Spring break starts next week, and I’ve been wanting to do something or travel somewhere within the country for it.
A day or two ago the thought popped in my head to hop on a ferry down to Kyushu with my bike and do an almost loop of the island. This would pretty much be in the same vein as my cycling around Fukushima/Niigata last summer.
Here’s a map so you can follow along at home!
I won’t have enough time to do a proper loop, so I’ve decided to do a truncated loop. The miniscule amount of planning I’ve done (and really all I plan to do until I get there) has me taking a bus to Tokyo then a two-night ferry ride from Tokyo into Shibushi, which is on the south side of the island in Kagoshima prefecture. From there I’m going to try to ride in a general counterclockwise direction while bypassing the majority of the island’s peninsulas.
Once I get to Beppu, famous for its “hell” hot springs and thriving sex trade (not necessarily related), I’m gonig to cut west across the island and bypass the whole heavily populated Fukuoka/Kitakyushu metropolis, effectively shunning the whole northern part of Kyushu.
I’ll probably end up reaching the Ariake Sea on the west then heading south, following the valleys until I reach Kagoshima prefecture again. From there I’ll go southeast, bypassing the western peninsula of Kagoshima prefecture (and Kagoshima city for that matter) and finish up back at Shibushi to catch my ferry back to Tokyo.
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So those are my plans for spring break. In all honesty, though, it’s all still very much in the air if I actually go or not. I’ve yet to make reservations, and I don’t even know the status of vacancies on the ferries.
Furthermore, today I ordered a bicycle bag for me to put my bag in on the bus/ferry. I also ordered a sleeping bag, which I desperately needed on my trip around Fukushima. While Kyushu is significantly warmer than Tohoku, it’s still a bit early in the year and I can see it getting colder than I’d like at night.
So I’m hoping that those items get delivered fast, as I don’t really want to make ferry/bus reservations before I have gear that I need. I’ll see how it goes.