Miyazaki - Kagoshima

Day 1 of the tour started with an astounding flight from Tokyo Haneda to Miyazaki airport, clear skies and great views over Tokyo, Yokohama bay, Shonan beach and of course Mount Fuji and the 5 lakes. Later we flew over Muroto misaki, the south eastern cape of Shikoku which was clearly visible below. I had hoped for this, choosing the window seat on the right hand side of the plane, but hadn't thought the views would be so perfect. No need for any in flight film today!

Touchdown in Miyazaki, and I unpacked my cardboard bike box and assembled the bike. The box was a real help to carry the tent and made it really easy to transport the bike by bus from Fuchu to Haneda, and I could fold the box into a neat pile and hand it to the girl at the information desk, she seemed happy to accept it at least!
April 1st, and I almost became a major April Fool in the first 10km as I discovered a flat front tyre. I'd torn the valve pumping up the tyre, so this tube was useless. Replace it with a spare. Pump it up. Discover I've torn another valve, so another destroyed tube! All I can do is replace with my final spare, and hope to pump up the tube without ripping the valve again. I manage this, of course I'm aware I have no spares now so any future tyre trouble will cause a major delay. (I find spares in a small shop in Nichinan, south of Udo Jingu, and of course they have a track pump to boot)

The first tourist spot on the route 20 south is Aoshima. Its a small island linked to the mainland by a narrow sand causeway, but the distinctive sight here is the washboard rock formations around the causeway. Nice place to have a brief rest, but no more than 5mins I'd say. As I continued south, I discovered the washboard rock formation to be quite common here. 

Far more interesting and impressive is Udo jingu, 25km further south. Theres a shrine set in a cave above a cliff face, its an impressive sight as you walk beside the ocean and down the steps to the cave opening. As well as the usual souvenirs and good luck charms, this temple has the unique money making scam (over cynical perhaps) of throwing "undama", luck stones, into a sea water filled cavity on top of a rock below. It looks far away, and its made even more difficult as men are supposed to throw with their left hand. So I took the first of my 5 stones, and had to throw like a girl at the target below. Bulls eye! Big cheers from all around, but after that I failed to get close again. I will have to find out whether this means its winner takes all, and I get 100% of wishes come true, or will it be 20% of wishes for marriage and childbirth will come true in the future?

Route 220 has not been unpleasant so far, but once south of Nango and the road becomes the 448 does the road become really spectacular and special. Palm trees, huge beaches, terraced rice fields - some of the scenes reminded me of Bali. Very little traffic and its really worth taking the road out to Cape toi, more stunning scenery and this peninsula is famous for its wild horses. The trees were cleared from the area to provide grazing land for the horses of samurai. The samurai have gone, but the horses remain, though they are not particularly wild. Interesting discovery for me was the meaning of "ema" , the wooden board seen hanging outside many temples with wishes or prayers. In kanji, 絵馬 is picture and horse, picture of a horse! Once upon a time samurai would give real horses to a temple for payment, luck etc but as this was rather expensive the next best thing was to leave a picture of a horse at a temple instead of a real one. 

First night, first onsen at Kushima Onsen not so far beyond Cape Toi. This is my usual plan for Japan touring, see how far the ride is taking me, then look for an onsen on the map for a clean, meal and hopefully a flat comfy camping spot nearby!

The next day I rejoin route 220 and head west. Really a connection road, its not pleasant at all and full of pachinko parlours and family marts all the way to Kagoshima bay. Not a recommended route, but it gets me from A to B and I'm soon close to Sakurajima, the goal for the day.
I stop at a very rustic ramen shop for lunch, outside toilet and old furniture inside. I noticed how dirty their car was as well, these people didnt seem to adhere to the usual Japanese standards of cleanliness.  Further down the road, I notice other cars are dirty as well, then the pavement and even flowerbeds are grey coloured. I'd forgotten about the goal of the day, Sakurajima, being an extremely active volcano - this was all volcanic ash falling from the as yet out of sight volcano! I pass by houses with bags of ash, I assume to be collected by the council in the same way as PET bottles or aluminium collection days. All depends on which way the wind is blowing!
The approach to Sakurajima form the south is impressive as you see it across the bay with hundreds of fishing boats and the odd volcanic landscape. I stop at the main viewing spot for the active part of the volcano, and theres a fair cloud of smoke spewing from the scarred face. I even hear a roar like thunder from one of these eruptions, quite glad the wind is from the south today.
At the visitors center theres plenty to discover about the volcano, and enough to make you wonder about the most recent eruptions and whether its wise to camp within dustfall of the beast. Next to the vistors center is Magma onsen. Great onsen, with washing machines (so useful when touring), but no food here so you'll need to go to the supermarket, or just hop on the ferry to Kagoshima - it runs 24 hours a day and is only ¥250 so camping here is a great money saving tip for visiting Kagoshima city!

BTW, if you need a bike shop in town, try Charinko This guy saved my tour after my return from Yakushima by replacing a failed rim with a brand new rim, taken from a new bike for sale. Yes, after he couldnt find a rim of the right size and spoke count in his collection, he took apart a wheel from one bike and rebuilt me a new wheel in just over an hour for ¥6000! I thought it was a great deal, I would have paid more to keep me on the road, but he was happy to help a fellow cyclist continue to enjoy the roads of Kyushu.