I slept okay last night. And then woke up and had the buffet breakfast which was good value and good range. After breakfast time for one last grand bath, at the end I was the only person in there. Then it was waiting to unload.

This took longer than expected just to add to the stress of having to ride across Osaka was probably only one pawl which might break at any point before getting the pre booked train.

We made it to the Shin Osaka station in good time packed our bikes up into their bags, then it was just a simple matter of carrying 6 bags and a bike up to the platform wait a bit for a while and then get on the train.

The train worked out well and it was a short ride back to Cliff’s Dad’s apartment. We packed the bikes away. Group 1 trip done!

Woke up fairly late and had the hotel provided breakfast which was buffer style at about 8. After this we start the slow process of packing everything up, which took until just before the check out time of 10am. We asked if we could leave our bikes and bags in the room which they said would be fine.

We spend the day walking around and looking at the castle ruins, better described as site of a castle. The archeological museum and a temple. These were interesting and much nicer than our little walk around the town yesterday would have us believe.

We had another supermarket lunch. More walking around then waiting in a park for a bit until we had to check into the ferry. We are now checked in and just waiting to board at about 5pm.

Got on the ferry and departed on time. Had a bath in the grand bath as the ferry pulled away and then had dinner at the buffet restaurant. Pretty good choice of food. After this we watch a couple of episodes of Peepshow and then watch some start projection onto the roof in the atrium area of the ferry it was alright. Settled down to sleep in our small but comfortable private room.

So today started as everyday should with a breast breakfast and a taxi ride.

The taxi arrived slightly earlier than planned and  with the rear seat down we easily fitted both bikes and all our stuff in.

The destination was Frog Cycle
フロッグサイクル to try and rear my bike. The rear hub was stripped down in seconds to reveal a mess of grease rust and other stuff. After some cleaning it was found that 2 of my pawl springs had broken and so had one of my pawls.

One pawl and spring could easily be fixed. A ball bearing was used to extend the broken spring. The mechanic did a great job was friendly and keen to get us back on the road and fixed the bike at short notice.

We slowly and softly peddled our way to Shibushi. I think the ball bearing sprint extension might have dislodged at some point because the peddling was a little bit crunchy but then became smoother so I think I am now riding with just one pawl springs out of what should be three. 

Our day ended with checking into the hotel at 3 pm we were kindly allowed to put our bikes in a big 1st floor Japan, ground floor UK. Storage room.l, which was great.

We did the hotel arrival standard. Showers hang stuff out to air and coin laundry, although we did this after buying a large super market dinner. We  had a little walk around the town didn’t see that much and then watch peep show and were both falling a sleep just after 8pm

Although my own blog has long since been confined to the rusty bike shed in the sky, I’m honoured to have a guest spot on Jack’s world famous website, for our latest (and possibly last ever) instalment of cycling in Japan. Because today we have finally reached the southern most tip of Japan, Cape Sata at the very south of Kyushu. 14 years after we reached the northern most point of Japan at Cape Sōya in Hokkaido, 16 years after I did my first Japanese cycle tour between Tokyo and Kyoto, and 8 years since cycling across Shikoku, I have finally joined up the entire length of Japan.

My ride in 2009 was the longest trip of my life at the time, and even then I knew I’d want to do more cycling in Japan. It’s not been the fastest journey – in total it’s taken 16 years, with 45 days of cycling, covering over 3,500km, climbing over 33,000m. There have been headaches- flying with bikes, typhoons, sleeping next to shinkansen tracks, camping on bamboo spikes, trying to dispose of rubbish in a country which glosses over it’s low recycling/high incineration rates with inconsistent and arbitrary rules of bins and waste segregation, and many many hills and mountains. But it was all worth it, both as a whole, and in their own parts. Cycling in Japan is unlike any other country. And it’s not just the stunning landscapes or picture perfect scenes of cherry blossoms fluttering across the road as you pedal over a mountain. Even the things that are strange or less enjoyable become charming when looked back upon.

And while so much has changed over the years, so much is still the same. I feel like not a day has passed since the first time I scrunched myself awkwardly into my tent. The same tent I had 16 years ago, the same sleeping bag, the same clothes, the same everything. Time has moved on, but I’m still 24, worried about to trying to find somewhere to pitch my tent in a country which is either urban sprawl of dense hillside.

But clearly not everything stays the same. Our bodies have aged, with more groaning as we climb the hills, more complaining about forcing ourselves into sleeping bags, more clambering out of tents in the middle of the night to go to the toilet. And the bikes have definitely aged. So much so our journey was almost cut short 10km from our goal. After leaving the last proper small town in Kyushu heading south, Jack’s rear hub failed catastrophically, meaning he could no longer pedal. Stopping by the side of the road, with no one around, we quickly determined the problem was not one we could fix ourselves. With only a couple of hours of daylight left, we decided to push on (literally), to the campsite to come up with a plan.
Fortunately my dad was able to locate not just a taxi who could pick us up, but a bike shop who was willing to look at the wheel (and subsequently find 2 failed pawls and a hub full of rusty grease).
And so, with only one functioning bike between us, we took it in turns to cycle the final 7km from campground to southern most point of Japan, Jack that evening, and me this morning. Waking up at 4am, I packed up and raced the dawn to get to the observation deck for sunrise. And being there with my bike, watching the first burst of gold as the sun breached the horizon, it felt utterly magical. 16 years since my first leg of cycling in Japan, 14 years since being at the northern most point, it felt like the journey in Japan had come to it’s perfect ending.

