time to time, so adorable!!
We had lunch at some rest area near the sea, and tried “uni” rice bowl & meat noodles. The “uni” was from local, but maybe uni from Kokkaido is still the best.
After 5 days of camping, we finally got to stay in a hostel!! This is a cheap hostel located on top of a sweet shop. The rooms all had round low doors that looked like getting into a “hole” and no lock. Instead there were lockers, sitting room, bathroom & showroom outside. Anyway, we were happy to finally have WIFI and able to charge all our devices…
It was a quite fishing town next to the port. We walked to the nearby “Sunset Road” to enjoy the sunset. It was cloudy at first, but luckily the clouds gradually cleared, and we watched the sun slowly moving down from the horizon. It was so peaceful, one of the most complete sunset that the I had even seen. When the sky turned all red, we slowly walked back, and imagined how a fisherman’s life would be…
In countryside, most of the shops and even restaurants already closed by 6pm. We were worried that we could not find a place for dinner. Luckily, we found a little restaurant full of local people happily drinking and chatting, yet they were kind enough to open a table for us. It was cheap and rich dinner set. I even tried “chicken sashimi” (raw chicken) for the first time!!