Throughout the night, the wind had picked up quite a bit, battering the tent and waking us up from time to time, and even blowing sand into our tent through the mazes of the inner tent. The sea had become much rougher than the day before, with the waves noisily crashing on the beach. The sun was shining however, so we just found a sheltered spot for breakfast before leaving our campsite. When we left, we spotted a nice bicycle trail just close to where we stayed, straight through nature, going in the right direction for us. So we just gave it a shot, and what a great choice this was! For the first 20-25km of the day, we rode mostly on a fantastic bike lane, most of the time dedicated to bicycles only or otherwise, clearly separated from the (very quiet) road. It was some of the best cycling we've had, and in a way the fact that we had just stumbled upon it made it even more appealing. It was short lived though. After 25km we were getting more and more into urbanisation, closer and closer towards Kitakyushu, a amajor town with a lot of harbour activities.
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View over the windy coast
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| A beautiful bicycle lane along the coast, with a rough sea sometimes splashing over the wall; we needed to make sure we timed ourselves well to avoid getting wet |
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| A nice surprise for the day, this beautiful and unexpected coastal bicycle lane |
Kitakyushu is an important transit town between Kyushu - the southern Japanese island we've been cycling on so far - and Honshu, the biggest, main island. There's a bridge, a tunnel, a small ferry, and a pedestrian tunnel between the islands at this place. As it was very urban cycling, things just progressed really slowly, riding over often bad and bumpy bicycle lanes or none at all, stopping for traffic lights all the time. It must be said: Japan seems to have tried to provide bicycle lanes along most roads, but it's half hearted. The bike lanes are mostly in bad condition, very bumpy, changing sides all the time, suddenly stopping and forcing you back on the road, where there is no decent hard shoulder to ride on. Cars don't seem to appreciate you're riding on the road, as there is a bike lane, but it's sometimes just really impossible or at least, very inconvenient to ride on it. Interesting how a country that typically does things diligently and properly, has this biased position on cycling lanes.
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| 20km before Kitakyushu, a short ferry ride which Google Maps didn't know about |
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| The impressive Kanmon bridge in Kitakyushu |
Anyway, we got to Kitakyushu by late afternoon, and the last few kms had been nicer again luckily. We opted for the pedestrian tunnel below the Kanmon channel, a tunnel 60m deep below the sea, which you access with an elevator. It's OK to pass through with a bicycle, as long as you walk it through. It was an interesting way to cross the sea... As it was already a bit late by the time we arrived in Shimonoseki, at the Honshu side, and we felt a bit "lazy" from all this lousy cycling, we decided to check out a hostel close to the tunnel rather than find a campsite. The hostel had a very nice room available, of course at the not so very nice high Japanese prices, and we decided to spoil ourselves with a night in a good room again...
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| Taking the elevator for the Kanmon pedestrian tunnel |
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| A Belgian couple of cyclists inside the tunnel |
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| View from our hostel, over the Kanmon channel and bridge! |
Once in the hostel, after a nice Japanese style hot bath, we started to think about our options for riding through Honshu (accompanied with a nice glass of red wine for once!), and how we wanted to reach Kyoto around middle of June. That would be a good timing, because around that time the rainy season would come very close, and we want to try to transfer to Hokkaido before then to avoid too many wet days... The hostel is so nice, in a great location, and the timing is right too, so we decided to stay an extra day and take a rest day.
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| Shrine entrance in Shimonoseki |
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| Akama shrine in Shimonoseki |
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| Karato seafood market, touristy but worth a visit, and great sushi for "brunch" |
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| Yummy yummy; anyone? |
We had a great day today, taking it easy. We walked from the hostel into Shimonoseki city, enjoyed the summer weather, the nice waterside park, some shrines, a coffee, a bit of shopping (groceries, that is). And oh yes, it may sound strange while in Japan, but we had Indian food for lunch... Even though Japanese food is absolutely fine (oh yes, we had some great sushi at the seafood market too), we were craving for some more spicy food! Tomorrow, we'll ride into Honshu proper.
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| Shimonoseki centre |