Today was nice riding on quiet roads with a few climbs until we were about 10kms from the planned campsite. After a supermarket stop quiet a way out of the town my bike broke. Basically when I peddled the wheel didn’t go around. It seemed like something is wrong with the pawls. These basically allow the bike to free wheel and allow you to peddle and make the bike go forward.

After some road side deliberation we decided it was best to go to the campsite anyway me pushing scooting and freewheeling down the hills. It took about 2 hours. And a bit annoyingly an early day turned into a late one.

While all this was going on our fixer (Cliff’s Dad)  in Tokyo was sorting stuff out in communication with Cliff.

The solution is to hopefully get a taxi that can hopefully fit both the bikes and all our stuff in to a bike shop Frog Bicycle at 9am tomorrow.

I thought that I wasn’t going to make it too the southern most point but luckily Cliff suggested I should borrow his bike and head there before it got dark tonight. I made it and it looked good and was very glad I did. As now I have been to the top and bottom of Japan, north and southern points. The southern one looks better I think, but getting to the northern one is probably overall nice I think.

Well time for bed and fingers crossed for tomorrow 🤌

And a massive thanks again to Cliff and his Dad.

Today started with a sunrise over the sea. Then a fairly slow packing away of everything until the tents dried out. And we drank coffee.

We have been finding it really hard to get ride of our rubbish. There are no bins available in Japan. There are some cages near people’s houses which we have seen rubbish in so we thought that our rubbish worries were over when we found a basket to put rubbish in. But after we thought we were in the clear, climbing a small hill a car got near to us and started beeping a lot, then pulled over. Somebody got out seemed very angry and gave us back the rubbish. We said sorry and carried on cycling.

Cycling today wasn’t too nice mainly through an urban sprawling city of car dealerships and strip development. Loads of cars. There were a few nice stretches and it got nicer during the day.

Super market lunch, and a better sort out of our rubbish as in this area they seem to have places at supermarket to get ride of the plastic trays that  the pre made lunches we buy come in.  Once this was done the rubbish bag was small enough to take to a convenience store and put on their bin. When we were cycling here in 2011 the  bins have moved inside the stores from outside and there don’t seem to be as many.

Cycling into the hills was good. Then we got to a campsite from their website and we found out you had to check in at the outdoor shop at the local onsen. We did this and were told the campsite was free.

The outdoor shop had lots of cool stuff.

There are a couple of other people staying at the campsite. But they are sort of in the other half of it.

Curry and rice for dinner while we charged our stuff and watch Peepshow. Sort river side walk down to the onsen to get clean and soak then back for another episode before bed.

Onsen was a good one. Big lots of different pools a well hot one, a normal one, a cold pool, outdoor pool with sort of views of the train line. And one you walk around it which was cooler but not too cold. 

GEAR UPDATE: despite us not really replacing anything after using it for every day back in 2011 me for 6 months and Cliff for a year. All seems to be going okay. Bike had a couple of minor problems yesterday Cliff rear mud guard stays broke. A few zip ties fixed it.

Then my chain fell off and got stuck between the cassette frame. Had to take the wheel off to get it unstuck then it seemed fine.

Woke up after a good night’s sleep at the campsite.

All was fine. With the camping situation.

We took our tents down fairly earlier they were pretty wet which is/was annoying.

Moved our bikes around to the view point, hot vending machine coffee and bread and peanut cream banana for breakfast. The person who gave us Kimchi was back and I worked out that they work at the service station type place. They kindly gave us some Onigiri (might technically be called something else).

Started cycling around 8 ISH as we had a long day out longest one.

There were about 7 tunnels which are great as it knocks the tops of the hills!

Roads were a mixture of nice mountain roads running through the mountains to horrible roads running through urban areas. The number of traffic lights really takes it toil and the stop start is horrible there seem to be a lot of traffic lights.

There were three shop stops today, first supermarket for lunch regular super market okay stuff, man outside sharpening knives and other tools. He had three angle grinders. We had lunch on a bench outside. 

Second shop was the convenience store that had nothing in that we wanted. So we spend a while walking around and then left. Then we did something that we don’t do often and go off the route. This was a 2.4km out of the way trip to a supermarket. This was much better than the earlier shop but ended up buying too much food.

The cycled for a few more kilometres and made it to another place that said it was a campsite but really it isn’t.

It is like some surf school/ municipal building that has toilet cold water showers and loads of taps.

There were quite a few people here when we arrived having a sort of BBQ on a terrace area, with a good view of the sea. The all packed away pretty early.

There is another cycle tourer here he has camped in a slightly different location to us. There are a couple of people sitting near a vending machine and a car has arrived as well. However it is all very quiet. Dinner was tofu noodle some vegetables and some sauce thing. It was alright. Cup of decaf earl gray, Peepshow with a sea view and bed.

Not sure if I mentioned yesterday that we saw 5 other cycle tourists.

The was one we went past in a tunnel just a nod no chat. A tunnel isn’t a great place to talk. Then we met 4 people who were cycling the length of Japan. They had just finished the ski season out here and where cycling back to there house in the north. They didn’t seem to carry anything. They were finding the same thing with campsites being closed but open.

Forgot to say cycling yesterday there were a lot of surf shops, so many car dealers and a lot of other shops.

I meant to write something else here this morning forgotten now. Maybe there are a few boats out at Sea. A few navigational lights.

Woke up breakfast in the hotel room coffee made. Peep show watched and we were ready to go by 9 ISH.

Riding through the city wasn’t nice but wasn’t bad, and then we hit the back road very quiet lovely food views. Climbs not as bad as predicted due to the tunnels. Some lovely scenery lots of cherry blossom and bridges.

Lunch got from supermarket one (see below) was eaten at a Roadside Station Mie
道の駅 みえ this is a bit like a service station but without any fuel. Also I don’t think it had any ev charging but I did look that close. This had good views down a valley.

3 super markets stop today. First for lunch in a small village pretty good selection of stuff. Second large one was hard to find stuff only took cash! Third little one pretty good selection had a rice polishing machine outside which somebody was using.

We planned to stay at a campsite named above was also at a road station Rodeside station Ume
道の駅宇目 展望台 think the Japanese might have the word observation deck in it.

When we arrived the campsite looked pretty roped off. But we rang the reception door bell a few times nothing happened well the bell rang I side but nobody came out. Then we spent a while deciding what to do. Agreed that we should ask in the farm shop. Quite a bit was lost in translation involving another customer who later gave us some really good kimchi, very kind.

Summary was they said the campsite was closed we could stay there but we could camp on the edge of the service station car park or by an observation deck. The observation deck was very well roped off as it was basically rotten.

We decided against those two options because there was nowhere around the edge of the car park that would have been good to camp, b it would have been really hard to carry everything up to the top of the observation deck area and the weather vain was very squeaky.

We went bad to the original option which was to go with the closed campsite. We found a pitch fairly far away and well hidden. The campsite seems fully operational with all the taps turned on toilet open heated seat on.

We made or curry boil in the bag rice and colour vegetable curry with added mushroom, tofu and carrots. Was a lot better than it sounded. Washed down. With a beer supermarket 3 see above.

Watch episode of peepshow spoke to Sarah the phone which was good to catch up on news from home and have general chat in bed writing this. Seems cold doing okay.

We had to get up very early this morning 5am this was to get the ferry at 7:20 and we had to make sure we got a hot bath before. The hot bath was great as always in the public bath house on the floor 14 of the hotel. It had good views over the city. Which is very industrial.

We walked our bikes to the ferry terminal which was fairly small and paid for the ferry. Had breakfast on the ferry and relaxed and wrote this and yesterday’s blog.

Now we are in the Business Hotel KG Oita
ビジネスホテルKG大分

The day was fairly long with a few climbs. There were a couple that were pretty steep but the steep bits didn’t last too long.

We cycle most of the day with a few breaks but not a long lunch stop like yesterday. I am feeling pretty tired now but didn’t feel as sleepy as I thought I would after 5 am wake up.

There were some pretty good down hills over some bridges. The roads were good lovely and quiet until we hit the coastal city road where it got busier. Some lovely scenery the coast line was pretty built up.

We were going to wild camp in a park near the beach but it was pretty busy and we are older now and hotels are a lot easier and more comfortable.

Checked into the hotel was smooth bit of confusion about the bike parking but all good they were coned off in the car park.

After a bit of time sorting stuff out, we headed to a onsen https://shinminato.mystrikingly.com/. This was pretty different to any I had been to before. It looked a bit like you had to walk into somebody’s house. In the end it was good hot and onsen like. The photos on the website are very flattering, it was a bit tired in terms of paint work and the changing facilities. From a google review Simple moor spring, pH 8.5, metasilicic acid 178.7mg, source temperature measured at 49°C (in the tub 44.3°C), gensen kakenagashi.

After onsen had a little walk around a small harbour area before heading to Lawson a covienance store with a pretty poor selection. Dinner in front of peep show with a beer pretty good.

I realise that a lot of these posts probably don’t make sense. I normally write them when I am a big tired and sleepy and obviously there is no proof reading, just correct the mistakes you find in your head!